After the IEP: Providing Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Specially-Designed Instruction

Introduction

Today’s school population is a mélange of cultures and languages conducive to cultivating the idea of global citizenry. One vital skill for such global citizenship is multilingualism. Currently, over 5 million students with home languages other than English are enrolled in U.S. public schools (McFarland et al., 2019). These learners are most commonly known as English learners (ELs), and also known as English Language Learners (ELLs), Limited English Proficient (LEP) students, or Emergent Bilinguals. In this chapter, they will be referred to as multilingual learners (MLs) to emphasize language as an asset. MLs come from non-English speaking homes, have varying levels of English and home language proficiency, and represent over 400 different home languages (USDOE, 2017). No matter the label, when they enter school they have the dual cognitive load of learning English while learning content through their new language (Goldenberg, 2008). These students are fortunate that when their education supports both languages, they can become multilingual. Yet, schools and educators do not always promote the continued development of their home languages and instead offer English-only instruction. English-only instruction contributes to the longstanding difficulties of differentiating for multilingual students experiencing academic challenges due to the double cognitive load from those with innate learning disabilities.

This chapter defines who ML students are and the services they receive, effective instruction for MLs using a multi-tiered systems of support framework, and for students who are eligible for special education services, how to develop meaningful Individual Education Programs (IEPs) that consider their disability-related needs, and cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Effective instruction builds on students’ linguistic assets as well as their cultural backgrounds and lived experiences (Orosco & O’Connor, 2014). Therefore, central to this work is the use of a culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogy which entreats schools to sustain the cultural ways of communities and promote equity across racial and ethnic communities, and those with disabilities. Such pedagogy also seeks to ensure access and opportunity while supporting students in critiquing and questioning dominant power structures in society (Paris & Alim, 2017). This is especially crucial for students who are the focus of this chapter — students whose intersecting and multiple identities can include belonging to a minoritized racial group, culturally diverse, acquiring English as an additional language, and who experience a disability. Each of these identities alone can lead to marginalization and oppression, and instructional and resource gaps. Examining the intersections provides a unique blending of these experiences that is different from the experiences of each of these groups in isolation.

According to Crenshaw (1991), “conceptualized intersectionality, a term for how individuals who represent multiple minoritized social categories are affected” (as cited in Kangas, 2018, p. 6). By examining the instructional environment and ensuring that students’ diverse identities and backgrounds are leveraged as assets, schools and education can improve outcomes for the nation’s multilingual students. This chapter begins by providing foundational information on MLs, with and without disabilities, then transitions into a discussion of special education decision making and mandates, concluding with a focus on instruction for ML students with disabilities (MLSwD).