Congratulations to Antoinette Joyce Mattis who on Thursday, April 9, 2026, successfully defended her dissertation.
The title of Antoinette’s dissertation is "DIALECT, NOT DISABILITY: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF TEACHERS' MULTICULTURAL COMPETENCE AND SPECIAL EDUCATION (PRE)REFERRALS."
Overview of Problem: Skiba et al. (2008) emphasized that "the disproportionate representation of minority students is among special education's most critical and enduring problems" (p. 264). The ongoing (mis)alignment between students' cultural experiences and the predominantly White teaching workforce contributes to these inequities, as many educators may not fully understand or reflect the cultural backgrounds of African-Caribbean students.
Research Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand general education elementary teachers’ pre referral actions and decisions when referring African-Caribbean students to special education. Guided by the theoretical framework of multicultural competence (Pope et al., 2004), the study explored how teachers in New York and Florida described and enacted their multicultural competence when referring African-Caribbean students for special education services.
Research Design: Interpretive methodology with qualitative methods
Sample: Seventeen K-5th-grade teachers from New York and Florida participated in the study.
Data Collection and Analysis: Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using an inductive and deductive thematic approach.
Findings: Findings revealed four major themes: (a) dialectal and linguistic differences were often misinterpreted as indicators of disability, (b) teachers’ assumptions and preconceived notions influenced early judgments of student ability, (c) limited professional development contributed to uncertainty in distinguishing language differences from disability, and (d) family perceptions and stigma influenced (pre)referral decisions.
Conclusions/Implications: This study concluded that general education teachers’ multicultural competence plays a critical role in shaping prereferral and referral decision-making for African-Caribbean students. Teachers’ descriptions of their multicultural knowledge, awareness, and skill shaped their responses to students’ linguistic and cultural differences and determined how those differences were interpreted as cultural and linguistic differences or misidentified as indicators of disability. These findings suggest that improving prereferral and referral practices require greater attention to culturally responsive teaching, dialect and language awareness, and reflective practices that address implicit assumptions. Implications for practice include the need for sustained professional development, more structured prereferral processes that incorporate cultural and linguistic considerations, and stronger culturally responsive family engagement practices.
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE CHAIR:
Dr. Susan V. Iverson
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Dr. Joanne Marien
Dr. LaShorage Shaffer
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