earticle

영어

The attitudes of parents on career of students with intellectual disabilities in a special school were studied to make recommendations for future career education in special education. A qualitative study using in-depth interview was done for five parents. The results of this study are as followings. First, parents of students with mild intellectual disabilities wanted their offsprings to gain employment at sheltered workshops or more, whereas those of students with severe intellectual disabilities wanted their children to enter vocational education courses after high school because of unclear career of the children. Second, they wanted to get career information much earlier than present, and to receive more specific information on career education within schools. Third, they also wanted to have career counseling from teachers since it would improve parents' understanding of their children so that it would extend career decision opportunities with the parents' help. Based on these results, some recommendations were suggested. First, career education should start from elementary schools, based on career planning which is proper for individual students' needs. Second, cooperation between parents, teachers, special education service specialists, and policy makers and reconstruction of career education curriculum planning are needed to improve quality of life of those students. Third, it is necessary to nurture school career counselors through professional workshops and to make the parents as facilitators for students career development through the professional career counseling. Forth, exclusive organization for career education should be established in regional communities for life-long career education.