Gallaudet University Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center Creating a Multicultural School Climate for Deaf Children and Their Families Leadership Issues

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While schools, by their very nature, tend to reflect the dominant culture, school leaders can transform their programs into culturally responsive places of learning. It requires a commitment to recruiting staff members from diverse backgrounds, assuring access to culturally and linguistically diverse students and their families, providing outstanding staff development, and building strong family and community relationships. Only the leaders of a school can insure a learning environment in which faculty members, curricula and instruction, materials, and school/community relationships combine to make everyone feel included. Actively recruit a diverse staff for every job in the school, including leadership positions. Involve individuals from the community in all aspects of the school program. Provide a systematic program of staff development to help employees acquire the attitudes, knowledge, and skills required for a culturally responsive program. Provide resources and support to insure that every communication from the school is accessible to all members of the community. Plan specific programs to foster appreciation of diversity. Design and mandate equitable practices for student placement, assessment, and participation in all school activities. In attempting to create a responsive school environment for deaf and hard of hearing youngsters from every cultural background, educators must begin by examining their own views regarding the diversity of cultures children bring to school. Tom Humphries (1993) contends that a society that is reluctant to view children and adults who are deaf as bicultural may also be uncomfortable with the broader concept of multiculturalism. Many schools are working to revise curricula and school philosophies to incorpoate Deaf studies and American Sign Language. A thoughtful approach to multicultural education for students who are deaf recognizes the interrelationships of Deaf Culture and Deaf Community, language, family, and the greater school community. Multicultural education and a cultural view of deaf children are not mutually exclusive, but rather part of the same vision of the world. Reform is always a gradual process. Schools play a vital role in creating a culturally diverse and inclusive environment that encourages every student to learn, thrive, and grow.

Contact Ken Kurlychek with comments or suggestions about this web page. Last modified July 22, 1997 Copyright © 1997 All Rights Reserved Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center Gallaudet University 800 Florida Ave. NE Washington, DC 20002-3695