Cultural Diversity, Families, and the Special Education System: Communication and Empowerment
Beth Harry
This monograph addresses the way parents of students from minority backgrounds perceive the special education system, with specific attention to these parents' views of the process by which their children are designated as having a disability. Chapter 1 discusses the Department of Education's racial classification system. Chapter 2 summarizes what is known about the general cultural ethos of minority groups and their concepts of disability. Chapter 3 summarizes the research on special education placement among minorities. Chapter 4 outlines the literature regarding the experiences of minority families interacting with schools and the special education system. Chapters 5 through 9 use the findings of a study of the views of Puerto Rican American parents to illustrate the misunderstanding and inappropriate educational practice that can result when processes deny power to parents. These chapters discuss the following topics: (1) background and methodology; (2) characteristics of the 12 participating families; (3) parents' theories of their children's problems; (4)problems of communication; and (5) legal compliance versus culturally responsive practice. Chapter 10 concludes that the findings of this study corroborate what is known about dissonance between school systems and minority families. An epilogue presents the findings of a series of follow-up interviews. (Contains 348 references.)
Beth Harry. Cultural Diversity, Families, and the Special Education System: Communication and Empowerment (1992). Teachers College Press: New York, NY.
(296 pages).
Language: English
Reading Level: Average
Formats Available: Printed Material
(ISBN # 0807731196; there is an accompanying teacher's handbook not reviewed by CLAS available for $10.95. This was published in 1997, and is 168 pages, the ISBN is 0807736112
)
Teachers College Press
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10027
Phone: (800) 575-6566
Fax: (802) 864-7626
Email: tcpress@www.tc.columbia.edu
URL: http://www.teacherscollegepress.com
Languages Available: English
Intended User Audience:
This book was written for individuals working with families from diverse backgrounds with children in special education or multicultural education. This book will also be useful to family members with children who have special needs, as well as university faculty and personnel trainers.
Product Development:
This publication was written by Beth Harry, who is an African American university professor in the field of special education. Families who are Puerto Rican were also involved in the development of this book.
Product Evaluation:
Information unavailable.
Product Dissemination:
The number of copies sold is confidential information. However, there are no sales restrictions on this book. It is available to those interested internationally. This book is available to individuals who live in Canada, Europe, and Asia.
Review #1
About the reviewer:
This reviewer's work experience has taken the form of special projects
performed through grants and contracts developed from successful
proposals. In the decade of the 1970s, he traveled extensively
throughout the United States as an applied anthropologist adapting
ethnographic research methods to three large-scale national
evaluations: Head Start, Follow Through, and Teacher Corps.
Since 1981 he has lived in his hometown in the Southwest, where
his work has focused on developing effective adult learning
strategies, including print and video materials, for use in
Native American early childhood settings. He has a BA and MA from
the University of California at Santa Barbara. He has served as an
administrator, teacher, and grants specialist in a community college
serving large numbers of Native Americans. Furthermore, he has
extensive experience as a private consultant in education.
Audience:
The author and publisher say, "This book was written for individuals working with families from diverse backgrounds in special education or multicultural education. This book will also be useful to family members with children who have special needs, as well as university faculty and personnel trainers."
This reviewer agrees with this broad claim, but would add that the level of English literacy required to feel comfortable with this book would be about that of a junior or senior in college. Thus it is not accessible to the majority of family members themselves served by special education systems, since, as the author so powerfully describes, the families served by special education are disproportionately found among those of lower socioeconomic classes where English is spoken as a second language. (See Chapter 3 for an excellent summary of national patterns regarding this important issue.)
The audiences which most need to understand and implement the major messages of this excellent book (special educators and mainstream administrators in public elementary schools) are of course college educated and thus well served by this book.
Strengths of the Material:
This is a competently produced academic publication. Its major strength lies in the author's ability to go beyond the constituted expectancies of the special education profession to put on the table for academic consideration the voices of parents of "poor, minority, handicapped children...who do not speak the language of the school." The presentation of intertwined survey data and ethnographic data, including the original Spanish spoken by parents with English translations, gives this an unusual richness. This book obviously deals with the very center of the concerns expressed by the CLAS Institute, how to deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate services in educational settings.
