Cultural Identity and Special Education Teachers: Have We Slept Away Our Ethical Responsibilities?

The United States is experiencing demographic shifts in epic proportions as increasing numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse students are entering the public schools at rapid rates. This richness in America‘s K-12 public schools is readily seen in its student population, but it is not visible in the teaching force which continues to be 90.7 percent European American (Branch, 2001). This disparity among teachers and students poses ethical and moral dilemmas in that for many culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students their whole K-12 schooling can be experienced without ever being taught by an ethnic minority teacher (Duarete, 2000).

As it is, differences between the diversity of teachers and students are unlikely to be mitigated without intervention at the federal, state, or local level. As a matter of fact, the problem is only expected to get worse due the national shortages of teachers, especially in the area of special education. Of concern to us is whether or not America‘s teaching force will be culturally competent to handle the diversity to be found in the K-12 student population (Tyler and Smith, 2000), particularly those students in need of special education services.