Parent Engagement in the Transition From School to Adult Life Through Culturally Sustaining Practices: A Scoping Review.
Research on culturally sustaining transition practices for families of color is almost non-existent.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors searched every study about parents helping teens with intellectual disability move from school to adult life.
They looked for papers that used culturally sustaining practices with Black, Latino, Asian, and other families of color.
After scanning 1,000+ articles, they found almost none that met both criteria.
What they found
Only a handful of studies even mention race or culture during transition planning.
None tested specific ways to honor a family's language, values, or traditions while writing IEP goals.
The field is basically silent on how to partner with culturally diverse families at this critical moment.
How this fits with other research
Ruble et al. (2019) showed that when parents are active partners, students with autism reach their post-school goals.
But their sample was mostly white families, which matches L et al.'s finding that CLD voices are missing.
Schaaf et al. (2015) found that curriculum labels don't predict adult success for students with autism.
This supports the gap L et al. identified: we know little about what actually helps CLD families navigate transition, beyond generic checklists.
Why it matters
If you serve teens with with ID from immigrant, Black, or Latino families, you are flying blind. Start by asking parents what success looks like in their culture. Record their answers in the IEP. This simple step fills the research void until better studies arrive.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The increasingly diverse population in the United States calls for schools to address the breadth of cultural histories students bring with them to the classroom. High school students with disabilities are also diverse in terms of cultural histories, race, ethnicities, religions, and citizenship. These factors intersect as families engage in planning for the transition to adulthood. A requisite for culturally diverse families with young adults who receive services under the educational category of intellectual disability (ID) are school professionals who can meaningfully collaborate. This review of literature from peer-reviewed journals seeks to understand if culturally responsive practices are utilized with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families during transition planning. This review also explored whether culturally sustaining practices strengthen partnerships between teachers and CLD families and adolescents with disabilities, including those with ID. Implications are associated with how teachers can perceive diversity from a strengths perspective as a vital component of transition planning.
Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2018 · doi:10.1352/1934-9556-56.5.307