”And I will tell you this”

Single, Black Mothers

using Cultural Capital in
Schools.
Elizabeth H. Morgan
University of California Davis
Positionality Statement:

• UCEDD Project Coordinator

• Researcher
• Mother of autistic child
Definition and Concepts
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
(ASD): is a developmental
disorder that affects
communication and behavior.
Although autism can be
diagnosed at any age, it is said
to be a “developmental
disorder” because symptoms
generally appear in the first two
years of life. (National Institute
of Mental Health)
Definitions and Concepts
• Cultural Capital: Sociologists have defined
the social assets that a person holds such
as their education, style of speech, intellect
and pedigree as that person’s cultural
capital (Bourdieu, 1973; 1996).

• Community Cultural Wealth: also known as

non-dominant cultural capital describes the
capital that communities of color possess
that are translatable into cultural capital
(Yosso, 2005).
 • 1:59 are diagnosed with
ASD (CDC, 2018)

• Early Intervention is Key

(Rogers & Vismara, 2008)

• Black children with ASD

are diagnosed 1.6-5
years later (Mandell et al., 2002;
Mandell et al., 2009)

• Black children are 3x

more likely to be
misdiagnosed (Mandell et al.,
2007)

Autism Spectrum Disorder • Black families have

limited accesses to
(ASD) in the Black Community services after diagnosis.
(Longtin & Principe, 2011; Gourdine
& Algood, 2014)
• Specific Aim 1:To gather input from
single Black mothers of children with
ASD about tools and assets they
possess that might translate into
tools for developing strong advocacy
skills in service delivery agencies (i.e.
Local Education Agencies and
Regional Centers).

• Specific Aim 2: To pilot a Parental

Community Capital Measure created
for future studies and to conduct
content validation of measure items.
 • Semi-Structured In-Depth
Qualitative Interviews

• Modified Grounded
Theory (Strauss,1984; Burton &
Hardaway, 2012)

• Multiple Coders using

descriptive and axial
coding techniques (Huberman &
Miles, 1994)

• In Vivo coding strategies

used to formulate
Methods formulate thematic codes
across data (Saldaña, 2013 )
Cultural Capital

Dr. Tara Yosso

 Non-Dominant Forms of Cultural Capital
Aspirational
Capital

Motherhood Capital Familial Capital

(Lo, 2016)

Black Cultural Capital Linguistic Capital

(Carter, 2003)

Navigational
Social Capital
Capital

Resistant Capital
Dr. Ming-Chang Lo Dr. Prudence Carter
Participant Demographics
Findings
Resistance Capital
“And I will tell you this. That's what
came through the years, standing up
to people in a room that don't look like
you. It requires you to use the
knowledge you have. It requires you to
use the understanding you have. It
requires you to realize that you got
this. You know what's best for your
child.”
-Evelyn
Resistant Capital
“But instead of me buying into
what you saying to me, and letting
you talk down to me, even though I
realize that what you are doing. I'm
going to go a different route and
stuff to get to you and let you know
you don't have a fool sitting here.
I'm not your fool. I'm not your
uneducated dummy.“
-Mae
Navigational Capital

“I had to dig into my research

because I studied to become
a teacher, and so it was like,
"I kind of already know about
these things." I wrote that
letter, and then they had no
choice but to start moving
forward with that because I
had written the letter.”
-Wilma
Navigational Capital
“I think it was harder because I
haven’t seen a lot of single
Black women out there...It
required me to remove myself
out of that grief state and
realize I have to find out, I have
to figure out what it is
that's gonna benefit my son.”
-Josephine
Emerging Theme:
Generational Resistance
Capital
“And my mother was raised in
that time where you had the
different ‘white water’ and the
‘colored water’. She was raised
in that era. It was not
something that was tolerated
for her.”
-Henrietta
 Generational Resistance
Capital

“I was blessed to be raised by a

strong, black single woman. And
she made sure no matter what,
when she walked in the room, you
knew. You know who she was and
you're going to treat her as such.”
-Evelyn
Implications
• Amelioration of
special education
family engagement
practice
• Development of
intervention models
to engage families of
color
• Public and
Educational Policy
• Future Research
Questions
Acknowledgements
• Research Assistants:
• Aziza Littlejohn
• Susanna Ashmarova
• Research Advisors:
• Dr. Aubyn Stahmer
• Dr. Lauren Lindstrom
• Dr. Adriene Nishina
• Dr. Sally Rogers
• Dr. Maisha Winn
• Collaborative Start Lab at the UC Davis
MIND Institute Funders:
• UC Davis Center for Excellence In • Human Development Graduate Group
Developmental Disabilities Merit Scholarship Award Program
• Human Development Graduate Group • The Women’s Resources and Research
Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Students Center
Thank you for your attention.