Browsing by Subject "Disabilities"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Adoptive Parent Perspectives on Placing an Intercountry Adopted Child with Disabilities in Out of Home Care
    (2015-05) Kim, Kendra
    In the past seven decades over 400,000 children born outside the U.S. have been adopted to U.S. citizens through intercountry adoption (U.S. State Department 2014, Evan B. Donaldson, 2002). Many of these children experienced trauma, malnutrition, abuse, neglect, prenatal exposure to alcohol and other drugs, and institutionalization and nearly eight percent of intercountry adopted children under 18 in 2010 had at least one intellectual, developmental or mental health disability as according to the U.S. Census (Kreider, 2014). Some adoptive parents choose to place their child in out of home placement including residential treatment center, foster care, group home, or even another adoptive home as a result of their child�s disability. Research on the decision-making process of adoptive parents that placed their intercountry child either temporarily or permanently in out of home care does not exist in the current literature. Using a qualitative, constructivist grounded theory methodology (Charmaz, 2006) perspectives of adoptive parents who placed an intercountry adopted child in out of home placement due to the child�s disability were explored. Nineteen parents representing 16 families living in West Coast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states participated in this study. Findings reveal that adoptive parents begin the intercountry adoption process with specific constructions about disability and intercountry adoption that impact the choices the parents make regarding the reasons they adopt, the services they choose (including out of home placements), and whether or not they consider dissolving their adoption. Additionally, adoptive parents experienced financial, social, relational and personal costs related to the choices they made in parenting their children and respond by making behavioral or emotional changes in their approach to parenting, leading them to re-define their concept of disability and adoption. These findings from this study highlight the importance of developing training programs for both adoption agency staff as well as prospective adoptive parents on adopting children with intellectual, developmental and mental health disabilities. Policy recommendations include requiring an increased minimum standard of training for adoption agency staff and prospective adoptive parents on disability content, better data collection on intercountry adoptive families, as well as a shift toward child welfare as the standard focus of intercountry adoption policy.
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    Critical issues in researching domestic violence among people of color with disabilities
    (Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, 2009-01) Elizabeth, Lightfoot; Williams, Oliver J.
    While there are a number of programs emerging providing services to people of color with disabilities who experience domestic violence, there is little research on the needs of this population. Using data collected from two national focus groups of nineteen expert informants, this article outlines key areas of research needed for providing better services to people of color who are Deaf or have disabilities, and appropriate research methods for collecting data with this population. Respondents indicated that a research agenda should include investigating the scope of the problem, in-depth needs of domestic violence survivors, cost-effectiveness of culturally and disability specific programs, and development of best practices through in-depth evaluations of existing programs.
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    Cultural Beliefs Regarding People with Disabilities in Namibia: Implications for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities
    (International Journal of Special Education, 2010) Haihambo, Cynthy; Lightfoot, Elizabeth
    Namibia is a southern African country with national level policies promoting community inclusion and inclusive education. Despite these policies, people with disabilities are often excluded from schools and community life. This study explores the nuanced cultural beliefs about the causes of disability in Namibia, and the impacts of such beliefs on the implementation of disability policy. Eight themes emerged from this study regarding specific myths about the causes of disability and appropriate community responses to people with disabilities. This study finds that many Namibians believe in supernatural causes of disability, such as witchcraft, and/or in the role of improper relationships of family members as causes of disability; and that community responses to Namibians with disabilities are often negative. However, many people, particularly parents with disabilities, often have strong positive views of disability as well, reflecting the complex and changing nature of cultural beliefs. This study suggests that the implementation of disability inclusion policies is more likely to be successful if it builds upon positive aspects of cultural beliefs about disability.
