Home-School Communications: Multicultural Parents of Children with Disabilities

Abstract The primary goal of this study was to examine the role of communication between parents of children with special needs and schools. As the multicultural population in United States’ schools continues to increase, the need to help teachers understand what parents expect in terms of being able to communicate effectively grows in importance. A descriptive research study using a survey as the data collection tool was used to determine perceptions of Arab American parents of children with special needs regarding communications between the home and school. Findings of the study indicated that parents born in the United States had more positive perceptions regarding communications with teachers. These findings may be due to parent’s lack of fluency with English and teachers lack of understanding the Arabic culture. Educators need to make an effort to improve communications as a means to make educational experiences more productive for both teachers and parents.

separation/individuation (Dwairy, Achoui, Abouserie, & Farah, 2006). For example, parents in the United States place emphasis on early individuation and independence from parents (Hofstede, 2001). In contrast, Kagan (1994) argued that Americans tend to view children as dependent and undifferentiated from others. In contrast, many Eastern cultures value close interdependence among family members, although this lack of autonomy should not be interpreted as a deficiency in the child, but as differences in parental attitudes toward the child's independence (Dwairy, 2004a(Dwairy, , 2004bTrinadis, 1990Trinadis, , 1996. They want their children to be somewhat dependent as a means of encouraging mutual bonding as adults. However, many Arabic parents may view the emphasis on early separation and individuation as lack of adequate love and neglect in parental duty and feel their long-term responsibility for child rearing can enable the future success of their children. These differences, however, can be a source of confusion and misunderstanding between Arabic parents and American educators. For example, when teachers and Arabic parents meet for conferences, misunderstandings resulting from cultural differences may ensue. The teacher may describe the child's performance positively, indicating that he/she participates in class discussions, expresses him/herself, and takes an active leadership role in the classrooms. The Arabic parent may not condone this type of behavior as the child has been taught to be respectful and not stand out in class. Arabic families value education, with many immigrants stressing the importance of education as part of their children's social growth and have similar aspirations for their sons and daughters (Abu-Hamour, 2014;Elkholy, 1976;Suleiman, 1996). Parents encourage their children to become educated for education's sake rather than for utilitarian purposes. Children are expected to study and succeed in school. This expectation, however, differs between boys and girls. High achievement is normal for boys, while girls are expected to get only a modest education. Attitudes toward girls' education vary according to the family's educational standards and values. The differential treatment of boys and girls in terms of education often is associated with concerns for girls' modesty and safety.
Many teachers have not had opportunities to interact with Arab Americans and may not understand differences among immigrant and first-generation parents and children. They lack knowledge of how Arab Americans from different Middle Eastern countries vary in their cultural dispositions. Most teachers and educators tend to think of Arab Americans as a homogeneous culture, although each country has at least one unique culture. Many Arab countries have several ethnic groups (e.g., Iraq has Iraqis, Chaldeans, Kurds) and each ethnic group has a separate culture. Language is a defining indicator of a common culture. Teachers may consider all people from Middle Eastern countries as Arabs because Arabic is the official language of 237 million Arabs living in Middle East countries (Bateson, 2003;Harp, 1998, Holes, 2004. Researchers suggested that the Arabic language is the language of the Islamic civilization (Al-Ani, 1995;Holes, 2004;Johnson, 1997). However, Middle Eastern people from Turkey, Iran, and Israel, as well as Kurds from Northern Iraq do not speak Arabic and are not considered Arabs. Teachers need to be aware of these differences instead of grouping all people from Middle Eastern countries as a single cultural group.
Cultural factors may be important determinants of Arab parent involvement in their children's schools (Moosa, Karabenick, & Adams, 2001;Risha, 2013;Zedan, 2012). Many parents become involved in formal and informal school activities by spending time with educators, assisting in classrooms, and becoming active members in Parent and Teacher Associations. However, teachers who are unaware of the cultural values of Arabic parents may have difficulty working with Arabic parents who may appear to be reticent about participating in their children's school. Some factors that may impede effective parent-teacher relations include: poor communications between parents and teachers, teachers' use of jargon in communicating with parents, lack of time to get to know parents in informal, nonstressful, nonbureaucratic meetings, and appropriate roles of teachers and parents in educating children (Joshi, Eberly, & Konzal, 2005). Instead, educators need to extend invitations to Arab American parents to visit their classroom and understand their sense of concern for all of their children, especially those with special needs. Learning about the Arabic culture could help teachers improve relationships and communication with these parents that could result in greater parent involvement in their children's education. For example, Arabic parents expect teachers to be the authority in the classroom and children to be the passive receivers of knowledge. The parents may appear to be uninvolved in their children's school, because their primary involvement with their children is at home.
The lack of accurate, unbiased information about Arabic culture has helped create negative stereotypes (Risha, 2013;Wingfield & Karaman, 2001). Schools in the United States have been ineffective in reducing negative stereotypes (Suleiman, 1996) and students whose cultures are not valued in schools may feel alienated. Furthermore, students feel that whatever the school does not teach is not worth learning. As the Arabic culture typically is "referred to in only negative ways . . . all students are miseducated to the extent that they receive only a partial and biased education" (Nieto, 1996, p. 137).

