Themes and Recommendations From One CLD Group: MENASWA Families of Children With Disabilities

Introduction

Based on extensive research we have conducted to learn about experiences of families of students with disabilities from a large Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) group; Middle Eastern/North African/Southwest Asian (MENASWA), more than 50 themes were found based on the data and it was determined that these were too extensive for this text. Five major emergent themes were chosen to be discussed in this book that might lead to the crafting of a training program designed to educate teachers and administrators on how they can better support MENASWA families and serve their students with special needs. These themes presented themselves in the research discussed in Chapters 6-9. In order to support the following discussion, Table 8-A in the appendix is provided. Table 8.1 shares the five primary themes that emerged from the research on MENASWA families who had children with disabilities in the United States special education system, as well as the specific issues they experienced, the theoretical frameworks (provided in Chapter 3), and the constructs related from Chapter 2. For ease of access, the appendix of this chapter provides the table for the above mentioned.