Chapter 8: Culturally Responsive Leadership In General And Special Education

Given the current demographics of the United States, a key component of quality programming is a culturally competent, ethnically and linguistically diverse workforce well-prepared to foster the healthy development of an increasingly diverse population of children and families. While the United States has always been a diverse society, recent waves of immigration, especially from Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and Africa have made it even more so. Nearly 41% of the entire child population in the United States is of Latino, Asian or African American/African descent (Fields, 2003). By 2020, the percentage of ethnic, cultural, and language minority children is projected to grow to 47% (Child Trends Data Bank, 2016). Nationwide, one out of five school-aged children now lives in an immigrant family. In California and some large metropolitan areas, this figure is closer to one out of every two children. The largest recent gains in immigration regionally have been in the South and the Midwest. Over the past two decades, the percentage of school-aged children speaking languages other than English at home has nearly doubled. One child in 10 is now an English language learner (ELL), although in some areas of the country, the percentage is much higher. For example, in California, 25% of all students between kindergarten and 12th grade are ELL. Given the aforementioned information, it is critical to have culturally responsive leaders and practitioners to maximize the fullest potential of all students in general and special education programs. This is the premise of this chapter.