Families and disability: being resilient together.An exploratory research on the reciprocalrepresentations of families and educators

This article presents a qualitative research intended to explore the characteristics of the relationship between educators of educational/rehabilitation services, children with disability and their family members. Specifically, we considered: (a) the educators’ implicit theories, or representations, of families with a child with disability and their effect on the educators’ professional practices, (b) the family representations of the educational/rehabilitation services and (c) the processes of resilience activated to cope with the disability. Twenty-two educators participated in three focus groups, and three families with a child with disability (age range: 9-15) were interviewed and video-recorded in their homes. Results show a partial overlap between educators’ and families’ representations. Implications for the development of a participatory and co-evolutionary approach that strengthen the resilience of families and their children with disability are discussed.