Engaging Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families of Children with Disabilities

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-126
Author(s):  
Lydia Gerzel-Short ◽  
Elisheba W. Kiru ◽  
Yun-Ju Hsiao ◽  
Katrina A. Hovey ◽  
Yan Wei ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parent Involvement ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Family Engagement ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Culturally And Linguistically Diverse ◽  
School Partnerships ◽  
Social Success ◽  
Engagement Strategies ◽  
Shared Agency

Classrooms are increasingly more diverse, and student success can be enhanced through family engagement, especially for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with disabilities. Too often teachers are stymied by how to engage CLD families of children with disabilities. Common practices of parent involvement are ineffective and fail to appreciate families as members of the educational team. Family engagement seeks to establish and maintain authentic family-school partnerships based on mutual respect and shared agency for student academic and social success. This column provides specific family engagement strategies that teachers and schools can implement in an effort to provide reciprocal collaboration.

scholarly journals Social-Skill Interventions for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students with Disabilities: A Comprehensive Review

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunyoung Kim ◽  
Min-Chi Yan ◽  
Saili S Kulkarni
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Developmental Delay ◽  
Social Skill ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Culturally And Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Social Interventions ◽  
Single Subject Research ◽  
Manual Search

Teachers and researchers have considered social-skill interventions to be an essential component in the development and progress of students with disabilities. However, there is still relatively limited research on these interventions for individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds. This literature review was conducted to examine the effectiveness of social-skill interventions for CLD students with disabilities in school settings. Electronic database searches and a manual search were completed to identify studies published between 2000 and 2017 (February). Seven studies (n = 18 participants) were identified for inclusion in this review, and five types of social interventions were identified. Most participants were male, aged between 8 and 13 years old, were considered at risk for having developmental delay or had developmental delay, and were identified as African Americans. The majority of studies we reviewed utilized single-subject research designs and focused on social interactions as the goal for their individual interventions. Peer-mediated interventions and social story intervention were the most frequently used interventions. Findings suggest that, when exposed to the social-skill interventions, CLD children with disabilities improved their social behaviours and skills. Some children with disabilities maintained and generalized these behaviours across settings or playmates.

Learning to Attend to Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners through Teacher Inquiry in Teacher Education

2012 ◽  
Vol 114 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-50
Author(s):  
Steven Z. Athanases ◽  
Juliet Michelsen Wahleithner ◽  
Lisa H. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Student Teachers ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Diverse Learners ◽  
Teacher Inquiry ◽  
Classroom Culture ◽  
Culturally And Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Individual Student

Background/Context Learning to meet students’ needs challenges new teachers often focused on procedures, management, materials, and curriculum. To avoid this development pattern, student teachers (STs) need opportunities to concentrate especially on needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Teacher inquiry (TI) holds promise as one such opportunity. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study We sought to understand how STs in a teacher credential program with a history of attention to diverse learners were learning about their CLD students through TI. Research Design We examined data collected from 80 STs over a 6-year period, including 80 TIs; STs’ data analysis field memos; questionnaires with reflections on TI processes and products; and taped ST peer discussions and conferences with instructor. Data also documented TI instruction, classroom culture, and opportunities to develop learning related to conducting TI. Drawing on research and theory, we developed, tested, and used a rubric of 17 indicators of attention to CLD learners as a means to examine the range of ways and the extent to which STs attended to CLD students through TI. Findings/Results STs took actions of various kinds to learn about diverse students: researching contexts and histories; examining student work and performance at full-class, subgroup, and individual levels; and asking and listening beneath the surface to students’ reasoning, attitudes, beliefs, and concerns about school learning and other issues. Various assessment and inquiry tools supported the process, helping STs develop data literacy to attend to CLD learners. However, TI elements were used to varying degrees, in various ways, and with varying levels of success. Two cases illustrate the range of TI tools that STs used to learn about their CLD learners, to generate data and evidence about learning, and to act in ways responsive to what they learned about students. Conclusions/Recommendations Those interested in studying multiple STs’ inquiries for attention to CLD learners may need to develop frames and analytic methods to examine a corpus of cases. This study was grounded in an assumption that such crosscutting analyses accumulate knowledge to disseminate to larger audiences, challenging conceptions that values of TI are purely local, serving only those directly involved. Teacher inquiry can help focus attention on individual student learners by allowing a teacher to compare data among individual students, giving a clearer, organized format in which they can observe growth and improvement or a decline in performance. In my own project, I observed lower performance among specific students concurrent with assignments in which instructions may have been difficult to decode for English learners or students with disabilities. (Tracey, preservice English language arts teacher)

