Masters Thesis

Experiences of African American parents of students with autism and school partnerships

This phenomenological inquiry was aimed at uncovering the experiences of African American parents of school age children on the autism spectrum. The researcher sought to understand how parents navigate school systems and to investigate the potential impact for cultural brokers to enhance school partnerships by using Communities of Practice. Data collection included 11 in-depth interviews with parents (9 mothers and 2 fathers) in 5 school districts and with 6 cultural brokers. Results show that parents face hardships due to isolation, a general lack of knowledge about autism among others in their lives, and inequitable power dynamics between school systems and participants. The outcome of this work suggests ways to address these challenges by enacting measures to increase trust and representation, provide training, and implement use of cultural brokers as a bottom up approach to shifting parent-school power dynamics.

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