Abstract
Despite the fact that learners from ethnically diverse groups represent a substantial number of those receiving Special Education in many countries throughout the world, the services being provided for these learners are often ineffective and inadequate. Why is this so and what can be done about it? These two important questions are answered for Maori learners with special needs in New Zealand. (Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. They constitute approximately 15% of this country's population and are over-represented amongst learners receiving Special Education.)
Drawing on a variety of research conducted over the last ten years, the presenter will discuss barriers to providing culturally appropriate, effective special education services. These include differing cultural concepts of special needs, the influence of socio-economic circumstances, minority group status, differing languages and power relationships. While the examples to be shared are specific to Maori learners, it is proposed that the barriers identified are universal.
A number of measures being used to overcome the barriers to effective special education services for Maori learners will be described. Given the universal nature of these barriers, the measures outlined will be of interest to all special educators striving to provide effective, culturally appropriate services to learners from ethnically diverse groups.
Introduction
Despite the fact that learners from ethnically diverse groups represent a substantial number of those receiving Special Education in many countries throughout the world, the services being provided for these learners are often ineffective and inadequate. Why is this so and what can be done about it? In discussing these two questions I would like to draw on the experience of Maori learners with special needs. Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. They are of Polynesian origin and constitute approximately 15% of New Zealand's population. Although my examples are related to Maori children, I believe their experiences are very similar to other ethnically diverse minority groups throughout the world.
Why are learners with special needs from ethnically diverse groups missing out on effective and culturally appropriate services?
In answering the first question I will outline some barriers to providing culturally appropriate, effective special education services that have been identified in a research project I am presently involved in. In 1996 a new national Special Education Policy (SE2000) was introduced in New Zealand. It is an extensive and wide-ranging policy that has been introduced gradually over the last four years. I am a member of research team that has been contracted to evaluate and monitor this new SE2000 policy over a three year period. We have been involved for two years so far. My responsibility in the project is to investigate the adequacy of special educational services offered to Maori learners with special needs. The feedback from over one thousand principals, teachers, teacher aides, special educational professionals and parents has revealed a multitude of barriers to providing culturally appropriate, effective special education services to Maori learners. I cannot possibly discuss all these barriers in a 30 minute presentation but I will outline what has emerged as the 'top ten'.
When principals, teachers and teacher aides were asked what factors limited their ability to provide a culturally appropriate service, the 'top five' barriers mentioned were:
These all present very real challenges to providing adequate and effective services. Parents may not be able to afford hearing aids or glasses, they may be working long hours and not have the time to hear their children's reading at night or attend IEP meetings. In some homes the books and games that reinforce learning are not available and transport to special services such as speech language therapy is beyond the means of some parents. The issue of financial hardship is particularly pertinent to Maori parents as, similar to many ethnically diverse groups in other countries, in New Zealand Maori are socially and economically disadvantaged.
The shortage of teachers and special educational professionals with diverse cultural knowledge and linguistic ability is also applicable in many other countries. In New Zealand this has a major impact on the teaching and special educational services Maori learners and those from other minority cultures receive. After all, how can teachers and special education professionals provide a culturally appropriate programme if they have little, if any knowledge of the culture and language of the children they are working with? At best they provide monocultural services and at worst they do more harm than good.
Barrier number five is definitely not limited to children from ethnically diverse groups in fact I have not come across a country yet where there is enough money to adequately fund special education - the purse is always too small! However this lack of funding has a potentially greater impact on learners from minority cultures. In New Zealand, for instance, Maori children are disproportionately represented in low decile schools (these are schools in poorer areas). These schools often do not have the funds to provide specialized equipment, programmes or resources. However in richer areas the school community often provides the money to enable these services and equipment to be purchased. I was in Vancouver earlier this year and a relative told me of the fundraising auction they conducted at her school the previous week. They raised 100 thousand dollars in one night. As you can guess her school was not in an area where there were large numbers of people from minority ethnic groups!
While principals, teachers and teacher aides listed the previous five factors as the major barriers limiting their school's ability to provide for Maori students with special needs, the analysis of research interview data revealed a second level of limiting factors that were not specifically mentioned.
