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ABSTRACT
The issue of boundaries between professionals and individuals/families is well documented within the clinical fields of counseling and social work but not thoroughly investigated in special education. Because maintaining quality relationships between families and educators is important, the development of appropriate guidelines requires a thorough understanding of the preferences of families and educators about the boundaries of their relationships. The authors investigated those preferences through a secondary analysis of a qualitative data set focusing on preferences for partnerships between families of children with disabilities and professionals. They analyzed transcripts from 34 focus groups and 32 individual interviews, identifying three themes related to boundary issues: (a) accessibility/availability (being reliably and flexibly available to families), (b) breadth of responsibility (going beyond strict interpretation of one's job description in working with families), and (c) dual relationships (fostering friendships, mutual support, or other roles in addition to a strict parent-professional relationship). Implications for parent-professional relationships and suggestions for conversations between professionals and families on preferences for boundaries are discussed.
ONE OF THE MANY DIMENSIONS OF A HUMAN relationship involves the concept of "boundaries" between participants in that relationship. The term boundary is a metaphor for rules and limits, which can lead to a sense of safety (Goldstein, 1999). Generally, this sense of safety evolves from having an appropriate balance of closeness or distance in the relationship and also the extent to which people involved in the relationship have dual roles (e.g., therapist and friend). In relationships that are strictly "professional," parties interact with each other more formally and play only one role in each other's lives; these are fairly rigid boundaries beyond which parties may not venture without discomfort. Examples of these more professional (and impersonal) roles include the doctor-patient and therapist-client. At the other end of the continuum are friends and family members who may play various roles in each other's lives. For example, two sisters may from time to time share roles of playmates, friends, co-workers doing household chores, advisers/confidantes, and so on. These roles are open and flexible because boundaries between the roles are not clearly defined and may change over time. Of course, between these two extremes are numerous relationships in which the boundary may be more or less prescribed, but in which...