Taking the parents' points of view seriously not surprisingly, perhaps, raises important questions about the profession of education at large, as well as for the special education component. The Forward, Chapter 10 and the Epilogue eloquently and passionately lay out how the dysfunctional relationships between parents and professionals are created and maintained, and how children are harmed by the system charged with helping them.
Jim Cummings in the Forward points out that "...close to half of the special education service dollars go to the assessment process...the construct of "learning disability" is so conceptually confused that no battery of tests has shown any degree of validity in identifying children who suffer from such presumed disabilities....Finally, there is little evidence for the overall effectiveness of special education programs in view of the fact that relatively few children return to the mainstream from special education placements….Clearly, a radical restructuring of the entire special education system is required if the rhetoric underlying P.L. 94-142 is to have any bearing on reality."
For the professional who can stay open minded as this presentation unfolds, there is much to be learned that is hopeful. This is a constructive critique, for all its power, and there are changes that can be made.
Limitations of the Material:
This is strong stuff; this is good stuff. It is packaged in a format that gives it credibility for professional users, who are in positions of power to obstruct or facilitate as the next steps in this drama play out. The format of an academic text also, of course, limits its usefulness for folks who are culturally and linguistically different, except for those who become adept in academic English.
This may be lament for our field more than a limitation of this book: as professionals, we have not often found a format or a voice that can communicate effectively across the divide of cultural and linguistic differences. Another way of framing this issue: given the expressed aim of the author and the publisher, this book succeeds in a first rate fashion. It has no limitations inside this academically respectable system.
At the same time that this strong compliment is delivered, it seems worthwhile to this reviewer (who has been occupied for the thirty-something years of his career in the discourse and action generated by the interface of mainstream educators and culturally different families) to remind ourselves that the academic path is but one path to wisdom. We need to help each other find formats that facilitate communication across the divide, as well as do what this book does so well, which is to help the academically adept move beyond the "constituted expectancies" of our educationally respectable understandings.
Adaptations:
For the academically sophisticated user, this is an excellent resource taken as a whole for self reflection and critical dialogue. There are also portions of the presentation which are admirably suited for excerpts to be used to stimulate dialogue with paraprofessionals and family members who may not operate at an upper division college level in reading.
Chapters 6 through 9 provide especially rich language that can be shared across the divide, in which the Spanish spoken by the parents is on the same page as translations into English and technical language -- a rich three-way mix of concepts and language.
For the purposes of training, it is important to recognize that this material is formatted as a conventional textbook, with no photographs and few charts. Thus any adaptations are the responsibility of the instructor. For example, parts of it could be assigned as homework reading, but as a text it has no features that would facilitate interactive activities in a workshop setting.
Brief excerpts could be read aloud; especially effective would be those in Spanish or their English translations, since these were originally spoken by parents, in non-technical language, so would carry as spoken words. Much of the wisdom of the book is incorporated in these selected passages, and the author is to be commended for providing such a rich view of parent views.
Generalizability:
This textbook is published by a first rate academic press. It is thus intended for use in college classes, where English is the language of instruction. The material is presented so that professional users will be reassured by its academic rigor. This means that non-academic users may find the format and language intimidating.
The intellectual framework informing the content goes far beyond the typical mainstream text. This book represents a challenge to reexamine conventional formulations of professionals inside public education in light of the thoughtful, articulate and passionate views of poor Spanish- speaking parents whose children are in the special education system.
In the belief of this reviewer, the voice of the parents makes this textbook exceptional, and its findings should be generalizable at one important level to all the many settings in American education where special education systems are serving culturally and linguistically different populations. One important aim of the book, and it is admirably achieved, is to point out how the data from parents in this study can be used to generalize responsibly to other settings.
Another virtue of the text is that it is so clear in describing the sample: "Participants in the study were twelve Puerto Rican American families whose children had been placed in special education programs in a small, inner-city school district in the Northeast. The language of all the homes was Spanish." The method of research is also described in detail, so serious readers can judge for themselves how to generalize from the sample and the method to circumstances with which they are familiar.
