Access to inclusion and community through culture: Parents’ use of capital to improve the inclusion of their children with disabilities at a minority language school Carla DiGiorgio, PhD Faculty of Education, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada

Introduction Canada and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Cannot discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, disability. Access of minority French speakers to education for children in their mother tongue

Bourdieu Capital “hinges on the existence of a game, of a field…allows its possessors to wield a power, an influence, and thus to exist…instead of being considered a negligible quantity” (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992, p. 98).

One expects: Discrimination due to disability and minority language Hierarchy with English and physical, academic ableness at the top

Methodology Ethnographic case study Setting and participants Data collection Data analysis

Findings Policies at play: Inclusion: students in regular class in their neighbourhood school no matter what physical/academic challenge they may have. Language: separate school board for French first language. School and leader autonomy.

The capital of special needs Individual attention to parents: “the very positive thing I found with the principal is that when he came in he really took charge of the educational life of each of the kids…and he made sure he called me up early on and we had some good discussions and everything, and tried to say well what do you think about this, what do you think about that?...”

Special needs capital cont’d Services for children Transportation, numbers, care= safety Community inclusion Services for parents Results in word-of-mouth reputation and growth of community

The capital of minority language French parents are in-the-know: “Everybody knows everybody in that school. Kids and me being in the Home and School? All those kids know me. So it’s not like another parent who never got involved in the school. They don’t know them. But I’ve done a lot…Well, just people approached me and asked me if I would like to participate and I said, ya, I went and uh. I wanted to do it not only for myself but because of her (child). Uh to try to bring out some stuff.

Conclusions: Unexpected: the advantage that parents of children with disabilities had in being welcomed and the advantage they gave back to the school Unexpected: the advantage that parents with minority language and children with disabilities had in accessing the school and the social benefits it offered children and their families

Conclusions Overlap between culture and inclusion, school and community, language and communication Parents’ access can lead to greater involvement; positive effects for children

Recommendation Continue to explore the relationship between language, culture, and place in community of parents The role that parents can take, improving education for children and improving the inclusion of parents in community