Beth Harry – författare

This book features vivid case studies that bring to life real children, school personnel, and family members from the bestselling book, ""Why Are So Many Minority Students in Special Education?"". Once again addressing the disproportionate placement of minority students in special education programs, this new book includes the voices and perspectives of all stakeholders to show the tremendous complexity of the issues and the dilemmas faced by professionals, family members, and children. Challenging questions and scenarios are offered at the end of each case study to provide thoughtful follow-up activities and topics for further study. This collection of cases can be used - on its own or as a companion to the main volume - in elementary and special education courses and professional development workshops.

Bringing to life the voices of children, families, and school personnel, this bestseller describes in detail the school climates and social processes that place many children of color at risk of being assigned inappropriate disability labels. Now in its third edition, this powerful ethnographic study examines the placement of Black and Hispanic students in the subjectively determined, high-incidence disability categories of special education. The authors present compelling narratives representing the range of experiences faced by culturally and linguistically diverse students who fall under the liminal shadow of perceived disability. This edition updates the literature on disproportionality, highlighting the deeply embedded and systemic nature of this decades-old pattern in which reforms represent mere shifts across disability categories, while disproportionality remains. Applying lenses of cultural-historical and critical disability theories, this edition expands on the authors' previous theoretical insights with updated recommendations for improving educational practice, teacher training, and policy renewal.Book Features:A unique examination of the school-based contributors to disproportionality based on research conducted in a large, culturally diverse school district.Holistic views of the referral and placement process detailing students' trajectories across 4 years from initial instruction to referral, evaluation, and placement in special education.An update on the patterns and literature related to disproportionality.Analysis of the cultural-historical nature of disproportionality and the socially constructed nature of the high-incidence disability categories.Recommendations for changing the conceptualization of children's learning difficulties, moving away from the presumption of children's intrinsic deficits toward evaluations based on human variation.

To succeed in increasingly diverse classrooms, tomorrow's special educators need explicit training on working effectively with all families. Prepare the next generation of teachers with this accessible text, developed by two highly respected experts on cultural and linguistic diversity and inclusive education. Ideal for use as a supplementary textbook in a wide range of courses related to special education, this book gives educators a practical framework for cultural reciprocity a process that helps professionals and families examine their own values, respect each other's differences, and collaborate skilfully to benefit children. Educators will learn how to strengthen awareness of their own cultural identities and rolesexplore how their values and beliefs might affect interactions with familiessidestep stereotypes by treating each family and situation as uniqueensure successful IEP meetings through effective cross-cultural communicationavoid ""right versus wrong"" assumptions about parenting styles and practicesunderstand how diverse families might view key special education goals independence, individuality, and workcombine ideas from different value systems to arrive at solutions that work for everyonechallenge the ways in which mainstream culture shapes special education policies and practices The authors draw on their own experiences and research to describe applications of cultural reciprocity, including reader-friendly textboxes and memorable personal anecdotes. To give special educators a deeper, more nuanced understanding of cultural reciprocity, the text also includes three chapter-long case studies that further illustrate the process at work. Readers will learn from the challenges and successes of an African American researcher working with a group of teenage mothers; two teacher educators collaborating on the Special Educators Entering a Diverse Society (SEEDS) project; and an Asian Indian teacher educator leading a class of mostly Caucasian students. A key text for future special educators and a valuable resource for inservice training this book will help teachers build strong collaborative relationships with diverse families and ensure that all children receive the best possible education.

This book presents an ethnographic case study of the personal motivations, advocacy, and activation of social capital needed to create and sustain the Immortelle Children’s Centre, a private school that has served children with disabilities in Trinidad/Tobago for four decades. Based on narratives by parents from the 1980’s, current parents, teachers, community advocates, and the author, who was the founder of Immortelle in 1978, the study views the school within the context of a nation standing in a liminal space between developed and developing societies. It argues that the attainment of equity for children with disabilities will require an agenda that includes a legal mandate for education of all children, increased public funding for education, health and therapeutic services, and an on-going public awareness campaign. Relating this study to the global debate on inclusion, the author shows how the implementation of this agenda would have to be adapted to the social, cultural, and economic realities of the society.

This book presents an ethnographic case study of the personal motivations, advocacy, and activation of social capital needed to create and sustain the Immortelle Children’s Centre, a private school that has served children with disabilities in Trinidad/Tobago for four decades. Based on narratives by parents from the 1980’s, current parents, teachers, community advocates, and the author, who was the founder of Immortelle in 1978, the study views the school within the context of a nation standing in a liminal space between developed and developing societies. It argues that the attainment of equity for children with disabilities will require an agenda that includes a legal mandate for education of all children, increased public funding for education, health and therapeutic services, and an on-going public awareness campaign. Relating this study to the global debate on inclusion, the author shows how the implementation of this agenda would have to be adapted to the social, cultural, and economic realities of the society.