Agents/Angels of Disruption: Bi/Multilingual Latine Parents Navigating and Resisting Special Education Systems

• In Event: Re-imagining Equitable Inclusion: Immigrant and Refugee Parents and Youths’ Experiences of Dis-engagement

Abstract

Objectives
Special education law ensures parents are involved in educational decision-making for their children with disabilities. However, bi/multilingual, immigrant Latine parents are seldom meaningfully included as team members in their children's academic journeys for many reasons that place blame on parents’ disengagement (Harry & Ocasio-Stoutenburg, 2020; Kibria & Becerra, 2021). The objective of this study was to challenge these harmful narratives by revealing the experiences of bi/multilingual, immigrant Latine parents navigating exclusionary special educational systems. We examine the creative and “fugitive” (Coles et. al., 2021) ways that bi/multilingual, immigrant, Latine parents create agential avenues of critical care and inclusion for their children receiving special education services within school structures that neglect the welfare of Latine youth.

Theoretical Framework
Our theoretical framework illuminates how bi/multilingual, immigrant, Latine parents create spaces of agency via fugitivity, which entails “an awareness of the wrongdoing of systems and then attaining (or even seeking) justice becomes a bold act of fugitivity, an action-oriented approach of refusing to live in the world as it currently exists.” (Coles et al., 2021, p. 104-105). This framework allowed us to see these justice-seeking acts that parents engaged in to curate care for their children labeled with disabilities within school systems of exclusion and neglect.

Methods & Data Sources
This study draws on data from the larger study (see Paper 1) using qualitative methods to answer the following question: How do bilingual Latine immigrant parents navigate oppressive and exclusionary K-12 special education systems to shape more equitable and inclusive educational experiences and outcomes for their child(ren) with disabilities? Data sources included three separate audio-recorded and transcribed focus groups with Latine immigrant parents with children in K-12 education and three individual follow-up interviews with parents conducted in Spanish.

Results
Three preliminary findings show that bilingual immigrant Latine parents engage in fugitive strategies (Coles et al., 2021) through what we refer to as agents and angels to navigate exclusionary systems for their child(ren). First, parents agentively entered spaces not built for them and, like guardian angels, asserted themselves despite feeling unwelcome, pushing back against professional authority while carrying the quiet force of love and protection for their child(ren) with disabilities. We also found that parents built critical informal networks amongst their immigrant communities to fill the void left by schools in engagement and knowledge support. Finally, parents countered school-based narratives of dis-engagement by putting forward ideas and solutions for more equitable and inclusive systems for their children with disabilities, though these efforts were often overlooked or dismissed. These acts of resistance show how parents are already doing the work to reimagine justice for their children.

Significance
This study challenges damaging narratives of purposeful dis-engagement, showing how bi/multilingual Latine parents pursue more just educational systems through fugitivity. Additionally, it contributes to emancipatory special education by centering immigrant voices and affirming community-rooted practices. Ultimately, this work illuminates Latine parental involvement as critical praxis challenging systemic neglect while reimagining the parental involvement in special education as an emancipatory role.

Authors

• Andrea Espinoza, University of Arizona

• Taucia Gonzalez, University of Arizona

• Mariana Pacheco, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Carlos Orozco-Wagner, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Hetal Ascher Patel, University of Wisconsin - Madison