The top five barriers to emerge from this analysis were:
The following are a few research quotes that illustrate these points. They are taken from the SE2000 Phase Two Research Report (MUCE, 2001, pp148 - 149).
(Barrier 1 & 2)
Maori children have scored with stanines less
than their Pakeha peers in PATs because they come from families with no formal
school education success therefore they're not concerned whether their children
do reading at home or not.
Maori don't want to be consulted. If things go well you never see them, but if things go wrong they're on your door.
Yes, my student is half Maori. He pulls out his Maori half and demands his rights when he wants to.
(Barrier 3)
I want someone to prove to me that by providing
services in an especially culturally sensitive way learning improves at a
better rate!!
Each child has an IEP and so each child's needs are individually met. We feel culture is irrelevant.
Providing programmes for Maori is racist, preferential treatment.
The problems for Maori students who fall by the wayside are no different than those for non-Maori. Sometimes the cause may be a lack of parental support but there are a range of causes. You should treat them all the same.
(Barrier 4)
Providing culturally appropriate services is not an
issue in our school. We only have a small number of Maori students.
(This school had 50 Maori students.)
(Barrier 5)
There is a high use of drugs in Maori families, its
prevalent in Maori families. This affects children's behaviour. It is difficult
to get parents on board because they lack parenting skills. The problems at
school are a result of inadequate parenting and dysfunctional families in the
first five years of life.
I have also talked with many parents and my final quote comes from one of these interviews. It is included to show that parents are well aware of being blamed!
The other thing that cracks me up is that because these kids (ADHD) are playing up it is through bad parenting, blame the parents. He has got a sister and she is bright, I'm not saying he's not but if you did it right for one kid how come you don't do it for the next, sort of thing.
I would like to emphasize that in presenting these ten barriers to providing effective, culturally appropriate special educational services for Maori learners, I have only just scratched the surface! There are many other reasons why children from ethnic minorities are "missing out." For example, other barriers that have been identified in research studies I have been involved in are:
Unfortunately in a 30 minute presentation I do not have time to elaborate on these 15 barriers.
What can be done to improve special educational services for children from ethnic minorities? How can the challenges be o vercome?
Again, because of the time restriction, I have chosen to present just six solutions that are currently being used in New Zealand.
1. Pre-service Teacher Education
Pre-service teacher education should contain compulsory courses on multicultural education in general and on special education in a multicultural context in particular. I do not know the extent to which this is happening in all New Zealand Universities and Colleges of Education but it certainly is at Massey University College of Education where I teach. As those involved in teacher education will know, there is too much content to cover in too little time! Therefore an additional challenge is to ensure that these compulsory courses are not tokenistic but are in depth, useful and relevant.
2. Pre-service Professional Education
Learning to work with Maori children with special needs, their parents and whanau (extended family) is a substantial, compulsory component of Massey's educational psychology training programme and is also included in the national training of Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour.
3. Professional Development
To enable teachers to learn about and implement the new SE2000 policy, the Government has funded professional development programmes available to all schools in New Zealand. Twelve separate professional development contracts were funded from 1998 to 2000 and the latest news is that these contracts are being extended for another 18 months. The contractors are principally Universities, Colleges of Education and the SES (which is New Zealand's largest special education service provider). Each group has packaged their professional development in a slightly different way. Feedback indicates that in some areas this professional development is working well in changing teachers' attitudes and in enskilling them to better cater for Maori learners with special needs. However data from the national evaluation of SE2000 Initiatives indicate some areas of major concern. I believe this is linked to the delivery system that some contractors have adopted. They have prepared a series of special education modules that schools can opt into. One of these modules is "Catering for Maori Children with Special Needs." However, as you might guess from the research quotes I shared with you earlier, many schools are not choosing the Maori module because they do not consider cultural input important. Fortunately, this situation may be avoided in the future as it appears that the Maori component will be made compulsory in the new professional development contracts.
