An Exploration of Consultation with Minority Ethnic Parents in Educational Psychology Practice

The focus of the thesis is the support for parents who are from a minority ethnic background and who have children who have Special Educational Needs or Disabilities.

Two different ways in which parents may experience support, parenting programmes and consultation with an Educational Psychologist (EP), are examined.

In both these areas, research into effective collaboration with minority ethnic parents is needed (Barlow, Shaw &Stewart-Brown, 2003; Nahari, Martines & Marquez, 2007).

As the new Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (DfE, 2014) highlights the importance of the voice of parents and as EPs in the UK work with an increasingly culturally diverse range of families, these are important considerations for current Educational Psychology practice.

A systematic review of literature is presented which examines the effects of parenting programmes on child behaviour outcomes for minority ethnic families with children up the age of thirteen.

The ways in which some of the parenting programmes had been culturally adapted are also discussed.

The review concludes that there is growing evidence of the effectiveness of careful cultural adaptations to evidence-based parenting programmes.

All programmes emphasize the importance of seeking to understand the values and goals in parenting held by course participants.

Empirical research is reported which focused on EP consultation with minority ethnic parents and the experience of those involved in this process.

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six parents and seven EPs in one Local Authority. Interview data was analysed using Thematic Analysis.

Parents described feeling included in consultation and better able to support their child. EPs described cultural competence in practice as listening to the perspectives of parents which they felt was applicable to consultation with all families.

The themes brought out by parents and EPs and implications for practice are discussed.