Reflection about One Educator’s Experience of Culturally Responsive Instruction of One Child on the Autism Disorder Spectrum

Presenter Information

Elizabeth Rossow, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU 255

Start Date

11-4-2017 11:05 AM

End Date

11-4-2017 12:05 PM

Student's Major

Elementary and Early Childhood Education

Student's College

Education

Mentor's Name

Elizabeth Sandell

Mentor's Department

Elementary and Early Childhood Education

Mentor's College

Education

Description

The role of the teacher of a student with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is like that of a cross-cultural interpreter: someone who is able to translate the expectations of the non-autistic environment to the student with ASD (Mesibov & Shea 2009). The purpose of this project was to explore the implications of cultural responsiveness of general education teachers and how it affects students with ASD. The source of the data was a journal kept by a teacher in a classroom in Minnesota. The study included a literature review about the culturally responsive teaching of classroom teachers, special education teachers, and other school staff members. Data analysis found themes related to instruction, child response, educator response, or consequences or results. The research project provides information about how general education teachers can be more culturally responsive and improve communication to support students with ASD.