Parental Communication and School Involvement
A common theme that applies to culturally diverse families and their children with disabilities is the need for communication with their children's teachers. Communication between parents of children with disabilities and educational professionals has been mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and is considered a best practice. IDEA's principle of parental participation gives parents the right to obtain access and to control other's access to their children's school records, participate on special education advisory committees, and exercise all the rights and privileges of IDEA to benefit their children (Kroth & Edge, 1997;Turnbull & Turnbull, 1997). The intent of IDEA was to create an environment of mutual concern through open communication between educators and parents of children with disabilities.

Parents' Role in Special Education
Parents of children with disabilities are expected to be active participants in their children's education by working with school staff to review, revise, and develop their children's individual education plans (IEP). As active participants, parents can provide information regarding their children's abilities, interests, performances, and history. They also are involved in team discussions about their children's needs for special education and related services, as well as supplementary aids and services. According to researchers (Dwairy, 2010;Joshi et al., 2005;Lake & Billingsley, 2000), parents are encouraged to provide input regarding their children's involvement and progress in general curriculum, participation in state and district-wide assessments, and determination of settings where children can participate in programs and services offered by appropriate agencies.
As part of the special education process, parental involvement would help hold schools accountable to ensure that students with special needs receive appropriate public education to meet their needs. The proposed outcome of IDEA 2004 provides greater opportunities for parents to participate in IEP's to determine eligibility and placement decisions about their child. The new law requirements, including: (a) participation in the placement decision, (b) input during the evaluation, (c) consent for the evaluation, (d) participation in the eligibility decision, (e) receipt of progress reports, and (f) participation in meetings, offers increased opportunities for parents to be involved in their children's education. Amendments to the 2004 IDEA address school suspension issues when negative behaviors are a result of the child's disability. Students with disabilities are allowed to remain in their placement while awaiting a disciplinary decision from a hearing officer.
Parenting a child with special needs can be both challenging and rewarding. Parents need support from the school, the extended family, and other professionals, although difficulties with the English language can result in problems associated with maintaining contact with teachers.
Some Arab American parents may be unfamiliar with procedures that are used to discuss schoolrelated issues. Through routine meetings and face-to-face interactions, parents have opportunities to stay informed. Parents who are aware of predictable procedures and routines are more willing to participate in their children's education. This awareness could enhance their participation, while minimizing misunderstandings. Parent's needs and concerns about their children's education must be addressed if educators want to avoid conflicts.
Parents of children with special needs face many of the same problems as teachers, but with greater intensity. Children are in school for a few hours a day in a limited, controlled situation. However, parents are responsible for their children 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no vacations, in all kinds of situations, and with all types of demands. School personnel need to consider family strengths. Involvement of parents and families through family-school collaboration is encouraged through informal communication, for example, written notes between school and home, parent involvement in the classroom and in extracurricular activities, conferences, telephone contact, and technology options, such as email and the Internet (Turnbull & Turnbull, 1996;Turnbull, Turnbull, Wehmeyer, & Shogren, 2012; U.S. Department of Education, 1997).
Parents' cultural diversity can create a complex environment for educators who experience difficulty when attempting to communicate with parents. Effective two-way communication between parents and teachers requires collaborative relationships that can assist children to function successfully in school. According to Epstein (2001) and Turnbull et al. (2012), parents' self-images improve when a collaborative relationship is developed between school and home. School professionals who continue to attempt to contact parents to develop positive communication are usually successful in obtaining resources needed to optimize their student's learning environment.
According to Columna, Senne, and Lytle (2009), the type of communication is important in maintaining effective home-school communications. Most immigrant parents prefer face-toface conversation than either email or written notification. The use of email to communicate with parents may not be useful if parents do not have technology or lack the ability to use computers.
Written notification may be difficult if parents are unable to read or write English.
According to Joshi et al. (2005), topics that parents want to discuss with teachers are also important to teachers. Teachers often communicate to parents in an authoritarian manner, with parents often not reacting because they are made to feel that they lack the knowledge to respond appropriately. One-way communication used by teachers can cause parents to become passive listeners. Some Arab American parents, who have been in the United States longer than recent immigrants, have become acculturated into the mainstream population and have become active participants when communicating with teachers instead of being passive listeners. When parents fail to respond effectively with teachers, effective two-way communications can become difficult. Joshi et al. (2005) discussed issues, such as school policies and discipline, that often require parent-teacher interactions that involve the development of good relations and open communication. Their study was focused on improving teachers' understandings of family values, beliefs, and practices to develop a school environment that recognizes and celebrates cultural diversity. Based on their findings, they concluded that parents from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds were interested in communicating with educators during parent-teacher conferences or open house activities. However, Joshi et al. (2005) suggested that instead of developing two-way communications during these activities, teachers often use parent-teacher conferences as a form of one-way communication, providing information to the parents. These two formal school events often provided the only parent-teacher interactions during the school year. Although some parents indicated they were interested in assisting during school activities, they may have been unable to participate because of time constraints. According to the researchers, many parents indicated that they would have liked to be more involved. As parents share their expertise with the school, receive support and encouragement from teachers and administrators, their children can complete their education and become intellectually, emotionally, and socially prepared for adulthood.
The primary goal of the present study was to examine perceptions of Arab American parents of children with special needs regarding communication with their children's schools and the professionals who work with their children. As the population of Arab Americans in schools continues to increase, the need to help teachers understand what these parents expect in terms of being able to communicate effectively grows in importance. Children can benefit when their teachers and parents work together collaboratively to support and appreciate each other's efforts in the classroom and at home (Joshi et al., 2005). For example, parents who attend conferences for their children can learn strategies to help them succeed in completing homework and behaving appropriately. Teachers also can learn to be more sensitive to cultural differences that students bring to the classroom. Educators need to understand parent's perceptions regarding the nature, causation, and treatment of their children's disabilities. Parent's perception often affect their behaviors such as seeking help, setting goals, and cooperating with the professionals regarding programs affecting their children (Diken, 2006).

