Promoting Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Students with Significant Disabilities

Abstract

Providing comprehensive services to students with significant support needs is a complex and challenging endeavor because of the uniqueness of a wide range of conditions and variables that impact one or more of the functioning capacities of these students. Along with this complexity, it is necessary to fully integrate culturally responsive ideology and pedagogy within the framework of determined effective strategies and supports. This article provides a context for the application of the essential elements of cultural responsiveness and the critical skills for teachers to use in teaching diverse populations of students with significant support needs. Recommendations are made for the inclusion of these elements in teaching practices in terms of the development of a more foundational knowledge base and the implementation of culturally responsive practices within the field of special education. Implications for further research are identified to support the implementation of quality services for students with significant support needs through culturally responsive practices.

Evidence-Based Practice in Special Education and Cultural Adaptations

“…Despite the seemingly scarce literature on cultural adaptations of EBPs in special education, numerous studies have looked into issues regarding culturally responsive practices in special education, especially for students with severe disabilities. Examples include discussing issues of helping teachers understand various cultural interpretations of severe disability from families with CLD backgrounds, and the role of enculturation on family expectations and participation in special education programs (Rogers-Adkinson, Ochoa, & Delgado, 2003); applying the essential elements of cultural responsiveness and the critical skills for teachers to use in teaching diverse populations of students with severe disabilities (Harmon, Kasa-Hendrickson, & Neal, 2009); and establishing culturally responsive instruction which emphasizes teachers' cultural selfawareness, uses diversity as a foundation for the curriculum, and recognizes the effect of language diversity on the educational needs of students with severe disabilities (Glimps & Ford, 2006).…”

“…Despite the increasing uptake of culturally responsive practices in special education and acknowledgment of its importance, issues of cultural adaptations of EBPs do not seem to have drawn much attention from special education researchers. The need to provide cultural adaptations for students with severe disabilities becomes particularly challenging, given that providing comprehensive services to students with severe disabilities is a complex and challenging endeavor, due to a wide array of conditions and variables that are related to students' unique and compelling social, communication, and instructional needs (Harmon et al, 2009). Not every student with a severe disability will benefit from a cultural liaison, for example, but it would be helpful for the field of special education as a whole to borrow or to develop cultural adaptation frameworks, and to recognize the availability of cultural attunement strategies, as well as to understand when and how to apply these tools effectively.…”

Quality in professional encounters with students who have intellectual disabilities – experiences from special needs upper secondary schools in Sweden

“…Education is also considered to be important for an individual's social role and social status (Gordon and Burton 2006;Östlund and Johansson 2018). In addition, education and the ability to attend school have a socio-cultural value as they provide the prerequisites for social inclusion (Harmon, Kasa-Hendrickson, and Neal 2009). At the same time, neoliberal principles have resulted in an increased emphasis on the external aspects of professionalism, such as prescriptive frameworks, formal skills and transparency (Fisher and Byrne 2012).…”

The Voices of Special Educators: How Do Special Educators Teach English Language Learners Who are Receiving Special Education Services?

“…Culturally responsive practices also include displaying student work on posters representing diverse groups throughout the classroom, using small cooperative learning groups and peer tutoring within the classroom (Harmon et al, 2010). When implementing culturally responsive practices for CLD students with disabilities, Utley, Obiakor, and Bakken (2011) stressed the need for special educators to incorporate the students' cultural beliefs and prior learning.…”

“…Disability is perceived differently across various cultures and educators' practice can be enhanced by having knowledge about the expectations, learning styles and beliefs about disability from the perspective of their students' culture (Harmon et al, 2010).…”