Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Special Education Classrooms: An Exploration of Elementary and Secondary Special Education Teachers’ Instructional Practices
University of Michigan-Flint
How they used Delve
A doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan-Flint used Otter.ai and Delve to transcribe and code interviews and focus groups with special education teachers across six urban school districts, running descriptive first-cycle coding and a reducing second cycle through a DisCrit lens.
“Each interviewee described their implementation of culturally responsive pedagogy in response to the interview protocols. The interviews were also transcribed, reviewed, and coded by this researcher via using Otter.ai and delve tools.”
- Field
- Special education / culturally responsive pedagogy
- Data
- Three phases with 21 elementary and secondary special education teachers recruited from six traditional urban public school districts: the Culturally Responsive Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale survey, then focus groups and individual interviews with the highest-scoring respondents
- Approach
- Multiple case study read through a Dis/ability Critical Studies (DisCrit) lens: transcripts verified for accuracy, first cycle descriptive coding, second cycle coding to reduce the initial codes, then case-oriented cross-case analysis to find commonalities across the elementary and secondary quintain
- Data types
- Interviews, Focus groups, Open-ended survey responses
Abstract
General education and special education students in American P-12 schools are becoming increasingly more diverse as racial/ethnic group representation expands. However, the teaching staff remains predominantly white, female, and middle-class. Since its inception, special education has served as a strategic service continuum to support improved outcomes for students with dis/abilities with high-leverage practices setting the gold standard. However, evolution is necessary as students’ needs evolve, like the changing demographics. An approach incorporating culture is vital to appropriately addressing the cultural mismatches plaguing P-12 special education classrooms. Culturally responsive pedagogy is the right innovation. It is a strategic approach to mitigate achievement disparities linked to staff and student racial/ethnic differences. Interestingly, despite special education and culturally responsive pedagogy’s promotion of student achievement, limited research exists on their nexus. This multiple case study acknowledged the gap in research. It explored how special education teachers described their utilization of culturally responsive pedagogy and its overlap with high-leverage practices in special education using a DisCrit theoretical framework.
Citation
Precios Meshle Armstrong (2022). Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Special Education Classrooms: An Exploration of Elementary and Secondary Special Education Teachers’ Instructional Practices. Deep Blue, University of Michigan. https://doi.org/10.7302/6737