Culturally Responsive Positive Behavior Supports: Considerations for Practice

Abstract

Classrooms are not culturally neutral terrains, but rather are constructed around sets of norms, values, and expected behaviors that are culturally bound. Low tolerance levels and expectations are an indication of the incongruence between the education strategies utilized by teachers and the cultural and linguistic differences of students that are served in an educational system in which they are required to perform based on standards that are not similar to their own. Combining Positive Behavior Intervention Supports (PBIS) with cultural and linguistic variables will help to enhance positive behavior of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. This paper describes Culturally Responsive Positive Behavior Intervention Supports (CRPBIS) as a system that specifically acknowledges the presence of CLD students and the need for them to find relevant connections among themselves and with the behavioral goals and objectives that schools ask them to perform. Suggestions are offered that support the infusion of culturally responsive practices throughout the implementation of PBIS.