Restructuring the Participation of African-American Parents in Special Education

ABSTRACT: Two traditions have combined to contribute to aform ofdiscourse that is detrimental to the participation ofAfrican-American parents in special education procedures: first, a deficit view ofAfrican-American families and, second, the deficit view ofchildren'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, policymaking, 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. D This article is concerned with the balance of power between special education professionals and African-American parents. Although it is true that the question of power is central to any con-sideration of parent-professional discourse in ed