Abstract
The conclusion of the Cuban Revolution in January 1959 ushered in extensive changes to education in Cuba. One such substantial change was the formal establishment of special education in 1962. Since then, Cuba has maintained a national commitment to the education and inclusion of students with disabilities. However, education professionals in the United States remain largely unaware of these efforts. This Global Perspectives column presents a brief historical overview of Cuban special education as well as describes current special education practices that relate to identifying and serving students with learning disabilities and behavioral disorders and special education teacher preparation.
The Republic of Cuba is the largest island in the northern Caribbean, a short distance from the U.S. border. From 1492 to 1898, Cuba was under Spanish colonization. As a result, Cuba shares a similar history and culture to other Latin American countries. Due to the slave trade and migration patterns, Cuba is an ethnically diverse country with approximately 35% of its citizens identifying as Black or Mestizo (i.e., mixed race). According to the Ministry of Public Health, an estimated 3.2% of the population has a disability, including visual, hearing, voice and speech, physical, and intellectual impairments (United Nations [UN], 2017). In addition, Cuba spends approximately 13% of its gross domestic product on public education (World Bank, 2010). Education is run by the national government, although provinces have some autonomy.
Through international commitments, Cuba has made an inclusive education system that prioritizes the development of children with disabilities. For example, representatives attended the 1990 World Conference on Education for All where the countries in attendance adopted two ideas: (a) equal educational access for individuals with disabilities is essential and (b) individuals with disabilities should have access to equitable resources. Since then, Cuba has become a signatory country of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). At a recent review of their commitment to the CRPD provisions, the delegation reported that the country values inclusion and accessibility for persons with disabilities, as indicated by the number of university graduates with disabilities and number of women with disabilities employed in typical work settings (UN, 2019). Despite various efforts, there is limited literature on special education in Cuba that informs the U.S. reader. Therefore, this Global Perspectives column explores Cuba’s history of special education and disability identification as well as how special education teachers in Cuba are trained to support students with learning disabilities and behavioral disorders.
Brief History of Education in Cuba: Beginnings of Special Education
On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro led Cuba into a new political era with the overthrow of then President Fulgencio Batista’s rule. The new political leadership changed the state of education. For example, 1961 was declared the Year of Education, which included the launch of the Literacy Campaign. Under this program, 271,000 teacher and high school student volunteers were mobilized to teach children and adults in rural areas to read (Kozol, 1978; Sobe & Timberlake, 2010). Within 9 months, the illiteracy rate decreased from 21% to approximately 4% (Breidlid, 2007; Prieto, 1981), as more than 700,000 citizens learned to read (Kozol, 1978). Thus, the government declared Cuba free of illiteracy.
The Year of Education sparked the idea that education could be attainable for all Cubans. However, an official special education system for students with disabilities did not yet exist. Initially, there were no more than 20 teachers at a total of eight schools for students with disabilities (e.g., schools for students who were blind; Ministerio de Educación de la República de Cuba [MERC] y Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos [OEI], 1995). These schools, which had received private aid from individual sponsors, only served 134 children with disabilities (MERC y OEI, 1995). It was not until 1962 that the third resolution of the Ministry of Education formally established special education. With the formation of special education, the number of schools dedicated to students with disabilities increased to more than 50 in less than a decade.
Special Education Identification
With the official recognition of a special education system, the Ministry of Education established Centros de Diagnóstico y Orientación (Centers of Diagnosis and Orientation [CDO]) in all provinces. Today, there are more than 200 CDOs (MERC, 2019a). In these centers, professionals, such as teachers, psychologists, and social workers, work as a multidisciplinary team of diagnosticians and collaborate with the Ministry of Public Health to determine whether children are eligible for special education. Their approach to special education identification focuses on identifying a child’s individual risk factors, within a bio-psycho-social model of disability (e.g., genetic history, atypical development, environmental concerns), that present barriers to inclusion in educational and social activities. Risk factor examinations begin during a woman’s pregnancy and continue until the child reaches school age (i.e., typically at 6 years of age; MERC, 2019b). These examinations intend to identify children with disabilities and address their developmental challenges while supporting their families before school.
