Fathering Children with Disabilities: New Perspectives on Disability Studies and Family Care

This book explores the often-forgotten role of fathers of children with disabilities. Bridging the gap between disability studies, family studies, and gender studies, it uncovers men’s perspective on caring for children with disabilities and presents examples of famous fathers, such as general Charles de Gaulle, film director Dan Habib, and scholars Michael Bérubé and Phil Ferguson. Drawing on interviews with fathers of children with disabilities, the author explores what makes a father a ’good father’ and presents fatherhood as an intense and dynamic journey of discovery, experienced together with the children, as a process of ’becoming with’. The testimonies offer an insight into the lived experience of fathers and challenge the model of caring masculinity through a narrative approach, with the aim to answer burning questions: can we built research lines around the experiences of fathers? can we secure the father perspective within family research and within support services for families with children with disabilities? A must read for academics in social science, education, and medical fields.

Geert Van Hove is Emeritus Professor of Disability Studies and Inclusive Education at Ghent University, Belgium, and guest professor at the Ghent University of Applied Sciences and Arts. A pioneer in the field in his country, in 2017 he received the Steven Taylor Memorial Senior Scholar Award at the Disability Studies in Education Conference.