Multicultural Education Training for Special Educators Working with African-American Youth

Abstract

Inservice training in multicultural education helps provide special education classroom teachers with the additional competencies needed to work more effectively with African-American students with disabilities. A pilot study was conducted to assess the perceptions of special education administrators in Ohio about multicultural inservice training and the nature of their exposure to multicultural education. Results indicate that special education administrators perceive that special education teachers should be involved in multicultural educational training programs with special emphasis on African-American students and their families. The results also reveal that personnel responsible for conducting such inservice programs may lack formal training. Author recommendations include the need for special educators to actively participate in high-quality, ongoing, multicultural education inservice programming conducted by personnel who have been formally prepared.