"Better Opportunity, Better Life": Constructing Community Cultural Wealth for Parents of English Learners With Disabilities

• In Event: English Learners With Disabilities and Opportunity to Learn

Abstract

Purpose
In New York State, regulations regarding equity and inclusion claim to expand opportunities and educational rights of students labeled as English learners (ELs) with disabilities (e.g., NYSED, 2015). However, they have failed to question the underlying manufacture of labels and specialized remediation processes; rather, they uphold tracking and segregation mechanisms which limit opportunity to learn (OTL) by siloing students and their needs (Migliarini & Author, 2020). This paper addresses these gaps through an asset-based exploration of the knowledge and experiences of refugee and immigrant parents of EL students labeled with disabilities. This study focuses on how parents conceptualize the gaps in OTL and special education services and how they construct a network of Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005) to meet their children’s needs unmet by the school system.

Perspectives/Theoretical Framework
This study draws on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework which includes Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth and Constructivist Grounded Theory ([CGT], Charmaz, 2006). Community Cultural Wealth provides a framework for understanding the assets of communities of color, such as the refugee and immigrant community in this study. This model challenges prevailing deficit-based views of nondominant social groups. CGT is an analytical tool used to directly acknowledge the author’s subjectivity and involvement in the collection, interpretation, and presentation of data (Charmaz, 2006). CGT serves this study through foregrounding nuanced local contexts of participants and data, thereby supporting the investigation of ecological factors and practices, which concern equity and experience for parents of students labeled as ELs with disabilities.

Methods/Data Sources
The collective case study design (Stake, 2000) focuses on refugee and immigrant parents and caregivers in a mid-sized city in Upstate New York. Participants are 35 refugee and immigrant parents or legal guardians of K-12 students labeled as ELs with disabilities or who are currently under referral for special education services. The author conducted 20 individual semi-structured interviews, several ethnographic observations (Emerson et al., 2011), and four focus group interviews (Madríz, 2000).

Results and Significance
Focused analysis of the data reveals how refugee and immigrant parents of ELs labeled with disabilities address gaps in their children’s OTL and special education services through a complex network of cultural brokers, interpreters, and volunteer educators. Many participants drew strong connections between OTL and culturally responsive-sustaining education (CR-SE), citing examples of how an absence of CR-SE in curriculum and pedagogy restricted student engagement in school and contributed to a process of further pathologization and segregation when students were unable to demonstrate academic achievement as a result.

This study contributes to the field of education at the intersection of English language education, special education, and CR-SE through collective case study. Focusing on the perspectives of members of a refugee and immigrant community illuminates the realities of the educational programs in which most ELs with disabilities are enrolled. This paper provides recommendations for cultivating supportive critical partnerships between schools and parents through community-based networks.

Author

• Chelsea Stinson, Syracuse University