A study of the experiences and perceptions of parents of Black and Minority Ethnic pupils statemented with autism in relation to the educational support provided for their children and for themselves.

 This  study  investigates  the  experiences  and  perceptions  of  parents  of  Black  and  Minority Ethnic (BME) pupils statemented with autism of the support they receive for their child in education  and  for  themselves.These  perceptions  are  explored  alongside  the views  of stakeholders  in  education  who  work  to  support  these  pupils  and  parents.    The  study expandsupon  the  work  of  Perepa  (2008)  who  investigated  the  cultural  influences  on  the understanding  of  appropriate  social  behaviour  by  BME  parents  of  children  within  the autism  spectrum  in  a  London  borough.  Since  then  there  has  been  minimal  research  on BME  parents’  experiences  of  having  a  child  with  autism  in  education,  so  this  study addresses a gap in research.  A qualitative case study approach was adopted using in-depth interviews  with  participants  from  one  selected  local  authority  in  Wales.    An  interpretivist approach was used to gain an understanding of the researched phenomena within a cultural context.    The  data  was  managed  for  thematic  analysis  using  the  qualitative  analysis software  tool,  NVivo.    The  findings  reveal  that  BME  parents  receive  support  from  the providers  within  education  rather  than  from  their  own  ethnic  communities.    They  show  a preference for mainstream education, although evidence here suggests that there are fewer specialist resources in these schools compared to special schools.  The findings also reveal that  their  culture,  religion,  education  and  socio-economic  backgrounds  influence  BME parents’  ability  to  access  and  utilise  educational  support  services.    They  feel  that  their ethnicity  and  cultural  needs  are  not  always  taken  into  account  inthe‘culturally-blind’ system  which  appears  to  be  implemented  within  education,  and  their  expectation  is  that society should provide them with more support.  It is anticipated that these findings would be taken into account by policy makers and contribute to further research in Wales.