ERIC Number: EJ884082
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-May
Pages: 26
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0268-0939
EISSN: N/A
Wizards and Witches: Parent Advocates and Contention in Special Education in the USA
Nespor, Jan; Hicks, David
Journal of Education Policy, v25 n3 p309-334 May 2010
Drawing on interviews with parents of children with significant disabilities, as well as administrators and special education consultants, between the early 1990s and 2008 in a mid-Atlantic US state, this paper examines the work of parental advocates as they translate special education policies to negotiate concessions for parents, bring issues into public debate, or attempt to incite other parents to activism. Advocates, we suggest, act as bridging agents in generating networks, connecting parents with others, articulating their knowledge with other parents' knowledge, and bringing additional communicative resources to encounters. The paper illuminates approaches to advocacy work and traces the tensions and shifts from adversarial/participatory constructions of advocacy work toward more professionalizing/meditational constructions as the articulations of local institutional arrangements and national disability law and politics evolve. (Contains 3 notes.)
Descriptors: Disabilities, Laws, Educational Research, Special Education, Parents, Advocacy, Parent Child Relationship, Conflict, School Districts, Educational Policy, Activism, Individualized Education Programs, Politics of Education, Social Networks, Longitudinal Studies, Interviews, Expertise
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A