Equity, Equality, and Standardization: Expanding the Conversations

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 483-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Cramer ◽  
Mary E. Little ◽  
Patricia Alvarez McHatton
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Culturally And Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Board Of Education ◽  
Educational Equality ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Opportunity Gaps

In the more than 60 years since the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, the United States has been struggling to assure educational equality for all learners. This article will review how attempts at equality such as accountability and standardization movements have failed to close opportunity gaps for vulnerable and marginalized groups, particularly for students with disabilities from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Critical issues are raised about current reforms, in order to broaden educational conversations for a deeper analysis, recognizing the implications for sustained, comprehensive solutions.

Creating Taxonomies to Improve School–Home Connections With Families of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 651-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Teresa Linse
Keyword(s):  
Parent Involvement ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Diverse Learners ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Culturally And Linguistically Diverse ◽  
School Practices ◽  
School Based ◽  
Culturally Diverse Learners ◽  
Linguistically Diverse Learners

Families of culturally and linguistically diverse pupils often do not participate fully in their children’s school-based education. The purpose of this article is to introduce taxonomies as a means to examine and improve school practices and levels of responsiveness to families whose home language is not English, so that families feel more comfortable connecting with their child’s school community. Taxonomies can provide a vital framework, and tool that schools can use to evaluate and improve the school–home contacts that take place. The taxonomies introduced in this article are based on a compilation of a variety of theoretical premises concerning parent involvement and the education of linguistically and culturally diverse learners.

A Systematic Review of Boundary-Crossing Partnerships in Designing Equity-Oriented Special Education Services for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students With Disabilities

2020 ◽  
pp. 074193252098347
Author(s):  
Dosun Ko ◽  
Dian Mawene ◽  
Kate Roberts ◽  
Joan J. Hong
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Special Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Culturally And Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Boundary Crossing ◽  
Special Education Services ◽  
Education Services ◽  
K 12

Providing quality special education services for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with or at risk of disabilities is a double bind, a larger systemic conundrum beyond individuals’ efforts. To create an inclusive, culturally responsive system of support beyond the fragmented division of roles and nonconcerted assemblage of practices and tools, there is a need to explore the possibility of boundary-crossing collaboration for CLD students with disabilities. The purpose of this systematic review is to synthesize the broader literature investigating K-12 school-based boundary-crossing collaborations among multiple stakeholders to address the unique academic, social-emotional, and behavioral needs of CLD students with or at risk of disabilities. Eight studies met the criteria for inclusion. Features of boundary crossers, problems of practice that boundary crossers collaboratively sought to address, emerging tensions in building partnership, facilitators of boundary-crossing communication and collaboration, learning experiences of boundary crossers, and learning outcomes of CLD students with or at risk of disabilities are reported and further discussed.

scholarly journals Meeting The Need For Special Education Teachers For Culturally Linguistically Diverse Students With Disabilities

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Peterson ◽  
Stephen Showalter
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Culturally And Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Diverse Students ◽  
Linguistically Diverse Students ◽  
And Training

This paper describes why special education teachers are needed to meet the needs of the increasing number of culturally and linguistically diverse students with disabilities in the United States.  The paper presents innovative approaches to recruiting and training culturally responsive special education teachers.

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