Dunn, Claudia Montoya (2021-04). Experiences of Latino Immigrant Parents of Children with Disabilities: The Importance of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Parent Involvement in the IEP Process. Doctoral Dissertation.
Thesis
Given the large proportion of students who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) in special education, there is a great need to understand and learn from the literature and the experiences of Latino immigrant parents of children with disabilities. It is important to conduct qualitative studies, systematic reviews, and quality reviews to learn more about CLD parents and their children in special education to support them to navigate special education. While studies in this area exist, the literature is scarce. This dissertation contains a qualitative study, a systematic review, and a quality review related to CLD parents with children with disabilities and parent involvement in the IEP process. The first study is a qualitative study that sought to understand the perspectives of nine Latino immigrant parents of children with disabilities regarding their child's Individualized Education Program (IEP). Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using a grounded theory approach and the constant comparison method. Seven themes emerged: a) parents' insecurity of knowledge, b) difficult terminology, c) confusion with the IEP process, d) discrimination or misconceptions, e) staff lack of knowledge, f) language barriers, and g) need for parent advocacy. The second study is a systematic review of ten studies on intervention characteristics to increase CLD parent involvement in the IEP process. The majority of the research identifies parent involvement in academic achievement but is limited related to parent involvement in the IEP process. From this systematic review, only one study had Spanish-speaking participants. Some of the studies (n=4) did not mention the characteristics of the parent participants. The rest of the studies did mention the characteristics of the participants but were not considered CLD. Because of the CLD population's growth in the United States, future research should target CLD parents with children in special education and provide culturally responsive interventions. The third study is a quality review on the quality of the evidence base for CLD parent involvement in the IEP process. The ten studies included in the systematic review were assessed for quality using the quality standards of the Council of Exceptional Children (CEC, 2014). Three of the studies met all the CEC standards; however, none of those three studies had CLD participants. It is important for future researchers to clearly report the methods they use when doing an intervention to allow replication and be able to have evidence-based practices that practitioners can implement with high-quality. In addition to that, high-quality studies that include CLD population are needed.