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    General Educators' Attitudes toward Inclusion and Their Corresponding Adaptations to Curriculum
    (2011) Olson, Lynda; Nierengarten, Gerry; Brice, Lynn
    The purpose of the current phenomenological study was to identify how general education teachers’ attitudes about inclusion affect the use of adaptations for students with disabilities when participating in the general education setting. Participants were nine female general education teachers in one of two primary schools in a middle-size urban school district located in Northeastern Minnesota during the 2009-2010 academic year. Results indicated educators’ attitudes were affected by their perceived ability to teach students with disabilities. Other influences included: integrated classroom management, benefits of integration, benefits of special vs. integrated education, and disability type. Factors affecting the use of adaptations were the type of adaptation, student factors, resource factors, adaptation factors, teacher factors, and perceptions of successful adaptations. Suggested areas of need include districts providing additional resources to support the inclusion of students with disabilities. Implications for current practice include further training of per-service and in-service educators, identifying resources necessary to train classroom aides in administering adaptations, and identifying specific resources and how to implement them into various school settings. Implications for future research include further investigation of inclusion patterns based on disability type and further study of teacher perceptions of successful adaptations.
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    Identification and Outreach to Persons with Disabilities Memorandum to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
    (Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 2014-05-05) Dorsher, Patricia; Kim, Yoontaik; Krzyska, Amy; Perna, Amy; Wolfish, Jonathan
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    Influence of Child Find Referral Mechanisms on Early Childhood Special Education Participation
    (2018-06) Farnsworth, Elyse
    According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004), state and local education agencies are obligated to locate, identify, and evaluate all individuals ages birth to 21 years who may be in need of special education services and supports. Past research suggested, however, that disparities exist between the percent of children who demonstrate needs and those who participate in special education (e.g., Boyle et al., 2011). This indicates that child find referral mechanisms may not be effectively functioning to locate all children in potential need and suggests that examining the influence of referral mechanisms on receipt of special education may provide important information for improving practices and upholding the law. During preschool, four common child find referral mechanisms exist to aide in the identification of young children with special needs. These include referrals that result from early childhood screening, well-care visits, early childhood education providers, and parent knowledge of development. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, I aimed to understand if the disparities between special need and special education participation are observed during preschool. Second, I examined the extent to which involvement with one of the common child find referral mechanisms predicted participation in early childhood special education among a nationally-representative sample of preschoolers with special needs born in the United States in 2001, using multivariate logistic regression of data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort. Findings indicated that 20.9% of preschoolers included in the sample demonstrated special needs, while only 5.9% of participants received special education services during preschool. Attendance at well-care visits and parent knowledge were not significant predictors of early childhood special education participation after controlling for ecological covariates; however, attending early childhood screening and any form of early childhood education significantly increased the likelihood that preschoolers with special needs participated in early childhood special education. The relationship between early childhood screening and receipt of early childhood special education was moderated by gender, with significant effects being most profound for girls. Likewise, birthweight influenced the relationship between early childhood education and early childhood special education participation. Results suggest that educational agencies should focus child find efforts on strengthening referral relationships with early care providers and ensuring all families of young children attend early childhood screening.
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    Integrating Care And Paid Work – The Career Development Of Parents Of People With Disabilities In Brazil
    (2024-04) Dalla Martha Rodriguez, Ana Carolina
    Parenting a person with disabilities (PWD) is an experience that transforms one’s beliefs, family relationships, social connections, financial stability, and professional trajectory. Parents of PWD engage in what scholars call exceptional care – intense, lifelong, cyclical, and crisis-driven care. For them, caring is a central part of their lives, crossing boundaries between family and work domains and driving most of these parents’ career decisions. Studies show that parents of PWD often experience heightened work-family conflict and physical, emotional, and financial stress. Significantly, individuals identifying as women are disproportionally impacted as they assume most of the care work. Nevertheless, employment is critical for these parents’ financial and mental health, as work provides necessary income and personal fulfillment. This study applied a grounded theory methodology to investigate how Brazilian parents of PWD make career decisions to accommodate care and paid work, also examining the systemic factors that influence these decisions. In-depth interviews were conducted with 27 college-educated mothers and fathers of PWD to map their career trajectories and main career decisions. The findings of this study contribute to advancing and integrating career development and work-life theories, highlighting the importance of social identities and organizational and social dynamics. New frameworks are proposed to explain how parents of PWD, and potentially other caregivers, make ongoing career decisions and manage their family and work arrangements to attain more satisfactory work-life relationships. Additionally, this study offers practical implications for career development professionals, HRD practitioners in organizations, and public policymakers on how to support the professional development of caregivers.