Site
The school district in which this study was conducted had an enrollment of 17,470 students, ranging from preschool to 12 th grade. The school district provided a list of all Arab American students who were receiving special education services in the 19 elementary schools.
The criteria for inclusion in the sample was that at least one parent in the family had to be Arab American, one or more of their children had to be receiving special education services, and the responding parent had to be able to read and write either English or Arabic.
The participants in the study were Arab American, generally between 25 and 45 years of age (n = 64, 83.1%), and female. Most of the participating parents had either less than high school (n = 28, 36.4%) or a high school diploma (n = 26, 33.7%). The majority of the parents were born outside of the United States (n = 68, 88.3%), with most indicating that Lebanon was the country of their birth (n = 33, 42.8%). The parents had lived in the United States for a mean of 15.20 (sd = 7.25) years, with a range from 3 to 33 years. Most of the parents had attended school outside of the United States (n = 61, 79.2%). Five (6.5%) parents reported that their child with disabilities had been born outside of the United States. When asked about the parents' fluency with the English language, 31 (40.3%) indicated they were fluent, while 11 (14.3%) reported they did not speak English. (See Table 1

Procedures
The researcher contacted the school to obtain a list of parents who met the criteria for inclusion in the study. The first parent who was included in the sample was selected using a random number generator. Every tenth parent was then selected until a sample of 100 parents was obtained from the list. Care was taken to go through the list twice to assure that all parents had an equal chance of being selected. Survey packets, including an informed consent form, copy of the survey, and a preaddressed, postage paid envelope for confidential return of the surveys, was sent to the 100 parents. Seventy-seven parents completed and returned their surveys for a response rate of 77%.

