Toward a Conceptual Integration of Cultural Responsiveness and Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support

Abstract

Within the context of widely documented racially disproportionate discipline outcomes, we describe schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS) as one approach that might provide a useful framework for culturally responsive behavior support delivery. We conceptualize cultural and linguistic diversity as the result of a divergence between individual students’ and entire schools’ cultural identities and identify culturally responsive educational practices that might facilitate greater continuity between students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and school environments. Based on practical recommendations derived from the literature, we propose an expansion of the key features of SWPBS implementation (practices, data, systems, and outcomes) to facilitate culturally responsive behavior support delivery. We propose (a) systemically promoting staff members’ cultural knowledge and self-awareness, (b) commitment to culturally relevant and validating student support practices, and (c) culturally valid decision making to enhance culturally equitable student outcomes. We provide recommendations for future research and present the efforts of one school district to blend SWPBS implementation with training in cultural responsiveness.

From Intervention to Innovation: A Cultural-Historical Approach to the Racialization of School Discipline

“…Ideally, PBIS teams should represent the whole school community including school staff (e.g., teachers, psychologists) as well as students, parents, and community members to determine schoolwide behavioral expectations and create a behavioral management plan that is responsive to the whole school community (Sugai and Horner 2002). However, in reality students, families, and community representatives, specifically those who are from nondominant racial, linguistic, and economic communities, are excluded from decision-making processes regarding school discipline (Vincent et al 2011).…”

Character and Civic Education as a Source of Moral Motivation

“…It then spread to other special needs populations and eventually was reconceptualized as a generic school -wide approach to behaviour management (Horner et al, 2005), sometimes called School-wide Positive Behaviour Supports (SWPBS; Vincent et al, 2011). The model applies behavioural principles to fostering a school climate that promotes academic and social success, while offering a multi-tiered approach to primary, secondary and tertiary prevention.…”

Using narrative inquiry to understand persistently disciplined middle school students

“…Such training is a necessary component to ensuring that the implementation of evidence-based practices such as PBIS, SEL, and restorative justice reduces the discipline gap (Vincent, Randall, Cartledge, Tobin, & Swain-Bradway, 2011). Scholars in the fields of multicultural education and diversity studies have described key content and experiences that contribute to shifting the beliefs of teachers regarding students who differ from them (e.g.…”