Black SEND Children and Stopping Their Marginalisation
Black SEND Children and Stopping Their Marginalisation - Written by Christopher Manual Chivungo
It goes without saying that The Black Curriculum’s mission revolves around the ideal that all children deserve equal opportunity insofar as it pertains to their education and by extension life in general, because of the profound effects that what you are taught, or additionally, not taught can have on the outcome of children. This is precisely why, in the face of a curriculum and a wider society that marginalises Black British identity and by extension history, our organisation is one that advocates for a change to the status quo that allows black children to grow up with the risk of being disenfranchised and jaded in a country that is as much their home as it is any other child’s home. With that being said, it is not lost on us that even with us having a concerted effort as it pertains to the champion of Black British history for the sake of Black British children and people, there are people who within the already marginalised group of Black British children, are marginalised even further. The group of children at the front of the mind when articulating this point, are black SEND children.
Naturally, one might assume that because our mission is to do primarily with teaching and engaging with Black histories all year round, that the struggles that black SEND children as well as their parents are faced with does not constitute as something we would consider a priority. However, our vision entails ‘empowering all students with a sense of national and cultural identity and belonging.’ Therefore, to that end, we would be remiss if we did not bring to light the numerous issues black SEND children are faced with due to their identity as well as being open to contribute our efforts to making it so that the conditions that disproportionately affect black SEND children no longer exist.
But in order to do that, it must be established what exactly the problems black SEND children face in education. First on said list would be the fact that the behaviours that come hand in hand with having special needs, specifically as it pertains to neurodiversity, are more often than not misinterpreted as behavioural issues by those in positions of authority within the educational system. Too often will you hear a testimonial about a child who has grown up in desperate need of understanding and guidance from the professionals qualified to do such, but often times get met with disproportionately punitive measures in comparison to their white counterparts, often in fact due to subconscious and conscious beliefs rooted in racism that black children are more susceptible to misbehaviour.
This mischaracterisation leads to an undeserved hyper surveillance of the children in question for years on end, which in turn means that the child’s actual needs go without addressing which goes on to have detrimental effects on the outcome of their future. As data collected by Strand & Lindorff (2021) demonstrates, black children are actually overrepresented as far as it comes to SEND, but are less likely to actually receive support for their needs. This, coupled with the unfortunate reality that the likelihood of permanent exclusion from school is higher for children with SEND who do not have the adequate amount of support, illuminates the truth that the stakes are much higher for black SEND children and parents than for those in positions of authority within the education system. Taking the two above statistics further, and linking it to both the fact that at least 60% of young offenders have a need related to speech and language, and the fact that there are a disproportionate amount of black children within the justice system, it is made clear that it is essential for organisations like ourselves to intervene for the sake of the greater good of SEND black children (Bryan et. al, 2015).
On top of the scrutiny of behaviour and unwarranted surveillance that black SEND children find themselves on the receiving end of, there is also the conundrum that parents are faced with when it comes to trying to find the appropriate and satisfactory help that their children need and deserve. As found in research conducted by Wheeler et. al (2024) on the lived experiences of black parents as it pertains to going through the channels and systems in place that exist, the majority of parents, 53% to be exact, reported that they were very dissatisfied with the support they’d received from education, health, social care and other public services. That is to say, whether it was due to professionals not believing parents and therefore not moving cases forward with the urgency required or whether the schools and institutions these children were enrolled in simply did not have the resources needed to provide the proper support necessary to ensure the children had an adequate education, the majority of black SEND parents interviewed felt like they were failed.
In light of all the obstacles facing black SEND children listed above in the path to receiving an equitable education and therefore having a higher likelihood of reaching the best life outcomes, it’s understandable that you may feel as though this is too daunting and entrenched a predicament for us collectively to have an effect on due to its systemic nature. However, The Black Curriculum as an organisation is committed to coalescing with and amplifying the voices of those that have already been campaigning and have lived experiences insofar as going through the educational system themselves as SEND people or the parents themselves of black SEND children.
The first of the ways The Black Curriculum can help change these conditions would be through the education programmes that we offer to schools across the country. As part of our mission to reshape the curriculum to include a holistic telling of British history which includes Black British contributions, as well as making it so that through that we can empower all students with a feeling of belonging, we offer a teacher training programme that aims to educate the educators and school leadership teams on anti-racist practices to redefine learning. As part of that course, we impart guidance on language, terminology and phrasing as well as engaging with frameworks of identity in order to get the educators to reframe their thinking and therefore reshape the interactions they have with the black children they will inevitably encounter. In these two parts of our teaching programme particularly, it is easily possible for The Black Curriculum to include specific provisions for black SEND children, such as signs to recognise in black children that they may have special educational needs, as well as engaging with the biases and beliefs that lead teachers to sanction black SEND children more harshly than others.
On top of our direct intervention in schools, we’d also be committed to general campaigning insofar as using our platform to bring attention to the stories of the parents of black SEND children as well as the dissemination of the relevant statistics, as well as organisations and initiatives who have already been dedicated to the cause of raising awareness of this issue in hopes that the discourse generated will lead to tangible change.
But we understand that we as an organisation cannot speak to the needs of black SEND children and parents better than those in question, and we have no intentions of doing such either. Oftentimes, it’s easy for initiatives and organisations that campaign for a cause to fall into the trap of beginning to speak over those they campaign for, and establishing themselves as an authority on any given issue. However, we at The Black Curriculum understand that the stories and voices of real people affected are as important if not more so than our own, so we would be more than willing to take input from you as far as what exactly you’d need from us as a conduit of information to the general public as we seek to work in collaboration with you and for you, not instead of you. With that being said, we are always open to suggestions, stories, testimonials on feedback because ultimately, your stories are what empower us.
References
Bryan, K., Garvani, G., Gregory, J., & Kilner, K. (2015). Language difficulties and criminal justice: the need for earlier identification. International journal of language & communication disorders, 50(6), 763–775.
Office for National Statistics, 2019/2020.
Strand, S., & Lindorff, A. (2021). Ethnic Disproportionality in the Identification of HighIncidence Special Educational Needs: A National Longitudinal Study Ages 5 to 11. Exceptional Children.
Wheeler, R., Agyepong, A., Benhura, C., Martin, M., & Peter, M. (2024). Accessing special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision for Black and mixed Black heritage children: Lived experiences from parents and professionals living in South London. Global Black Maternal Health.