Not all children with disabilities are identified for special education services before entering school. However, a universal screener to identify any additional students with academic or behavioral concerns are not used. Instead, teachers, in collaboration with school administrators, are primarily responsible for identifying students who may need special education services but were not identified before the start of schooling. Once a teacher suspects a student may have a disability, the teacher recommends the student for special education testing. Next, a CDO team meets to review the request for testing. The team may then decide to conduct a comprehensive evaluation by testing the student’s performance across academic, cognitive, and behavioral domains (MERC, 2019a).
Both quantitative and qualitative measures guide diagnosticians in determining special education identification (MERC, 2019a). Diagnosticians use many of the same standardized measures as education professionals in the United States for learning and behavioral disability identification. In addition, diagnosticians qualitatively analyze parent interviews, along with other qualitative measures (e.g., children’s drawings of themselves with their family), to assist them in identification. Once testing is complete, the team reconvenes to review the results and determine if the child qualifies for special education services. If a school-age child is found not to qualify for a disability, the principal and other school specialists provide the teacher with any necessary support in educating the student without special education services. The following section examines the characteristics of students identified with learning disabilities and behavioral disorders.
Learning Disabilities and Behavioral Disorders
Within students’ first 2 years of schooling, CDOs diagnose specific learning disabilities, such as dyslexia. A CDO may also assign a diagnosis of psychological developmental delay. Students with psychological developmental delay face limitations in areas such as logic, language, attention, and memory (Ramón, 2015), which lead to difficulties with learning. These difficulties result in a gap between a student’s abilities and the expected abilities of children of their age (Ramón, 2015). However, researchers report that effective instruction eliminates or—at a minimum—reduces this gap (Ramón, 2015). Thus, psychological developmental delay is a temporary diagnosis that is resolved by the fourth grade.
The Ministry of Education defines behavioral disorders as deviations in children’s personality development that manifest in consistent behavior difficulties. The Ministry of Education also recognizes that there are children who experience problems with impulsivity, hyperactivity, and inattention that are not yet consistent enough to be considered behavioral disorders. These challenges hinder learning, but the Ministry of Education claims that with adequate instruction, such problems will not become behavioral disorders. However, when exacerbated, these problems could develop into disabilities (MERC, 2019a).
It is not considered best practice to diagnose young children with behavioral disorders. However, with an emphasis on the identification of bio-psycho-social risk factors and early family intervention, educational professionals saw a need for more substantive supports for young children with emotional and behavioral difficulties (Bravo Castro & Pérez Martínez, 2016). Therefore, an affective delay diagnosis was added as an early childhood classification for children with socioaffective developmental concerns. Diagnosticians consider this category for young children who exhibit difficulties regulating emotion and maladaptive behaviors in place of a formal disability diagnosis. With the addition of a new classification, diagnosticians can assist families and educators in using affective and behavioral strategies to support more children at an earlier age. Thus, a diagnosis of affective delay can be removed altogether if these strategies prove effective. Otherwise, the diagnosis is replaced once the child reaches an appropriate age to reflect a behavioral disorder.
Students with learning disabilities and behavioral disorders are taught using the same national curriculum used to teach their peers without disabilities both within general and special schools (MERC, 2019a). To promote students’ access to the general education curriculum, teachers and CDO specialists create individual education plans based on individual student need. Each plan outlines an interdisciplinary strategy, including accommodations and adaptations, that school staff members implement for the student. Together, teachers and specialists can use the outlined strategies to support all students with disabilities in a variety of educational settings.
Educational Settings for Students With Disabilities in Cuba
According to the Ministry of Education, at the beginning of the 2015 to 2016 school year, there were 360 special schools—serving students with disabilities only. These schools employed more than 15,000 teachers and related service providers (e.g., speech-language pathologists) who educated more than 35,000 students with disabilities (MERC, 2019a). Previously, students with disabilities could only attend special schools. Now, however, families have the right to decide in which setting their children with disabilities will receive their education.