4. Cultural Audit
Another means of improving services for Maori learners with special needs is a Cultural Audit. This is something I have developed as part of my PhD and have been trialing in schools and early childhood centres. Briefly, it involves all staff members using a checklist to examine their performance in respect to Maori learners with special needs. Then on the basis of what is revealed, staff members develop a whole school/centre IEP to improve their individual and collective performance. The Cultural Audit is a tool that addresses both the attitudes and skill levels of all those involved. It embodies the message that everyone is responsible for improving the situation for Maori learners with special needs and it does not allow for the commonly heard excuses of: "We can't do anything about it because
5. Home-school Projects
The previously mentioned SES organisation has a Maori research unit called "Poutama Pounamu". This Unit has been involved in some exciting projects but one in particular demonstrates how parents and school staff can work collaboratively not only for the benefit of children but also to improve their own skills and attitudes towards each other. The project is called "Hei Awhina Matua." It was developed to address behavioural and learning difficulties experienced by Maori primary and intermediate students at home, at school and in the community. Parents, students and teachers were asked to record and prioritize behavioural and learning difficulties and the home and school settings in which they occurred. Meetings were held with all involved to discuss these lists. Concerns, behaviours and alternative ways all groups (ie students, parents and teachers!) could act and react were shared and debated. From this grew the making of a video of problem scenarios and possible solutions. The children themselves were involved in script writing and acting in these videos and the research team developed a written training resource to accompany the video. The whole package is now being used in other schools.
6. Full Service Education Initiatives
A number of schools in New Zealand are involved in full service education. This is an American term that describes the efforts schools are making to overcome the barriers to learning and meet the full needs of their communities. More often than not full service education initiatives include the involvement of social and health workers. A number of Government Ministries fund services that contribute to full service education, for instance in New Zealand the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Policy fund the Social Workers in Schools and Strengthening Families programmes. The Ministry of Health funds some health positions in schools at a regional level and is now moving to set up health clinics in 20 decile one and two schools.
Individual schools develop approaches that meet their particular needs. This may involve using some of the previously mentioned Ministry-funded Initiatives as well as their own school-based provisions. For example, Richmond Road School, a primary school in Napier, employs a home liaison worker for 35 hours a week. Her job ranges from visiting parents if children have been absent for several days to making contact with support agencies and finding food for families that have run short of money.î (MoE, 2000, p.4) This school has a room specially built for parents. It is called the family resource room and is the venue for fortnightly visits from a lawyer, regular Budget Advice services, twice weekly English lessons for parents who have limited English language and courses to help parents read with their children at home. Richmond School also runs an after school homework centre and allows community use of its facilities ìincluding sports grounds and a dedicated community room with mattresses, tables and trestles. (MoE, 2000, p.4)
Another example is a secondary school, Waimea College in Nelson. They have a Guidance and Learning Centre, where staff co-ordinate weekly meetings of all the various community and support organisations in the area to discuss and support students and their families. Students with a variety of special needs are referred to this Centre by parents, teachers or they can self-refer. This co-ordinated service approach overcomes agency overlap. The combined resources of all those involved allow for a wide range of assistance to be provided - from organising eye tests to helping parents with dietary choices.
In conclusion I would like to return to the top ten barriers identified earlier. Although I have not been able to go into great detail in my explanation of the six initiatives just outlined, as the following chart shows, these initiatives all contribute to improving special educational services for Maori learners. Funding issues remain the greatest challenge but, on the whole, real progress is being made.
| Barrier | Pre-service teacher education | Pre-service professional education | Professional development | Cultural Audit | Home-School projects | Full service education initiatives |
| Shortage of teachers & professionals with Maori language & cultural knowledge |  |
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| Low teacher expectations | |
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| Negative and steriotypical attitude | |
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| Not recognising the importance of culture | |
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| Blaming parents for childs special needs | |
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| No provision when numbers are small | |
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| Insufficient funding from Government | |
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| Financial hardship of parents & whanau | |
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| Lack of parental support & involvement | |
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| Low parental expectations | |
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Reference.
Ministry of Education (May 2000) New Zealand Education Gazette, Vol 79, No 9. Wellington: Author.
MUCE Research Team (2001) Phase Two Final Report Commissioned and Funded by the Ministry of Education. Palmerston North: Author
More information on the Cultural Audit Process can be gained from the writer - J.M.Bevan-Brown@massey.ac.nz
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