Culturally Responsive Sustaining Education Project
Implementing Culturally Responsive Sustaining Education (CRSE) for Students with Autism in Full-Day Special Education Programs
This leadership project addresses the lack of culturally responsive sustaining education practices within full-day special education programs for autistic students. Despite progress toward inclusion, many programs fail to reflect students’ cultural and linguistic identities, resulting in disengagement, social isolation, and inequitable academic outcomes especially for students of color and those from multilingual or multicultural backgrounds.
Core Issues
Non-Representative Curriculum: Lessons often overlook students’ cultural experiences and community knowledge.
Culturally Neutral Behavioral Systems: Standardized interventions may misinterpret culturally influenced communication or behavior.
Family Exclusion: Families from marginalized groups frequently feel unheard in IEP and decision-making processes.
Limited Professional Development: Educators lack integrated training combining autism-specific and culturally responsive strategies.
Leadership Vision and Strategy
As an aspiring School Building Leader, the project proposes systemic change through:
Conducting equity audits of current practices for cultural bias.
Developing inclusive curricula that reflect diverse identities.
Establishing family-centered collaboration in educational planning.
Providing targeted professional development uniting CRSE and autism pedagogy.
Building a community of practices for educators to share culturally informed strategies.