Forming a Mutually Respectful University-Community Partnership through a “Family as Faculty” Project

Abstract

In this paper, we, a university special education professor and an executive director of a parent-to- parent non-profit organization, describe our collaborative partnership built on a common understanding that parents of children with disabilities are educational leaders. We address how we work collaboratively to locate and establish families as co- educators in an undergraduate special education course on families for pre-service special education teachers by using a Family as Faculty (FAF) approach.