Social inequality within the IEP meeting: Three factors that disempower students

Abstract

How do stakeholder power dynamics promote social inequalities and impede empowerment of students with disabilities in the individualized education program (IEP) process? This conceptual case study explores the role of critical discourse in reducing social inequality in the IEP process for students with disabilities in two special education day schools within a metropolitan school district. The lead author’s observations and field notes describe three influential stakeholder tensions over an 11-month period in two schools for children with disabilities. Sociopolitical history, or the historical context of the public school system within the metropolitan district, provides the overarching temporal ecology for all examples of stakeholder tensions. Individual stakeholder perceptions of private vs. public schools and the role of separate schools are the second and third tensions that influence student participation in the setting. Implications for increasing critical discourse in order to adequately empower students with disabilities in the IEP process are considered.