Data Analysis
The data collected from the survey were analyzed using IBM-SPSS. A principal components factor analysis was used to test the survey for construct validity. Cronbach alpha coefficients were used to determine the internal consistency of the four subscales that emerged from the factor analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to provide a profile of the sample. The research hypothesis was tested using t-tests for independent samples. All decisions on the statistical significance of the inferential statistics were made using a criterion alpha level of .05. The teacher contacts me when my child is absent I can call the teacher at home I can use e-mail to contact the teacher The teacher is willing to discuss strategies to improve social behavior in both general and special education classes My rights as a parent of a child with special needs has been explained I meet the teacher at parent-teacher conferences

Instrumentation
The survey that was used in this study was adapted from a dissertation by Windsor (1999). The survey was divided into five sections: (a) information and issues communicated between school and home, (b) parents ways of communication with their child's teacher, (c) communications specific for parents of children receiving special education services, (d) teacher communications, and (e) demographic survey. As many of the parents had difficulty in reading and understanding English, the survey was translated into Arabic. The researcher completed the translation and then had it verified by an independent source who was fluent both in English and formal Arabic.
The original instrument was tested for face validity by having three teachers and six parents review the instrument for readability (Windsor, 1999). Windsor also asked the teachers and parents to identify any ambiguous questions that could result in erroneous responses. The participants provided feedback and the instrument was changed to reflect their suggestions.
A factor analysis was used to confirm the subscales defined by Windsor (1999) and determine its usability with an Arabic sample. Four factors emerged from the factor analysis that were similar to those defined by Windsor. The four factors explained 51.5% of the variance in home-school communications. The associated eigenvalues were greater than 1.00, indicating that the amount of variance explained by each of the subscales was statistically significant. Table 2 presents results of this factor analysis.
Cronbach alpha coefficients were obtained for each of the four scales. The results indicated good internal consistency with alpha coefficients ranging from ..78 for teacher communication to .93 for information and issues communicated between home and school. The obtained alpha coefficient for the total scale was .84, indicating good internal consistency as a measure of reliability.

Findings
The mean scores for the four scales measuring Arab American parents of children receiving special education services were compared by the place of the mother's birth. Most of the parents (n = 41, 60.3%) were born in the United States, with 27 (39.3%) reporting a country outside of the United States as their place of birth. The comparisons of the four subscales by place of birth (in or outside of the United States) were made using t-tests for two independent samples (See Table 3). The results of these analyses indicated that two of the subscales, communication specific According to Diken (2006), effective interactions between professionals and parents require knowledge of, and respect for families' cultural beliefs to find common ground to help the child with special needs. Professional interactions between teachers and families from diverse cultural groups require educators to be responsive to individual cultural perceptions, expectations, and practices (Diken, 2006). However, the educational system in the United States differs substantially from that in other countries. For example, in United States schools, parents are welcome in the schools, children with disabilities are included in the schools to the greatest extent possible, and diversity within the student body is celebrated. Schools in Arab countries are not as welcoming to parents and typically do not provide special education services to all children (Schaedel, Hertz-Lararowitz, & Azaiza, 2007). Parents who are immigrants or first-generation may find it difficult to understand the openness of the educational system. When making educational decisions and plans for their children with special needs, teachers and educators, communication between the home and the school becomes even more important. Parents need to feel they are welcome and are part of the decision making team when planning for their children's education.
Educators' success in communicating with parents depends on establishing mutual understanding, respect, and sensitivity to the cultural context of children with disabilities. If parents view the social and cognitive development of their children differently from the schools, misunderstandings and negative perceptions of services being provided to their children can arise. Educators must respect Arab American parents' perceptions regarding the nature, causation, and treatment of their children's disabilities, as these perceptions shape parent's attitudes toward learning to bridge the gap and build positive interactions.
In an attempt to reduce expenses by minimizing the use of paper, schools are using technology to communicate with parents. Information about homework, progress reports, and school calendars is being provided over the Internet. One problem associated the use of this technology is the inability of Arabic parents, especially those who are immigrants, to have access to or be able to use computers to retrieve this information. Given problems with understanding the language and difficulty in accessing information on the Internet, much of the school communication may go unread and unanswered. Teachers may interpret this lack of communication as parents choosing to be uninvolved with their children's education.
This study was conducted in a single school district with parents of elementary children with special needs who were primarily Lebanese. Further study is needed to determine how a broad cross-section of Arab American parents whose children have special needs perceive homeschool communication. As the Arab American community continues to grow in the United States, their children are expected to become a greater presence in the schools. Educators need to make an effort to improve communications as a means to make their educational experiences more productive.