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This chapter discusses what special education means for students with visual impairments (that is, those who are blind or have low vision) including what is being done and how traditions are maintained. More specifically, this chapter explores the importance of advancing values for the diverse population of students with visual impairments, focusing on cultivation of supportive, inclusive, and collaborative educational environments that continue to stand the test of time. This chapter highlights the increasing heterogeneity of this population of students and specific instructional strategies to support the cultural and linguistic diversity of learners with visual impairments in today's classrooms. This chapter also discusses the significance of promoting core concepts that are rooted in a traditional and specialized instructional framework for students who are visually impaired.

The number of students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds continue to increase in classrooms across the United States. These students have complex needs as they experience more barriers to success when compared to their peers. These barriers are further compounded when CLD students are also identified as having disabilities. To address the barriers and meet the needs of CLD students with disabilities, teaching professionals should move away from the traditional American educational values of individual freedom and self-reliance, equal opportunity and competition, and material wealth and hard work. Conversely, schools and teaching professionals should incorporate the modern values of social justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging when working with students from CLD backgrounds who have disabilities. This chapter presents these values and provides recommendations for teaching professionals and schools.

Family–school partnerships are an essential component of the special education process for children with disabilities. Notably, recent legislative reauthorizations of IDEA (2004) have focused on increasing parent involvement. For many parents, participation occurs primarily through the individualized education program (IEP) meetings. Parent involvement often includes parent advocating for their children. However, many parents face barriers when advocating to obtain appropriate special education services for their children with disabilities. Culturally and linguistically diverse families face greater systemic barriers (e.g., language and cultural differences) to access services for their own children with disabilities. School professionals can foster opportunities to help families be active members of the IEP process. For example, school professionals should connect families with resources to learn about their special education rights. Specifically, school personnel can encourage families to reach out to their local Parent Training and Information (PTI) Center to be educated and empowered to advocate for services. In addition, parents can be encouraged to attend parent advocacy programs to help increase knowledge, advocacy, and empowerment to access and advocate for services for their own children. Advancing the values of working with parents of students with special education needs is discussed.

This case study sought to investigate the relationship between pre-service teachers’ participation in designing and delivering one-on-one literacy intervention lessons to beginning readers and their own evolving self-efficacy in literacy instruction.

The study was embedded within a 4000-level course in the elementary education major where pre-service teachers learn to administer, analyze and interpret a variety of literacy assessments. Based on the results of these assessments, pre-service teachers designed and implemented literacy lessons (twice a week, 30-min sessions) that addressed the beginning readers' specific instructional needs. Through collecting pre/post data with their first-grade intervention students, and participating in reflective “check-ins” (surveys, a focus group and end-of-course written reflection), a portrait of increased pre-service teacher self-efficacy in literacy instruction comes into focus.

The data showed, primarily through the thematic analysis of qualitative data, that the experience of conducting a one-on-one intervention with a striving reader impacted pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy positively.

The methodology of this study was limited by the small sample size and the low participant response rate on the quantitative survey measure.

This paper highlights one aspect in which clinically-rich field experiences can make a difference in the literacy instruction self-efficacy of pre-service teachers.

This study adds to the support for authentic instructional applications of course content in educator preparation programs, specifically in Professional Development School (partner school system) contexts. The aspect of observing and measuring intervention student progress was one lens through which pre-service teachers viewed their efficacy. Further investigations focusing on other assessment-instruction cycles could provide additional insights.

There is some evidence to suggest that the historical challenge associated with recruiting and retaining Black and Brown Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) collegians is tied to early their teaching and learning experiences in Mathematics. This paper describes an National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project (NSF #2151043) whose goal is to attract, prepare and retain math teachers of color in high need school districts ensure that those teachers remain in the field long enough to make a meaningful impact on the minds and hearts of BIPOC students who are often, extrinsically, and intrinsically, discouraged from pursuing careers in STEM professions.

This mixed-methods study, which began in the summer of 2023, seeks to recruit, prepare, support and retain nineteen (19) Black and Brown math teachers for two (2) high need urban school districts. The expectancy value theory will be used to explain the performance, persistence, and choices of the teachers, while grounded theory will be utilized to understand the impact of the intensive mentorship and wellness coaching that applied over the first year of their preservice preparation and subsequent in-service years.

Measures of project efficacy won’t begin until 2025 and as such there are no findings or implications to draw from for the study at this time.

The intention of this paper is to augment the body of knowledge on recruiting and retaining Black and Brown math teachers for urban schools where the need for quality STEM teachers is critical.

The aim of this paper is to examine the strategic approach of culturally responsive and communicative teaching (CRCT) through a critical assessment of interracial teachers in their daily school interactions.

The empirical data were obtained through interviews among ten interracial teachers. The analysis was made through a thematic approach to obtain substantial data from interviews.

The findings reveal that attempts to gain sufficient comprehension of CRCT are actualized through routine interaction in the multicultural school environment hence resulting in embedding self-awareness of cultural competence in a multicultural classroom, constructing emotional and social development on cultural awareness and internalizing responsive awareness on social engagement in global learning.

The contribution of this research provides an insightful value on expanding key consideration to support the multicultural classroom environment with an active engagement and enhancement of CRCT as fundamental basis of the multicultural classroom.