Chapter 4: Preparing Teachers and Leaders For Urban and Rural Special Education in This Age of Change

The majority of teachers and school leaders in the United States are of a different race, ethnicity, class, gender, and linguistic dominance from that of their students (Banks, Zionts, & Sanchez-Fowler, 2011; McCray & Beachum, 2014;Gay, 2003; Tillman, 2003). Special education teachers are specifically challenged by a variety of racial and ethnic issues as they enter their classrooms (Artiles, Rueda, Salazar, & Higareda, 2000; Obiakor, 2006, 2007). In an age plagued with the overrepresentation of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in special education programs, it is important that teacher preparation programs within the field of special education devote attention to the devastating effects of deficit thinking. Retrogressive deficit thinking exists when teachers and service providers hold stereotypical or prejudicial views and engage in illusory generalizations that change their interactions with and expectations of CLD students (Obiakor, 1999, 2001, 2006, 2007, 2008). Similarly, leadership preparation programs have had a long tradition of silencing the voices of CLD people as well as not providing a vast array of course offerings to help administrators work with racially and ethnically diverse communities (Dantley, 2005, Karpinski & Lugg, 2006). Clearly, such thinking, policies, and actions exacerbate difficulties that plague urban and rural schools and the students they serve (Obiakor & Beachum, 2005).