Searching Schools at the Intersection of Disability and Race

• In Event: Disability and the Policy Enactment of Global Education Policies in Italy, Chile, and the United States

Abstract

a. Objectives or purposes
The purpose of this study is to examine how parents of students with disabilities, who experience intersecting social (i.e., race, disability, and class) and geographical locations, research and learn about school options for their children in the education marketplace.

b. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
We draw from an intersectional approach to school choice (Waitoller, 2020; Waitoller & Lubienski, 2019) and the concepts of ‘hot’ or ‘grapevine knowledge’ (Ball & Vincent, 1998) and cold knowledge (Kosunen, et al., 2015) to understand how parents of students with disabilities research and learn about schools.

c. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
We employed a longitudinal study based on interviews and a focus group with parents of students with disabilities in Chicago Public School. To analyze the data, we used constructive grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014).

d. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
We utilized two in-depth and open-ended interviews (Kvale, 1996) with each of the 10 parents (total 20 interviews): one occurred between November and December of 2018 when parents were making their initial school selections and the second one in the Fall of 2019, once children were already attending their preferred school. We also invited seven other parents of students with disabilities to participate in a focus to discuss how they searched and selected schools.

e. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
Overall, parents felt that it was difficult to find information about special education services, even for those parents who were better socially positioned and spent significant time actively searching for school information. We found three sources of information informing parents school choice sets: grapevine knowledge, cold knowledge, and firsthand knowledge from visiting schools. Each source of information required a different level of involvement and effort and contributed to the size of parents’ choice set. Differential levels of engagement and access to sources of information were shaped by the intersections of structural factors related to class, disability, and race, as well as geographical location, which created unjust and differential experiences at the time of searching for school options.

f. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
Though there has been substantial research to understand how parents of different social classes, racial and ethnic groups, and immigration status engage with cold and hot knowledge, we know little about how disability related factors intersecting with other social locations (i.e., class and race) shape how parents gather information about schools. Parents of students with disabilities present a unique case for examining whether all parents have access to information meaningful to them as they search for information about services for their children that are not easily available.

Authors

• Federico R. Waitoller, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Christopher A. Lubienski, Indiana University
  Presenting Author