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The study investigated parents’ participation in improving the academic performance of pupils with hearing impairment (HI) in Mbeya City primary schools. The study starts by examining parents’ participation in educating children with HI. It further scrutinizes parents’ attitudes in supporting their children with HI in improving academic performance, and lastly, it identifies challenges facing parents in improving the academic performance of children with HI. The study was guided by Ecological System Theory (EST) founded by Bronfenbrenner in 1917-2005. It employed a mixed-method approach that is qualitative and quantitative. Also, the study adopted a convergent parallel mixed method design. The targeted population included parents of pupils with HI, special education teachers, head teachers, and pupils with HI where the representative sample of 64 respondents was used. Data were obtained through interviews, questionnaires, and documentary reviews. Moreover, purposive sampling and simple random sampling were used. Data were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The founded sub-themes were bounded with descriptive analysis and quantitative data were analysed by using the statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 20. The study shows that most of the parents have been participating in improving the academic performance of their pupils with HI in primary schools through buying school materials like exercise books, school uniforms, hearing aids, and others. Additionally, majority of the parents had positive attitudes toward their pupils with HI. Furthermore, it was indicated that parents were facing some challenges in improving the academic performance of their pupils with HI due to the economic problems, low level of education, stigmatization, misconceptions, and communication barrier (sign language) among parents. The study, therefore, recommends that parents should be trained on sign language to be able to communicate well with their children with HI. Furthermore, the problem of HI should be well addressed among communities to avoid stigmatization and misconceptions. Since hearing aids are expensive, the government should take full responsibility to make sure that these devices are easily accessible and at affordable prices. |
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