Attend Session Two: Strategies to Teach Students with Different Life Experience than Yours
The current demographics in the United States public school workforce are not representative of all students in American classroom settings. Though American classroom settings continue to grow in diversity, the teaching workforce remains predominantly white, middle class, and female. These racial inequalities in classroom settings may lead to biases, stereotype threats, and a need for more inclusive environments, thereby impacting student experiences in school settings in areas such as grades, disciplinary referrals, and teacher expectations of students. Across the field of education, stakeholders, including AACTE, are attempting to diversify the field in an attempt to improve the ability of our current teaching workforce to support their students who have different experiences from their own. In an era where, in the United States, our classrooms have never been more diverse with students from multiple cultures, socio-economic levels, and students with disabilities, how can we best prepare teachers to support all students in classroom settings?
In partnership with the Global Science of Learning Education Network (GSoLEN), AACTE continues its series of lunch and learns addressing the question, “How do we prepare teachers to be successful with students whose life, experience, and perceptions are different from theirs?” This webinar series is an opportunity for anyone involved in education to learn more about practices and strategies that may lead to more equitable classroom settings. Through panelists’ diverse research and experiences, this webinar series continues to offer different perspectives and strategies to answer this question.
The second webinar in this two-part series will take place February 9 at 12:00 p.m. EST, and will explore the landscape and challenges for Black students who are identified for special education. Mildred Boveda and Endia Lindo will lead this discussion highlighting their recent book, Racism by Another Name: Black Students, Overrepresentation, and the Carceral State of Special Education. The speakers will highlight how Black students with disabilities and their families navigate schooling, as well as the presence of disproportionality in special education. In addition, the Boveda and Endia will examine the intersection of race, dis/ability, and gender while guiding participants in expanding their knowledge of disproportionality in special education and advocate for equity.
Mildred Boveda is an associate professor of education (special education) at Penn State University. Prior to earning her Ph.D., Boveda worked as a special education teacher in Miami Dade County Public Schools. Her research has explored intersectional competence and consciousness to address educators’ understanding of diversity and how sociocultural markers intersect among families, students, colleagues, and schools in nuanced ways. Additionally, Boveda designed the Intersectional Competence measure to assess teachers’ preparedness for teaching diverse populations. She is a past president of the Division for Diverse and Exceptional Learners of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and a previous chair for the Diversity Caucus for the Teacher Education Division of CEC.
Endia Lindo is an associate professor of special education at Texas Christian University. Lindo earned her Ph.D. in special education from Vanderbilt University after working as a resource teacher. Lindo’s research focuses on reading outcomes for students with disabilities and struggling readers with interests in teaching reading comprehension and understanding social and familiar factors on students’ responsiveness to instruction. She is on the executive board of the Division for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Learners (DDEL) and a member of the Professional Development, Standards, and Ethics Committee for the Division of Learning Disabilities (DLD) of Council for Exceptional Children.
Tags: diversity, events, inclusion, special education, teacher quality
