Need for Evidence-based Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Transition Services
Culturally responsive and sustaining transition pedagogy can be described as an outcome-oriented process designed to prepare young adults for successful adulthood considering the unique sociocultural contexts within which all students thrive after high school. Transition educators who engage in culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies (CRSPs) are known to be effective in promoting post-secondary success by increasing student achievement and reducing opportunity gaps (Achola 2019; Achola & Greene, 2016; Christianakis, 2011). Research suggests that such educators foster academic success, cultural competence, and critical consciousness, and work toward the goal of preserving valued cultural heritages in pluralistic societies (Dickson et al., 2015; Ladson-Billings, 1995b; Morrison et al., 2008; Paris & Alim, 2012). These educators also raise students’ consciousness about social justice issues, center on students’ funds of knowledge, and provide a challenging transition curriculum tailored to address post-school goals.
More recently, the need for CRSP in transition has been amplified by the glaring inequities observed in student transition outcomes. Over the last 20 years, extensive patterns of racial/ethnic and class-based disparities in post school outcomes have been documented (Aucejo et al., 2020; Baker et al., 2019; Newman et al., 2011). The disparities are particularly prominent in the areas of access to quality transition programming (Landmark & Zhang, 2013), satisfaction with the transition experience, participation in gainful employment (Trainor, 2008; Trainor et al., 2014), and enrollment in post-secondary education (Rueda et al., 2005; Schuster et al., 2003). For example, compared to their peers from dominant communities (65.5%) young adults with disabilities from minoritized communities are more likely to receive individualized transition plans that are not compliant with Indicator 13 (Landmark & Zhang, 2013) and are less likely to be employed up to 8 years after graduating from high school. Similarly, many parents of youth from traditionally minoritized communities tend to be less satisfied with their level of involvement in the transition planning process compared to parents from other backgrounds (Cameto, et al., 2004; Greene, 2011; Rueda et al., 2005); they also struggle to access community resources (Cartledge et al., 2008) and feel that their contributions to the transition planning process are undervalued by school professionals (Geenen et al., 2001).