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    Mathematics placement decisions for high school students with high incidence disabilities: a collective case study
    (2013-04) Murzyn, Amy Lee
    The purpose of this multiple case study is to describe the experiences of case managers making mathematics placement decisions of high school students with high incidence disabilities. There is much information about what should be happening when making mathematics placement decisions of high school students with high incidence disabilities, but there is little research to describe what is happening. Participants include: three parents of high school students with a high incidence disability, three high school students with a high incidence disability, three case managers of a high school student with a high incidence disability, three high school mathematics teachers and three high school administrators from three different high schools in three different geographic areas: rural, suburban and urban. Four major findings emerged: 1. The placement process is a team decision. 2. Course options, the master schedule and graduation requirements are influential in the placement process. 3. A range of special education services are available, but not all needs are being met. 4. Data provides a jumping off point. Three recommendations for further research emerged: 1. Based on the limitations of the current study in regards to generalizabililty, a survey of a large sample of case managers should be conducted across the state of Minnesota and/or the country, to evaluate the degree to which the same or similar findings may be uncovered regarding the placement process and the factors surrounding placement decisions. 2. Because perceived lack of meaningful participation among parents was common among all sites, a mixed methods study could be utilized to determine how meaningful participation could be improved. 3. During this study, student needs and the perception that student needs were not being met was a common theme across cases and participants. A similar follow-up study should be undertaken to determine a definition of “needs” and how best to meet those needs.
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    Teach Me Too: The Educational Realities of Children with Disabilities in Morocco
    (2023-05) Swadek, Ghada
    The goal of this study was to investigate the effects (as articulated by Stephen Ball) of global and national inclusive education policies on the education of children with disabilities. The study focused on global and national policy influences and stakeholder engagements (perceptions, understanding, interpretations, and translations) of these policies to investigate the primary effects related to changes of practice or structure within schools and school systems, and secondary effects, related to social justice, social access, and opportunity. The theoretical orientation is based in critical sociocultural policy analysis, framed by a consciousness of ‘relevance’ of global North theory, conceptual frameworks, and methodology within global South contexts and attunement to emergent alternative discourses, as articulated by S. F. Alatas (2001a). Ball’s (1993) policy cycle conceptualization is used in the analysis process. Ball’s policy cycle is coupled with Bartlett and Vavrus’s (2017) comparative case study (CCS) approach, which allow for multi-sited and multi-scalar, ethnographically informed research. The findings of this study are framed through an emically informed conceptualization of harira, the traditional Moroccan soup, to illustrate not only the messiness of policies, but adding the complexity and layers found within the Moroccan context. The harira conceptualization shows that the Moroccan inclusive education policy scape is composed of the co-existence of convergences and divergences in relation to global and national policies and stakeholder engagements with these policies, in addition to transversal (historical legacies), temporal (aspects of time, space, and geographies), and contemporary (current impact on the education of children with disabilities) components. The findings demonstrate the contextual realities at the global and local nexus of inclusive education policies and engagements within a MENA context. Implications highlight a reconceptualization of Ball’s policy cycle within a postcolonial, global South contexts, and the productiveness of attunement to relevance and alternative discourses to the critical sociocultural orientation of policy analysis. A further implication for inclusive education policy specifically is the importance of this attunement to alternative discourses in the global South, which reveal postcolonial and faith or value-based aspects of inclusive education.