Culturally Responsive Schoolwide Positive behavior Support: A Case Study in One School With a High Proportion of Native American Students

Abstract

Schools face an array of recommendations for reforming educational practices. If these recommendations are to be implemented on a large scale, reformers will need to embed clear strategies to make educational innovations and implementation procedures culturally responsive. Schoolwide positive behavior support, as an approach to whole-school discipline, offers one example of an innovative reform that encourages cultural responsiveness. The authors present a brief overview of schoolwide positive behavior support, the ways cultural responsiveness is being included in the implementation of this approach, and practical messages from a case study with one rural New Mexico school that has embraced the approach. Implications are offered for including cultural responsiveness in all educational reform efforts and future research.