Difference, Disadvantage, or Disability: Involving Cultural Liaisons to Move Beyond Complacent Compliance

• In Event: 63.085 - MTCC Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: 63.085-10 - Decolonizing and Indigenizing the Academy to Honor Indigenous Approaches to Education

Abstract

American Indian k-12 students are disproportionately represented in behavior referrals, suspensions, expulsions, and in special education. The Dream Catchers Project trains cultural liaisons and special education teams to work together to create better outcomes. Cultural liaisons are trained in observation techniques with a goal to create an equitable proportionality within this system. In addition to the project agenda, a shift in the culture of special education is embedded in order to create a sustainable change. This paper will present the results of the three years of the project and the development of a sustainable model to begin deciphering difference, disability or disadvantage.

Authors

• Govinda Budrow, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College

• Donna R. Patterson, Project Dream Catcher, Minnesota Department of Education