“It’s Little, Very Human Touches That Make it a Collaborative and Two-Way Conversation”: Narratives of Relational Practice and Communication in Father Inclusion

This Narrative Oriented Inquiry (NOI) explored how fathers of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) experience being valued and included in their children’s education, and how Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) perceive and support father-inclusive practice. The research aimed to understand how father-inclusion is defined and experienced, identify supports and barriers, and develop strategies for supporting inclusive practices that empower fathers of children with additional needs. Five fathers of primary-aged children with SEND and four SENCOs from the South West of England were invited to bring photographs to semi-structured narrative interviews. Data analysis combined holistic interpretative summaries (drawing on fabula, what happened, and sjuzet, how it was told) with categorical content analysis to emphasise lived experience while identifying shared and practical themes. Findings suggest father inclusion is both relational and systemic. Fathers described inclusion as repeated, reciprocal, child-centred moments that reveal how their children learn. Early, direct inclusion was highlighted by SENCOs as helping families coordinate care and support the child more coherently. Relational practices (named invites, playground check-ins, flexible meeting formats) enabled inclusion in practice. A key barrier was administrative defaults treating one parent as the main contact (typically mothers). This creates information bottlenecks and gatekeeping, so fathers miss routine updates, join processes late, and their attempts to catch up or advocate for their child’s needs can be experienced as defensive or hostile. This research extends parental involvement models by identifying relational inclusion, experiential learning and recognition as important aspects of father inclusion and offers practical father inclusion strategies. Limitations include self-selection bias and a homogeneous group of participants; future work could address the lack of diversity by investigating father-inclusive practices across diverse family forms. This research identifies practice-based examples and a family-centred narrative to guide schools, educational psychologists and policy towards equitable father inclusion.<p></p>

Author dc:creator

• Kayleigh Rickard (21043277)

• educational psychology
• father inclusion
• father inclusive practice
• Fathers
• FIP
• Narrative Oriented Inquiry
• NOI
• Parental engagement
• primary education
• SEN
• SENCO
• Special Educational Needs

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved
• Open Access after 2027-12-30

Identifier

10779/exe.32836079.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/32836079