Dissertation Defense: Ebony Perouse-Harvey

Research that documents the challenges within special education continue to demonstrate that students of color experience issues of overrepresentation, restrictive placements, and exclusionary practices despite the re authorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act in 2004 and updates to procedural safeguards designed to protect the rights of students identified with disabilities and their parents. General educators are the first-line gatekeepers for students' entry into special education, making approximately 90% of initial referrals for services. This highlights the necessity for general educators to have the collaborative skills, advocacy skills, and racial literacy necessary to make recommendations that disrupt existing inequities. Limited studies exist that document the type and quality of professional development in special education that pre-service general educators receive in their teacher development programs. This demonstrates the need to more closely document and analyze the training pre-service general educators receive to prepare them for the role they will hold in the special education process. Practice-based teacher education pedagogy - particularly simulations of IEP meetings - is one method of supporting general educator collaborative skills, advocacy skills, and racial literacy. This dissertation seeks to answer the following research questions: (1) In a course that addresses issues of inequity in special education, how do pre-service general educators' (PSTs) conceptualization of inequity and their role as a member of the IEP team shift over time? (2) How do pre-service general educators' enactments with a Black parent of a student identified with a disability change between pre- and post-simulations?

Committee members are Dr. Chandra Alston (chair), Dr. Jacqueline Mattis (cognate, Psychology), Dr. Debi Khasnabis, Dr. Deborah Ball, Dr. Troy Mariage.