Within the context of widely documented racially disproportionate discipline outcomes, we describe schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS) as one approach that might provide a useful framework for culturally responsive behavior support delivery. We conceptualize cultural and linguistic diversity as the result of a divergence between individual students’ and entire schools’ cultural identities and identify culturally responsive educational practices that might facilitate greater continuity between students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and school environments. Based on practical recommendations derived from the literature, we propose an expansion of the key features of SWPBS implementation (practices, data, systems, and outcomes) to facilitate culturally responsive behavior support delivery. We propose (a) systemically promoting staff members’ cultural knowledge and self-awareness, (b) commitment to culturally relevant and validating student support practices, and (c) culturally valid decision making to enhance culturally equitable student outcomes. We provide recommendations for future research and present the efforts of one school district to blend SWPBS implementation with training in cultural responsiveness.
Research and education on lesbian health has increased substantially in quantity and quality in the past 40 years, but little of this work has been produced by nursing scholars. We began our academic nursing careers as out lesbian faculty at the same college of nursing in the late 1980s, where we collaborated on the earliest studies of attitudes about lesbians in the nursing profession. Our paths diverged in the early 1990s, but we shared similar experiences in nursing education that highlight the structural and attitudinal barriers within nursing that have inhibited lesbian health studies. The deeply imbedded lesbian phobia within nursing has historic roots that plague contemporary research, education, and practice. In this article, we discuss the inclusion of lesbian health in nursing, share some of our personal stories about the obstacles we encountered, and end with suggestions for changing this stifling climate for future generations of lesbian health scholars.
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