Earlier studies have suggested that Latine families are often not authentically engaged in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process; interactions tend to be fraught with miscommunication, misunderstanding, and lack of genuine consent. To date, only a handful of studies considering teacher perceptions of parent involvement have examined how school personnel view Latine family involvement. This qualitative study utilized interaction theory to explore how school personnel prepare and perceive Spanish-speaking families within the IEP process in a midsize district East of Los Angeles. These findings suggest that team members had a distinct perception of family participation, which was rooted in their level of involvement with the IEP process.
ABSTRACT The majority of teacher preparation for culturally and linguistically diverse student populations has focused on the development of beliefs and attitudes of White general education teachers. This leaves much to be understood as to the development of belief systems of teachers with Latinx heritage and how they relate to their students with disabilities. This study applied theories of critical race theory and funds of knowledge to better understand how the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of our teacher candidates were key to fostering the development of their teacher identities. This resulted in the development of the Cultivating Critical Consciousness in Educators Framework (CCCE), a comprehensible framework for understanding the beliefs and practices essential for educators to practice critical consciousness. Findings demonstrate within group diversity of beliefs varying along a continuum of dysconscious to critical consciousness related to systemic racism, ableism, discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender expression, and sociolinguistic issues. Implications for teacher education practice and future research also are shared.
ABSTRACT Secondary students’ identity development is multidimensional, informed by distinct sociohistorical, cultural, structural, and individual forces and factors. For students who receive both special education and English learner services, identity development may also be connected to being categorized as needing both types of support services. Understanding how students receiving both services perceive themselves, and how they leverage identity while planning their futures could inform the field of transition, yet this is an infrequent subject of inquiry in special education transition research. We interviewed 26 students, all of whom received both services in a high school in a large school district in the northeastern United States. The development of language and learner dimensions of identity emerged from the data as a key factor informing participants’ perceptions and experiences as they prepared for the transition into adulthood. Implications and recommendations for researchers and practitioners supporting students’ language and learner dimensions of identity during postschool transition are shared.
Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation CRISTINA SANTAMARÍA GRAFF, M. NICKIE COOMER, KATHLEEN K. THORIUS, SEENA M. SKELTON; Challenging the Language of Law and Policy through Practice: Working for Personal and Collective Agency. Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners 1 March 2022; 22 (1): 1–5. doi: https://doi.org/10.56829/2158-396X-22.1.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest Search
ABSTRACT The purpose of this nonexperimental, quantitative study was to explore the perceptions of educational decision-makers regarding the importance of factors that relate to educational decision-making for racially, ethnically, or linguistically minoritized students who may have disabilities. Further, the researchers explored the relationship between the cultural intelligence of educational decision-makers and their perceptions of the importance of factors that relate to educational decision-making. Educational decision-makers (n = 120) included teachers, school psychologists, and local education agents. Results revealed that participants perceived factors related to prereferral/referral processes to be more important in decision-making when compared to factors related to eligibility determination; yet participants self-reported feeling more confidence in making decisions involving eligibility determination. Cultural intelligence was found to be a significant predictor of participants’ reported confidence for making such decisions. Participants found language to be a particularly important area to consider in their decision-making. Findings may serve to inform equitable special education policies and practice and improve educational decision-making regarding students with diverse educational needs.
ABSTRACT Despite decades of research and reform, exclusionary discipline remains disproportionately used with minoritized students and students with disabilities (SWD). The present study investigates how functional behavior assessment (FBA) and Positive Behavior Support Plan (PBSP) procedures can be taught in conjunction with an explicit focus on achieving equitable outcomes for minoritized SWD. Specifically, researchers created modules for preservice teachers focused on racial and cultural bias within the FBA and PBSP processes. In this manuscript, we will detail the development, delivery, and preservice teachers’ perceptions of modules, directly and explicitly challenge color-evasive FBA and PBSP practices, and consider how PBSPs can be culturally responsive. We present results of social validity surveys and the School Record Analysis (SRA), a tool used to measure preservice teachers’ implicit racial biases. Exploratory results suggest the modules provide a promising and necessary step for using behavior analysis to address disproportionate use of exclusionary discipline for minoritized SWD.
ABSTRACT There is a reluctance to discuss sex and gender within the context of special education. Often, the assumption is that individuals with disabilities are asexual or too immature to have thoughts about sex and sexuality. Misconceptions about individuals with disabilities concerning sex and sexuality exclude this population from resources or avenues to explore this very important aspect of being human. Individuals with disabilities who also identify as queer face further isolation from support and a sense of community. The group of people who identify as disabled and queer struggle to find support from either of the intersectional Identities. The queer and disabled population is often excluded from the queer community because of a disability while at the same time being ostracized from the support of the disability community because they are queer. This article investigates data collected from Internet postings, involving individuals who self-identify as queer and disabled to examine issues and concerns faced by this unseen population. In these data, individuals expose their feelings about sex, sexuality, gender identity, access, and disability as they express their very personal accounts of living in two worlds. These analyzed narratives uncover the voices of an intersectional population who the ableist and heteronormative culture has ignored and pushed aside. The goal of an exploration into the perspectives and experiences of the project contributors is to provide insight that eventually leads to understanding and enables more effective support systems to be provided for individuals who simultaneously identify as queer and disabled.
