RESTRUCTURING THE PARTICIPATION OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN PARENTS IN SPECIAL-EDUCATION

Two traditions have combined to contribute to a form of discourse that is detrimental to the participation of African-American parents in special education procedures: first, a deficit view of African-American families and, second, the deficit view of children's learning difficulties on which P.L. 94-142 is based. These deficit views, together with the focus by many professional educators on legal compliance rather than collaboration, have cast parents in the role of consent-giver in a grossly asymmetrical form of discourse, with power residing mostly with professionals. Four specific parental roles-including parents in assessment, placement, policy making, and advocacy-would restore the balance of power in parent-professional discourse. Future research should focus on the documentation of egalitarian participation structures for African-American parents and on action-oriented ethnographic studies.