Multiculturalism in Special Education

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to explore multicultural education in the context of special education. Multicultural education as an effective intervention in urban schools is discussed. Obiakor (2007) describes this era as that of accountability where schools are challenged to leave no child behind, which makes schools more responsive to students' needs including those with special needs who are linguistically and culturally diverse. In addition, Gay (2002) defines culturally responsive teaching as using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and performance styles of diverse students to make learning more appropriate and effective for them; it teaches to and through the strengths of these students.