Effectiveness of the Personal Culture Framework with training of teachers serving multicultural deaf and hard-of-hearing students: An exploratory study

This research explored the effectiveness of the Personal Culture Framework developed by Fletcher-Carter and Páez in 1996. This Framework was developed in response to the need for teachers of an increasingly diverse body of students, created by changing U.S. demographics. The Personal Culture Framework is a three-part procedure which helps teachers explore the cultures of students of diverse ethnic/cultural backgrounds and, therefore, develop more appropriate educational strategies and materials.; Using multi-site public school classroom settings in the southwest with five hearing participant teachers serving students who are deaf and hard-of-hearing, the study employed qualitative phenomenological inquiry and a single-subject design, using a variety of instruments to collect data. Narrative and visual description of the results indicated that exploration of the application of the Personal Culture Framework with deaf and hard-of-hearing students by their teachers encouraged the creation of curricula and learning environments more directly adapted to the students' cultures. The findings also revealed that the teachers expressed overall satisfaction with the Personal Cultural Framework's format, original content, wording, organization, and accompanying instructions. The results partially validated the Framework, while at the same time revealing the need for further investigation.