Despite the documented benefits of engaging parents in their children’s education, some parents become marginalized due to the ways parental engagement is conceptualized and implemented in schools. The purpose of this study is to examine the experience of parents who have children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as they try to engage in their children’s education. As a result of this hermeneutic phenomenological work, we first explored two major themes: parental engagement as demanding work and searching for partnership while coping with marginalization. Then a third theme were explored focusing on the overarching meaning of their experiences. Our findings show that parental engagement has been a highly demanding and overwhelming responsibility for these parents, and they experienced a sense of isolation and marginalization in school environments. At the intersection of research focusing on inclusive education, home-school partnership, and school leadership, we discuss implications for educators, policy makers, and teacher preparation programs.

尽管让父母参与孩子的教育有记录的好处，但由于父母参与在学校中被概念化和实施的方式，一些父母被边缘化了。本研究的目的是调查患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 孩子的父母在尝试参与孩子教育时的经历。作为这项解释学现象学工作的结果，我们首先探讨了两个主要主题：父母参与是一项艰巨的工作，以及在应对边缘化的同时寻求合作伙伴关系。然后探讨了第三个主题，重点关注他们经历的总体意义。我们的研究结果表明，父母的参与对这些父母来说是一项要求很高且压倒性的责任，他们在学校环境中经历了孤立和边缘化的感觉。在专注于全纳教育、家校合作和学校领导的研究的交叉点上，我们讨论了对教育工作者、政策制定者和教师准备计划的影响。