Special educators' use of culturally responsive family-professional partnership practices with refugee families

Adams, Nicole Beitler

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/113806 Copy

Description

Title

Special educators' use of culturally responsive family-professional partnership practices with refugee families

Author(s)

Adams, Nicole Beitler

Issue Date

2021-09-09

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Santos, Rosa M

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Santos, Rosa M

Committee Member(s)

• Burke, Meghan
• Davila, Liv T
• Spence, Christine

Department of Study

Special Education

Discipline

Special Education

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• refugee families
• special education
• culturally responsive practices
• family-professional partnerships

Abstract

Refugee families who have children with disabilities encounter numerous systemic barriers that impact their opportunities to partner with schools and special educators. This study explored early childhood special education and elementary special education teachers use of culturally responsive family-professional partnership practices with refugee families and the impact of current events (e.g. political and immigration rhetoric and COVID-19) on special educators’ partnerships with refugee families. Fourteen special educators who taught students in early childhood (n = 8) or elementary (n = 6) levels and worked with at least one student whose family was from a refugee background in the past five years completed an online questionnaire. Nine special educators also engaged in semi-structured interviews to obtain input on their experiences supporting refugee families before and during Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. First, the data highlighted contextual factors, such as teachers’ understanding of families’ backgrounds, teachers’ perceptions of families’ experiences in special education, and access to interpreters, that highlighted the need for family-professional partnerships. Second, teachers reported high rates of using family-professional partnership practices with refugee families but reported lower rates of helping refugee families gain skills and information to assist their child in their special education programming. Third, teachers shared strategies that they used before and during IEP meetings to engage and partner with refugee families. Fourth, teachers discussed how changes to immigration laws and rhetoric had minimal impact on their partnerships with refugee families, but there was significant impact on partnerships due to COVID-19.

Graduation Semester

2021-12

Type of Resource

Thesis

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113806

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2021 Nicole Adams

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