Secondary Students Receiving Special Education and English Learner Services: Identity Informed Transitions
Secondary students’ identity development is multidimensional, informed by distinct sociohistorical, cultural, structural, and individual forces and factors. For students who receive both special education and English learner services, identity development may also be connected to being categorized as needing both types of support services. Understanding how students receiving both services perceive themselves, and how they leverage identity while planning their futures could inform the field of transition, yet this is an infrequent subject of inquiry in special education transition research. We interviewed 26 students, all of whom received both services in a high school in a large school district in the northeastern United States. The development of language and learner dimensions of identity emerged from the data as a key factor informing participants’ perceptions and experiences as they prepared for the transition into adulthood. Implications and recommendations for researchers and practitioners supporting students’ language and learner dimensions of identity during postschool transition are shared.ABSTRACT
Contributor Notes
Author Bio
Audrey A. Trainor, PhD, professor of special education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at New York University, addresses questions about equitable educational opportunities and postschool outcomes for individuals identified with disabilities. Her recent projects (2017–2021) include an IES-funded study on the transition-related strengths and needs of multilingual high school students (i.e., English learners) who are also identified with disabilities. Her collaborative projects include mixed-methods research to which she brings qualitative methodological expertise. She often uses critical theories as a framework, examining problems of inequity during special education transition processes. Prior to her university career, she was a special education high school teacher for nearly a decade.
Lynn Newman, Ed.D., is a principal education researcher in SRI International’s Center for Learning and Development in Menlo Park, CA. Her work focuses on the secondary school, transition, and postsecondary school experiences of youth with disabilities. She currently is the principal investigator of the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 (NLTS 2012), a large-scale study of the secondary school experiences and postschool outcomes of a national sample of students with disabilities. She is particularly interested in identifying malleable factors associated with positive postsecondary education outcomes, including postsecondary enrollment and completion, which was the primary aim of her recent work on an IES-funded study on the transition experiences of multilingual (English learner) high school students who also were identified as having a disability.
Lindsay Romano, MS, is a special education doctoral candidate in the Department of Teaching and Learning at New York University. Lindsay studies questions related to educational equity at the intersection of dis/ability and race. Her work examines school discipline disparities at the secondary level and the role of educators and educator biases in discipline decisions. She is interested specifically in how exclusionary discipline influences postsecondary transition outcomes and how educators can be better equipped to support students with disabilities through cultivating more culturally sustaining discipline practices. Prior to graduate school, Lindsay worked as a special education high school teacher and teacher educator and coach.
Yu-Lun Chen, PhD, OTR/L, is Postdoctoral Fellow at Kessler Foundation and Research Assistant Professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Yu-Lun’s research centers on children and youth with dis/ability and their participation in daily living and communities. She is particularly interested in the unique experiences and perspectives of individuals and families with multicultural backgrounds. She is also an occupational therapist specializing in developmental dis/abilities.
Santa Ozuna Presinal, MA, is a New York State Certified Early Childhood and Special Education teacher (Birth to 2). Ms. Ozuna Presinal received a dual Master’s degree in Early Childhood and Special Education from New York University. She received an Academic Excellence award based on her work, which explores the ways intersectionality may increase the disparity of services students receive. She is especially interested in how educators can be better equipped to provide students on the spectrum with social–emotional support and counseling services. She is currently a Special Educator at the private school Academy for Young Minds, which utilizes Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) strategies to meet the academic goals of students with ASD and other intellectual disabilities. Currently, she is enrolled in the ABA program at CUNY Hunter College to obtain a Master’s degree in ABA to become a Board-Certified Behavioral Analyst® (BCBA®)/Licensed Behavioral Analyst (LBA).