ABSTRACT Educational research shows the value of culturally responsive pedagogies; however, special education research typically centers reading interventions that focus primarily on foundational skills. These sorts of programs rarely take learner identities into account in their design, and provide little opportunity for readers to make connections to their own lives or events in their communities and worlds. A culturally and historically responsive literacy (HRL) framework recommends teaching toward the pursuits of identity, skills, intellect, and criticality. This article uses analytic autoethnography and qualitative data to examine the ways that a group of Black girls identified as having disabilities engaged in a book club reading Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming. Findings show that students engaged in joyful and engaged discussions about their cultural identities and historical events while simultaneously developing literacy skills and knowledge. Suggestions are made for implementing culturally and historically responsive book clubs in a resource room or small group setting as an alternative to traditional reading intervention programs.
ABSTRACT Earlier studies have suggested that Latine families are often not authentically engaged in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process; interactions tend to be fraught with miscommunication, misunderstanding, and lack of genuine consent. To date, only a handful of studies considering teacher perceptions of parent involvement have examined how school personnel view Latine family involvement. This qualitative study utilized interaction theory to explore how school personnel prepare and perceive Spanish-speaking families within the IEP process in a midsize district East of Los Angeles. These findings suggest that team members had a distinct perception of family participation, which was rooted in their level of involvement with the IEP process.
The initial special education identification process (SPED IDP) determines which students have disabilities and corresponding rights to IDEA supports. However, the disproportionate identification of Black, Indigenous Students of Color (BISOC) as emotionally disturbed necessitates the problematizing of special education structures within the SPED IDP. This critical analysis of current norms of practice within SPED IDP structures discusses hidden ideologies of Whiteness, ableism, and racism. I apply DisCrit and Whiteness Studies frameworks to interrogate power within three SPED IDP structures (a) multidisciplinary team (MDT) decision-making, (b) social–emotional–behavioral (SEB) assessments and data collection, and (c) categorical identification of emotional disturbance (ED). I include critical reflection on my professional practice in elementary schools, consider my complicity as a member of MDTs, and offer critical questions for practitioners.
ABSTRACT This single instrumental case study examines the Pathways Program, a dual immersion (DI) strand for students with autism and related disabilities. Pathways is housed at Crossroads Elementary School, a school-wide DI program in the Southern United States. Data include interviews with educators and mothers of students with autism, along with school-based observations and a review of educational documents. Findings suggest that the benefits of DI programs for students with disabilities include enhanced parent/educator collaboration and positive student identity development. However, logistical challenges (e.g., lack of qualified bilingual special educators and curricula) and structural barriers (e.g., negative attitudes toward bilingualism, English-only high stakes assessments) thwart implementation. Indeed, Pathways only existed as a DI special education program for a single year. And the results of this study provide insights about persistent obstacles at the intersection of language and disability. Implications for practice are discussed.
ABSTRACT Teachers are considered as the powerful implementers of inclusive education and are at the frontlines in responding to the increasing diversity of learners in their classrooms. India is a vast, diverse country where access to quality education is denied across various lines of marginalization, including caste, religion, gender, class, language, and disability. Inclusive education policy in India sets up contradictory expectations for teachers, with no clear pathways toward inclusive education. This scoping review examines empirical research on teachers within inclusive education in India to highlight gaps, challenges, and future directions. Education Resource Information Center (ERIC), Education Database, and Google Scholar were used to identify peer-reviewed articles on teachers within inclusive education in India. A total of 253 articles were identified and 27 articles were selected for the review. The present analysis identifies tensions in the literature on how inclusion is defined, how teachers are studied, and how teacher practices are understood. The analysis discusses the lack of research on teacher practices, the absence of contextualized perspectives on teacher practices, and implications of the confusion around inclusive education for teachers in India.
Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation SEENA M. SKELTON, KATHLEEN A. KING THORIUS, CRISTINA SANTAMARÍA GRAFF; Now That We Have the Way, Do We Have the Will?. Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners 1 September 2021; 21 (2): 1–3. doi: https://doi.org/10.56829/2158-396X-21.2.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest Search
ABSTRACT The purpose of this essay is to identify and interrogate listening practices, which can restrict and facilitate educators’ capacity to authentically care for neurodiverse students and their families. We reconceptualize listening as integral to consciousness formation by unveiling our own listening experiences as parents and collaborative activists. Conscious listening opens listeners to the exploration of divergent realities, and marks a subversive shift in consciousness- raising. Through counter-narrative methods, we describe our experiences related to listening and consciousness formation in the context of meetings with educators about children’s placements, goals, and transitions. Naming common themes across our diverse narratives helped us ascertain the unique modes of listening required for authentic caring, relational enactment, and continually sustained transformations in the face of unfavorable listening environments and inclusive education policy.
