Professionalism and Coordination: Allies or Enemies?

Professionalism arose concurrently with coordination policies among service providers and between parents and service providers in deaf education practices. The author examines the effects of professionalism on coordination among service providers from different disciplines (deaf education, speech-language pathology, elementary education, secondary education, audiology, otolaryngology, and pediatrics), as well as coordination between parents and these service providers in multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary teams in the light of her own experience as a teacher of children who are deaf and hard of hearing in Cyprus. The author concludes that professionalism and coordination can coexist, and that the key issue in this relationship is the personal attitudes of those involved.