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Parental and professional participation in the IEP process: A comparison of discourses

Harris, Apollos R.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1273002727

Abstract Details

2010, EdD, University of Cincinnati, Education : Curriculum and Instruction.
This study examined the participation styles of nine parents while attending Individual Educational Program (IEP) meetings for their children. The nine parents consisted of three parents from a suburban school district, three parents from a rural school district, and three parents from an urban school district. Data collection through videotaping occurred at each designated school site during IEP meetings. A micro-ethnographic methodology was used to allow the investigator to evaluate the meetings on a sentence-by-sentence level. Analysis was based on the videotapes. An informal interview followed the IEP meetings in order to explore the parents’ perceptions of their level of participation in the IEP meeting. Six overall classifications of parental speaking turn discourses were identified: confirmation, new information, commenting, answering direct questions, solicit of clarification, and predicting. The speaking turn discourses were contrasted and compared to the speaking turns and discourses of the special education teachers. Fine-grained analysis of the transcripts of the IEP meetings lead to a description of the communication styles of the parent participants and the special education teachers. It was hypothesized that there would be similarities between parent participation styles reported in Mehan’s (1987) and Harris and Kretschmer’s (2007) studies the parent participants’ in this study. Results demonstrated passive participation from parents from all three settings. It was found that the special education teachers’ discourses and the structure of the IEP meetings were identified as hindering parent participation. The outcome of this study revealed that discourse and structure of meetings has an effect on parental participation in the IEP process for special education services. The results of this study will help delineate the limitations of the Individual with Disability Education Act (IDEA) in regards to enforcing parent participation for the identification of special needs students during IEP meetings.
Richard Kretschmer, EdD (Committee Chair)
Helen Meyer, PhD (Committee Member)
Roger Collins, PhD (Committee Member)
233 p.
Special Education
Discourse; parental participation; IEP meetings; Professional discourse; Parent discourse

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Harris, A. R. (2010). Parental and professional participation in the IEP process: A comparison of discourses [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1273002727

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Harris, Apollos. Parental and professional participation in the IEP process: A comparison of discourses. 2010. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1273002727.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Harris, Apollos. "Parental and professional participation in the IEP process: A comparison of discourses." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1273002727

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1273002727
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.