ABSTRACT Historically, students who are English learners and students with disabilities have experienced inequitable schooling opportunities. These inequities are heightened when considering those individuals who are not only English learners but also have a significant cognitive disability. This particular dually classified group, while not large in number, is likely one of the most understudied and underserved school populations. Recently, researchers have begun trying to better identify these students for alternate assessment purposes. Despite more recent attention, educational research is still evolving and substantial gaps within the literature still exist. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of contemporary educational issues while simultaneously providing recommendations for future researchers to enhance effective practices for this population. We attempt to define this group, which currently has no federal definition; describe their complex language needs; advocate for the use of appropriate blended educational frameworks; advocate for the need of inclusion in research studies; and, finally, argue for increased interdisciplinary research efforts.
Few studies use a strengths-based perspective to identify strategies that support K-12 school transitions for historically minoritized families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the present study, university researchers partnered with community stakeholders (e.g., disability advocates, community health organizations, etc.) in minoritized communities to examine the school transitions of children with ASD. We sought the experiential knowledge of racially, linguistically, economically, and geographically minoritized parents in the United States (n = 45) and the providers servicing these communities (n = 75) using dialogue groups and individual interviews about school transitions for children and adolescents with ASD. Applying a framework of community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005), we identified the transition practices these families describe as supportive, and the types of community capital families engaged during the transition process. Supportive transition strategies included school tours and visits, meetings and workshops, transition tools, and skills development. Social and support networks in school and community also bolstered transition success. Implications for school practice include developing formal structures for information sharing across the transition and developing partnerships with community-based organizations that already serve these communities.
Equity issues continue to surround the supports and services provided to students with dis/abilities from birth onward, especially for children of color and despite extensive legal protections guaranteed through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The purpose of this article is to examine how these systemic issues unfold in practice during early childhood transitions as young children of color with dis/abilities move from preschool to an elementary school setting. Using ethnographic data gathered from a large suburban school district in the northeastern United States, we explore the equity implications associated with the transition from preschool to kindergarten in a sociodemographically diverse school district. We used a context-centered approach to examine how educators use IDEA to serve families during the transition process and how educators and families interact with each other during transition planning meetings. Cultural misunderstandings and power differentials between caregivers and educators emerged from the data analysis and provided insight into how and why IDEA procedural protections were insufficient for assuring the rights of students with dis/abilities were protected during the transition process. We argue that the extensive procedural protections for children served under IDEA are inadequate in assuring equity in special education outcomes during the transition process. We conclude that the transition process does not disrupt oppressive practices, effectively thwarting equity and access in early childhood education. We end with recommendations for improving the process.
The attrition and retention of special education teachers of color (SETOC) is a concern for school district leaders who are seeking racially and ethnically minoritized teachers to work with students of color with disabilities. We reviewed 47 articles from 2002 to 2020 regarding factors related to the attrition and retention of special education teachers (SET) to better understand the racial characteristics of the participants in the studies and to compare and contrast whether SETOC provide reasons for why they stay or leave that vary from reasons provided by their White colleagues. We found that researchers examining SETs have mostly ignored race and ethnicity when analyzing factors in the attrition and retention of SETs. Although empirical research on the topic is scarce, the articles that were analyzed in this review that also included an analysis of the experiences of SETOC often was framed using a racial lens in understanding factors that may cause them to stay in or leave the profession. We conclude with a discussion of major takeaways from the literature and recommendations for promoting a more robust research agenda on this topic for future considerations.
Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation KATHLEEN KING THORIUS, CRISTINA SANTAMARÍA GRAFF, SEENA M. SKELTON; Be Not Afraid of Critical Theories in Special Education. Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners 1 March 2021; 21 (1): 1–2. doi: https://doi.org/10.56829/2158-396X-21.1.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest Search
Using racial formation theory as the ballast of this study, I interviewed seven Black men who were in preservice special education teacher preparation programs about what motivated them to enter the field. Data collection methods and analysis focused on participants’ educational trajectories and introductions to the field of special education. I found that Black men in this study chose to enter special education as a result of varying influences, including prior experiences working with children or the suggestions of mentors. All participants indicated that they were “doing it for the culture”; that is, their career choices were in response to a pressing desire to be agents of change, primarily driven by an awareness of the needs of Black boys who are disproportionately represented in special education programs across the United States. Finally, I explore implications for future research and practice.