There are four educational settings for students with disabilities: (a) general schools, (b) special schools, (c) itinerant education (i.e., instruction provided at home by a certified teacher), and (d) classrooms set in pediatric hospitals (Sánchez Valdés et al., 2018). The CDOs provide orientations to parents and teachers to suggest which educational setting may be best for a particular student with a disability. However, students with learning disabilities and behavioral disorders are most likely to receive their education in general and special schools. The remainder of this section discusses these specific school settings.
General Schools
Students with disabilities who are considered academically and behaviorally prepared often attend general schools that students with and without disabilities attend. In these schools, students with disabilities may receive their education in separate special classes that only serve students with disabilities—while still receiving access to the general education curriculum—or they are fully integrated into classes in the general education setting that also includes students without disabilities. Students with learning disabilities and behavioral disorders in general schools typically receive instruction in these classes. There, students receive instruction from general education teachers as well as assistance from special education teachers, school psychologists, and other service providers who work within the school.
Special Schools
Students who need intensive support may attend special schools designed for students with their specific disability. For example, there are schools established to meet the unique needs of students with behavioral disorders. In these schools, special education teachers provide instruction using the general education curriculum, while classroom teaching aides assist. After the ninth grade, students who attend special schools have the opportunity to transfer to general schools. However, families and teachers may decide that students need to attend a special technical school. At special technical schools, students with disabilities develop skills in carpentry, plumbing, gardening, and other areas. Alternatively, families may decide that students should continue attending their current special school until the age of 21 years to focus on increasing their life skills and independence.
Special Education Teacher Training in Cuba
Soon after the Revolution ended in 1959, the Soviet Union began to provide economic aid to Cuba. However, the Soviet Union could no longer provide support after its collapse in 1991. Without economic support from the Soviet Union, an economic crisis known as the “Special Period in Time of Peace” began. Despite the country’s success in education thus far, the financial hardship during this time had lasting effects on education.
The government made many efforts to combat the economic loss experienced during the Special Period. For example, the government created tourist zones to increase foreign tourism (Colantonio & Potter, 2006). In addition, in 1993, Cuba introduced a second currency, the convertible peso, to compete with the U.S. dollar. Although citizens in most careers are paid in traditional pesos, citizens who work in tourism are paid using the convertible peso (e.g., in tips). Because the convertible peso is more valuable than the traditional peso, many workers, including teachers, could earn more money by entering the tourism industry. Due to this incentive and other factors associated with the Special Period (e.g., poor working conditions in schools), approximately 10% of teachers did not return to schools in the 1993 to 1994 school year (Álvarez & Máttar, 2004).
The large number of educators leaving the teaching profession for tourism led to a teacher shortage (Breidlid, 2007). To encourage teachers to enter into, remain in, or return to the teaching profession, the government increased the teacher salary by 30% in 1999 (Breidlid, 2007). However, the salary increase did not end the shortage (Breidlid, 2007). Therefore, in 2002, the government made another attempt to increase the number of teachers when it established “an emergency teacher certification program” (Sobe & Timberlake, 2010, p. 362).
The emergency teacher certification program allowed high school and university students to begin teaching after 1 year of coursework (although it did not originally include teaching in special education). Although revisions have since been made to teacher certification (e.g., special education is now included), tourism remains the primary industry in many provinces, and the teacher shortage remains in many provinces as well. In fact, in 2018, the Ministry of Education reported that Cuba was facing a shortage of approximately 10,000 teachers prior to the start of the 2018 to 2019 school year. Thus, there is still a need for a large increase in new teachers and the retention of experienced teachers.
