Exploring the Development of a Culturally Responsive School Readiness Program to Support Autistic Children
Exploring the Development of a Culturally Responsive School Readiness Program to Support Autistic Children

Summary/Abstract: The development of culturally responsive, evidence-based educational interventions across international contexts requires systematic frameworks that include both scientific rigor and cultural validity. This case study describes and utilizes a cross-cultural development framework and an adapted culturally responsive research rubric designed to guide and evaluate international collaboration in special education intervention development. Using the Ready4School project as a case study, a six- country initiative involving organizations from Czechia, North Macedonia, Cyprus, Croatia, Greece, and Ukraine developing autism spectrum disorder school readiness resources. The cross-cultural development framework operationalized four core principles: local expertise integration, iterative feedback loops, flexible adaptation with evidence-based fidelity, and targeted stakeholder engagement for sustainability. An adapted culturally responsive research rubric evaluated the cultural competence of the development process across six domains: problem formation, design and logic, sources of evidence, measurement processes, analysis and interpretation, and dissemination. These applications are expressed throughout the project‘s development of teacher training curricula, developmental assessments, lesson plans, and data collection tools. Through this case study review, we aim to provide a replicable model for conducting culturally competent international intervention development that addresses the critical gap between evidence-based practice requirements and cultural adaptation needs in global special education contexts, offering tools for developing interventions across diverse international settings.

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