Researcher Imani Evans shares how collaboration and sociocultural identity are foundational to the work that speech-language pathologists do in schools everywhere.
About 1 in 12 children in the U.S. has a disorder related to voice, speech, language or swallowing. Early intervention is essential to help these children succeed, and speech-language pathologists are the professionals who help with these interventions. Speech-language pathologists work with children who struggle to pronounce certain sounds, have trouble using language to understand or express themselves in the classroom, or have learning, intellectual or developmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder. The majority of speech-language pathologists work in schools, and their roles often go unrecognized.
Imani Evans, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Speech-Language Pathology, is working to understand how speech-language pathologists collaborate effectively across disciplines to best serve the students they work with. Her research sheds light on the unique challenges speech-language pathologists face when working in educational settings, where their roles are often misunderstood or overlooked. In this conversation, she discusses how sociocultural identity influences collaboration and explains why recognizing these dimensions is essential.
How would you describe your research to the person riding the elevator with you?
My research explores how individuals of different disciplines work together on teams. I am particularly interested in how interdisciplinary teams collaborate in school settings, where educational professionals are often unfamiliar with the role of specialized service providers, such as speech-language pathologists, and service providers who are trained in more medical-focused programs are often less knowledgeable about school-based practices. When breakdowns in collaborative exchanges occur, it impacts everyone involved, but particularly those we serve.
How can breakdowns in collaboration lead to problems in your field?
On one end, the difference in training and knowledge can lead to educators not reaching out to a specialized service provider when necessary or requesting tasks that are outside of their scope of practice, such as providing tutoring or academic instruction for students with disabilities. On the other end, specialized service providers who are trained in more medical-focused programs may have a limited understanding of laws and procedures in schools.
How did your clinical experience as a speech-language pathologist inspire your research?
As a clinician, I’ve worked in early intervention, pediatric outpatient and school settings. While I’ve had very different experiences with collaboration across the various settings, each highlighted the importance of working together with others to do my best work. My collaborative experiences were undoubtedly impacted by systemic and organizational factors, such as scheduling, time and shared space. I always found it much easier to collaborate when I shared an office with another professional or we shared the same lunch break each day and could chat. However, I felt that any collaborative exchange was also often rooted in interpersonal connection, such as understanding how a family views their child’s disability and why; taking on the perspective of an educator managing 30 kindergarteners; or seeing an adolescent’s priorities and goals for therapy through their eyes. Reflection on my own experiences led to my investigation into the many factors that can influence collaboration. I found that the systemic and organizational constraints on collaboration are more readily researched, while less is available on how personal and interpersonal dynamics affect teams.
Your work also focuses on the role that sociocultural identity plays in speech-language pathology. Can you talk about why this is important?
In addition to understanding how collaboration is impacted by professional identity, I am currently investigating how an individual’s sociocultural identities, such as life experiences, cultural background, age or disability, can also influence the lens they bring to teams.
Speech-language pathologists are responsible for serving an increasingly diverse population of individuals within our society, particularly students in schools. However, many teams feel challenged to address considerations related to sociocultural identity. Speech-language pathologists can play a critical role in this, as language and communication are directly linked to culture. Teams must understand a student’s home language or culture in order to determine whether that student presents with a disorder vs. a cultural difference.
For example, I once worked with a student who never initiated communication with his teacher. He only spoke when directly spoken to. He was referred to our team because his teacher was concerned that he did not have adequate communication skills to navigate the classroom environment successfully. However, our team was lucky to have a member who shared the student’s cultural background, and after confirming with the family we learned that it was often viewed as disrespectful and inappropriate for children to initiate interactions with those who were viewed as “authority” figures. Given this insight, the team was able to collaborate more effectively to make an appropriate decision regarding this student and figure out how to best support him in the classroom. My research aims to allow speech-language pathologists to reflect on how their professional and sociocultural identities influence their perspective, and how their unique identities can be leveraged on teams to better serve all individuals.
What has your research uncovered about the role of sociocultural identity in speech-language pathology?
Speech-language pathologists take on unique roles on teams given the influence of their sociocultural identities, particularly when they possess sociocultural identities that are traditionally underserved or underrepresented. Participants described sharing their identities to build strong relationships with colleagues, students and families. For example, some reported serving as cultural brokers, or an individual who acts as a bridge between different cultures to facilitate greater trust, communication and understanding. Ultimately, this increases everyone’s involvement and engagement in collaboration. When collaboration becomes more effective, we are able to better serve our students, clients, patients and families.
Tying back into the earlier example, our team was able to establish a more trusting and collaborative relationship with the student’s family because we showed we were curious about and would be responsive to the family’s culture. We were all able to collaborate more effectively when deciding whether or not this student truly required services because we had a team member who was willing to lend her unique lens so that we could engage in a discussion around culture and identity. Had we not engaged in this discussion, we may have mistakenly assumed that this student did not have the skills to initiate communication. Instead, we were able to find ways to affirm his home culture in the classroom so that he felt more included.
What is your best memory from conducting your research?
My best memories are the moments when study participants share how much the opportunity to share their experiences means to them. Many of the participants express the rarity of having a space to engage in conversations with other speech-language pathologists. Sometimes they ask to exchange contact information or stay connected with each other after the research study ends. Most school speech-language pathologists are often the only person of their discipline at their school site, and see research as a way to build community with other school speech-language pathologists. It makes me feel as though my work serves a purpose beyond collecting and analyzing data for dissemination.
What’s something you’re passionate about outside of your research?
I’m passionate about wellness and self-care. Long-distance running is one of the ways I take care of myself outside of work. I’ve run three marathons and am contemplating training for an ultramarathon.
Who’s a role model or someone who shaped your journey? Is there a piece of advice that stuck with you or that you try to pass on to young researchers?
It’s hard to pinpoint one person that’s shaped my journey. I’m thankful for all of the amazing children, families, educators and service providers I’ve had the opportunity to know and work with. If I had one piece of advice for young researchers, it would be to keep what you love and what drew you to the profession at the heart of what you research.