Pathways of Teacher Preparation
Today, there are two major routes to becoming a certified special education teacher: (a) attending a pedagogical school and (b) attending a university. Pedagogical schools are technical high schools that prepare adolescents to become teachers. Students enter pedagogical school upon completion of the ninth grade. When students finish their 4 years of pedagogical schooling (i.e., grades 10–13), they graduate with their high school diplomas and teacher certifications. These certifications allow high school graduates to begin their work as teachers and to start their university studies to pursue bachelor’s degrees, if they choose.
Students who do not attend pedagogical schools, but intend to teach, attend preuniversities, or nontechnical high schools, beginning in the 10th grade. Once these students complete the 12th grade, they attend universities to enroll in pedagogical classes and gain teaching experience. When preservice teachers graduate with their university degrees, they typically become basic secondary or preuniversity teachers who major in both general education and a specific content area. However, university students can also become trained as special education teachers.
Curriculum Focus
Preservice special education teachers (PSETs) learn about the psychological needs and characteristics of children with disabilities in their first-year introduction to special education course. During remaining years, PSETs take general pedagogical classes, such as instructional method courses in Spanish and math, and a course on speech therapy. In addition, PSETs complete separate courses on educating students with (a) emotional and behavioral disorders, (b) psychological developmental delay, (c) intellectual disability, (d) hearing impairment, (e) visual disability, (f) physical limitations, and (g) complex disabilities. Across these classes, PSETs develop knowledge of instructional methods and tools to meet the needs of students with particular disabilities. Although PSETs in pedagogical schools and universities both enroll in courses on special education instruction, the curricula differ between the two types of institutions in other ways.
In 2016, the current higher education plan, “Study Plan E,” redesigned university programs. One of the changes in Study Plan E was a reorganized curriculum that reduced the length of university programs, including university teacher preparation programs, from 5 to 4 years. Under Study Plan E, university students also enroll in courses tailored to the unique context of their university and province (e.g., specific research interests) as well as to their individual interests. Thus, Study Plan E incorporates flexibility in university teacher preparation that allows PSETs to explore specific interests and develop their expertise in a subfield of special education.
Student Teaching
Preservice special education teachers at both pedagogical schools and universities participate in student teaching after a short preparatory period (e.g., after 1 year of coursework). During student teaching, a certified teacher, known as a master teacher, observes and supports each PSET at the school where they will teach upon certification. In some cases, PSETs have the opportunity to work with the exact students they will teach upon program completion (i.e., when those students enter the next grade). For example, a student teacher in her final year of practicum may student-teach the first-grade students whom she will teach as second graders when she is a certified teacher. By the end of their programs, PSETs have gained valuable experience in teaching and supporting students with disabilities. Thus, these experiences equip them with skills that will increase their effectiveness as novice teachers.
Program Culmination
In addition to coursework and student teaching, PSETs prepare for a professional exercise that serves as a culmination of their studies in their fourth year. A professional exercise may involve, among other options, presenting a case study of a student with a disability and discussing the student’s needs and potential solutions or completing a special education final examination. Preservice special education teachers complete professional exercises in front of a board of specialists that evaluates whether they are prepared to be certified special education teachers.
Conclusion
All too often problems in special education appear intractable. However, the historical narrative of special education in Cuba—catalyzed by the Revolution—suggests that the country sustains a commitment to bettering the outcomes of all students with disabilities. Indeed, Cuba continuously aims to improve educational access and teacher practices for students with learning disabilities and behavioral disorders. Nonetheless, Cuba is not immune to issues in special education. In fact, this column demonstrates that Cuba faces many of the same issues the United States faces: issues related to teacher shortages, special education teacher preparation, and the identification and placement of students with learning disabilities and behavioral disorders. Thus, special education professionals in the United States can benefit from this global perspective.
Footnotes
Authors’ Note
The information presented in the current article was gathered during the annual cultural exchange Búsquedas Investigativas: Investigación de la Práctica Educativa Cubana (
) in 2018 and supplemented with primary and secondary sources, including continued conversation with Cuban education professionals after the exchange.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.