Recommendations:
Cultural Diversity, Families, and the Special Education System is highly recommended. This is an excellent account of the mismatch that so often clouds the interactions of persons from different cultures speaking different languages. The author, Beth Harry, exhibits competent compassion for parents as well as professionals, so this book provides an extended, balanced exploration of so often explosive issues. The fact that the format is an academic text should help this intelligent meditation get the respectful attention it deserves from the audience who needs it most: the educational professional.
Producer's Response:
Not available at this time.
Review #2
About the reviewer:
The reviewer is an associate professor and Chair of a graduate
program in communication sciences and disorders. The reviewer also
currently directs two federally funded multicultural projects,
including one involving early intervention. The reviewer has been
employed in various roles in a number of settings serving the needs
of persons from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The reviewer's expertise and interests include training for preservice and
continuing multicultural education, serving children with
disabilities and their families from diverse cultural and linguistic
backgrounds, analyzing narrative styles of persons from the African American
culture, and developing second dialect instruction.
Audience:
This text is primarily designed for special educators who serve young children with disabilities and their families. This is an excellent text for use by faculty/trainers for preservice preparation of future service providers, regardless of discipline. It is also appropriate for professional development of current practitioners. The author uses the U. S. Department of Education's racial minority classification system as a framework for describing the diversity of students, families and cultural issues. This classification includes American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian or Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and Black (not of Hispanic origin).
Strengths of the Material:
The purpose of the material is clear. The language in the text acknowledges diversity with a strong cross-cultural focus. The material focuses on cultural competence as a specific training outcome while also facilitating an understanding of system level issues. The initial chapters lay the foundation for understanding cultural diversity and minority status, including the importance of group identity, family structure and function, disability, worldviews, and social interactions. Chapters are presented sequentially in a cohesive manner. Numerous practical examples of concepts and vignettes to enhance learning are provided. Case studies depicting the experiences of twelve Puerto Rican families are used throughout the text to enhance learning of concepts in ways that recognize the possibility of individual and group cultural variations. Excellent discussions are provided regarding home-school interactions, including parent-school interactions, cross-cultural dissonance and its effect on parent interpretations, involvement and understanding of the educational system, and how the legalistic framing of services can both protect and constrain involvement of culturally diverse families. A comprehensive account regarding legal compliance versus culturally responsive practice is also provided.
Limitations of the Material:
Pictures representing cultural diversity in families and the special education system are not included. Such photos could enhance the many facets and dimensions of diversity. An outline of how to transfer key concepts to training pre-professionals and professionals in the unique needs of other culturally diverse populations would be helpful. Many of the families described and used in the vignettes and examples are non-native English speakers with somewhat limited English language proficiency. Minority status, economic depression, and disability should be discussed along with language and communication status.
Adaptations:
The text is written in a manner responsive to and reflective of cultural variations within and among groups. Although the Puerto Rican culture is used for most examples and vignettes to facilitate learning of key concepts, the information discussed could readily serve as a framework and foundation for adapting interactions with other cultural groups by a variety of professionals, practitioners, policy makers, and university faculty for preservice and professional development activities. A brief list of guiding questions for users to obtain information about the backgrounds of the children and families they are serving would make the materials more readily adaptable (e.g., Who talks to whom, about what and when? What topics are off-limits? How are children expected to interact with adults? What are the variations in eye contact and their meanings within the family and cultural group?) Also, users may want to add information regarding communication status and such related issues to the learning content for a comprehensive description of key cultural diversity issues in special education.
Generalizability:
The content in this text is written in a manner that would make it very generalizable to other cultural groups by a trainer who is knowledgeable in cultural awareness/competence and working with young children with disabilities and their families. The use of a cultural broker and/or a training team can be used to make local adaptations in the materials to fit target populations and enhance generalizability.
Recommendations:
The reviewer highly recommends this text. The author is very successful in developing a strong conceptual framework and integrating the content in a very inviting and culturally sensitive manner. The examples and vignettes make the content come alive with relevance, thus facilitating learning. The content is appropriate for a variety of disciplines and encourages family-professional co-instruction involving participation from culturally diverse participants.
Producer's Response:
Not available at this time.
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