Preparing pre and in-service teachers to create safe universally designed educational settings which promote resilience through culturally responsive and trauma informed practices can combat the effects of historical traum and inequitable access to educational opportunites in Alaska. The focus is on incorporating and modeling Universal Design for Learning inan asynchronous/asynchonous hybrid online program that prepares teachers to work with students with varying abilities from diverse backgrounds.
Historically, treaties, reservations, legislation, boarding schools and land policies reflect the types of federal initiatives that contributed to a decrease in opportunities for many Alaska Natives to build upon the strengths of their cultures, languages, communities, and traditions that would enable them to build strong cultural identities. The traumatic effect of these policies continues through generations.
Preparing pre and in-service teachers to create safe universally designed educational settings which promote resilience through culturally responsive and trauma informed practices can combat the effects of trauma. This focus is on infusing components of trauma informed practice, culturally responsive teaching practice, and Universal Design for Learning in a program that prepares teachers to work with students with varying abilities from diverse backgrounds.
A majority of Alaska Native adults living today attended school during the period of time when schooling policies and practices reflected the uncertainty of state and national beliefs about the best way to educate American Indian/Alaska Native students.. The policies of the BIA and territory schools attended by many Alaska Native adults forbade students to speak their Native languages and did not allow for a curriculum that reflected anything Alaskan, American Indian, or Alaska Native. Only rarely did any Alaska Native adults have the opportunity to be taught by an Alaska Native or American Indian teacher. As a result of colonization, many Alaska Native families experience generational trauma today (Barnhardt,, 2001)
In Alaska, 80% of rural students are Alaska Native. Less than 5% of Alaska’s certified teachers are Alaska Native, and 74% of teachers hired by Alaska’s public schools come from outside the state. Teachers new to rural Alaska typically remain on the job just one or two years, (Hirshberg, Hill, and Kasemodel, 2015). Today, nearly all Alaska students attend elementary and secondary school in one of three settings: (1) village schools; (2) rural regional centers and/or road system/marine highway schools; or (3) urban schools (Barnhardt, 2001).
Preparing and retaining teachers is challenging in the last frontier as the historical connotations of education and the effects colonization remain. The learning needs of teacher candidates in the village may be different from the needs of students in urban areas Each individual student has a combination of learning styles (Gardner, 2007)
UDL course materials are designed to be accessible by everyone. UDL occurs in the planning and design phase providing multiple paths for everyone to use. Conversely, accommodations happen reactively, in response to specific learner requests and needs. Adopting UDL as a framework for online courses helps greatly to retain students, as well. Today’s higher education students come from diverse backgrounds. Institutions serve international students, learners across the socioeconomic spectrum, adult students, students with disabilities, and first-generation college students. By expanding access to learning materials, interactions, and engagement, UDL designed courses make it more likely that students who may encounter challenges, not just individuals with disabilities, will be successful and persist in online courses.(Black, Weinberg, & Brodwin, 2015)
According to Edyburn (2010), meeting the needs of diverse learners requires accessibility. He recommends UDL be integrated into the field of teacher preparation in order to ensure instructional practices taught to future educators are based on UDL principles at the pre-service level. Considering UDL principles during development of curriculum and programs is imperative.
The course described below is taken by all education majors.. It is an introductory course to special education with a focus on including students experiencing disabilities in the general education classroom. The class is stacked so there are BA, MED, and MAT students in the course. The course described below has been designed universally. The process of universally designing the course will be discussed.
EDSE 400/600
Description: Survey of the philosophical, legal, and programmatic foundations of inclusion; characteristics of students with disabilities; strategies to support students with disabilities in inclusive classroom settings.
Course Context: This course provides a comprehensive introduction of special education services and practices.
Universal Design for Learning is a social justice tool used to create equitable access to educational opportunity in order to meet the diverse needs of the teachers, families, children throughout the state. Rose and Hitchcock, (2005) maintain that universal design for learning allows students to have multiple means of content presented , multiple means to engage with materials, and multiple means to demonstrate mastery. Universal design for learning empowers students with choices, opportunities for mastering skills, a sense of connection, and affirmation at all levels of education.
References:
Barnhardt, C. (2001). A History of Schooling for Alaska Native People.Journal of American Indian Education, 40-1.
Black, D., Weinberg, L, Brodwin, ,M.. Perspectives of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education, Exceptional Learner Quarterly, (25) pp 1-26
Edyburn, D. L. (2010). Would you recognize universal design for learning if you saw it? Tenpropositions for new direction for the second decade of UDL. Learning Disability Quarterly, 33(1), 33–41. doi: 10.1177/073194871003300103
Gardner, H. (1993b). Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. New York: Basic Books.
Rose, D., Meyer, A., & Hitchcock, C. (2005). The Universally Designed Classroom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.