Recruiting and Retaining of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Groups in Special Education: Defining the Problem

Abstract

The present article serves as an introduction to a special issue on recruiting and retaining culturally and linguistically diverse populations into the field of special education. Members of the Diversity Committee of the Teacher Education Division (TED) of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and selected guest were invited authors. Highlighted in the preliminary article are factors that contribute to the rapid decline of diverse educators, such as inadequate outreach and recruitment that limit diverse faculty and students in colleges and universities, limited financial assistance for post-secondary education, and the invalid use of teacher competency exams to measure teaching skills. As well as other effects, the problem primarily lends to the over-representation of diverse students in special education. Subsequent articles in this issue will suggest viable and effective strategies teacher educators can employ to increase the diverse teacher pool. After reading this issue, we hope that you will have a broad range of options to alter current teacher education programs to “entice” culturally and linguistically diverse preservice educators.