Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Zoom In And Zoom Out: (Re)Telling Our Cultural Literacy Practices Through Engaged Learning, Isela Almaguer

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Empowering bilingual learners to engage in the Zoom In and Zoom Out approach is a way to enrich and validate students' cultural identity and support students' linguistic and academic development while fostering rich writing opportunities for students. Teachers will discover a genuine way that empowers students to explore vocabulary, build comprehension, and acquire a love for writing. This effective multifaceted strategy approaches writing by leveraging students' cultural background and literacy practices. Students will capitalize on their funds of knowledge and use their experiences to further propel their writing efforts. By starting from within, diverse learners make stronger connections with the …

Emotional Intelligence Documentary - The Art Of Compassion: Learning From Spain, Poetry, And Medicine, Emily E. Morin

Cultivating Emotional Intelligence through the Humanities in Spain

The Art of Compassion: Learning from Spain, Poetry, and Medicine explores how art, literature, and cultural experiences can deepen compassion and inform more human-centered healthcare. Drawing on works encountered during a Medical Humanities study abroad program in Spain, the documentary examines compassion as a skill that can be cultivated through self-reflection, recognition of shared vulnerability, and appreciation of multiple perspectives. Through analysis of poetry by Lope de Vega, Jaime Sabines, and Yehuda Halevi, alongside artworks by Diego Velázquez, Francisco Goya, and Pablo Picasso, the film connects themes of empathy, suffering, identity, and healing to contemporary clinical practice. The documentary also …

My Journey As A Migrant Bilingual Learner From Student To Teacher: Lessons Learned, Sylvia Lopez

Theses and Dissertations

These reflections in this thesis are an analysis of narratives based on my lived experiences as an immigrant, migrant student who is now a certified Bilingual & Special Education teacher servicing students, many of whom are bilingual, in public school classrooms. My goal is to connect my life experiences to teaching practices and thus embrace and celebrate my linguistic identity. Bilingual educators have a language learning journey that drives their classroom practices. When bilingual teachers reflect on their bilingual trajectory and connect their life experiences to research, they may provide spaces for stronger positive impacts on bilingual students, and their …

Emotional Intelligence Documentary - The Journey, Not The Destination: A Spain Reflection, Elise I. Palacios

Cultivating Emotional Intelligence through the Humanities in Spain

The Journey, Not the Destination follows my study abroad experience in Madrid and Toledo, Spain through a Medical Humanities course. Through art, history, culture, and personal reflection, I explore how travel broadened my understanding of the human experience and shaped my perspective as a future physician. More than a story about a place, this documentary is about growth, empathy, and the lessons we learn along the journey.

Expanding The Multivocal Video-Cued Ethnographic Method To Sow Seeds Of Conscientization In Teacher Attitudes And Practice, Kiyomi Sánchez-Suzuki Colegrove, Molly Ellen Mcmanus, Christian E. Zúñiga

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to present a methodological extension to video-cued ethnography, a qualitative approach that combines ethnography with a stimulus video to conduct focus groups, and share methodological insights drawn from our experience. In this extension, we center the knowledge of Latine immigrant parents and create dialogic opportunities between parents and teachers. We illustrate how the extension works by presenting a study that explores if and how this dialogical experience shapes bilingual/ESL teachers’ ideas and attitudes towards parents as educational partners. We share data samples that demonstrate an emerging process of conscientization through markers of humanization, such …

Teaching Nature Of Science (Nos) Through Cultural Windows: A Framework For Latinx Preservice Science Teachers, Noushin Nouri, Maryam Saberi

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

This chapter presents a comprehensive framework for teaching Nature of Science (NOS) to preservice science teachers through cultural windows, implemented through six targeted activities. The framework, developed through rigorous meta-synthesis of NOS literature and analysis of Latinx preservice teachers' autobiographies, integrates Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP) and Rightful Presence (RP) theories with NOS curriculum elements. This theoretical foundation informs the design of activities: Dolores Huerta environmental justice, Tangram exploration, historical cases, cultural picture analysis, nixtamalization black box, and family-scientist interactions. Each activity systematically maps to curriculum elements while demonstrating how the framework enables cultural knowledge integration in NOS instruction for meaningful, …

Advancing Culturally Sustaining Stem Instruction For Latinx Secondary Students: From Research To Practice Through The Monarch Migration, Maryam Saberi, Noushin Nouri

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

This chapter presents the development of a research-based STEM curriculum for Latinx students using Monarch butterfly migration phenomenon as context. Based on a systematic review of 196 articles, the study first maps eight STEM research categories for Latinx populations. It then conducts a meta-synthesis of 23 successful interventions to create a Latinx-Affirming STEM (La-STEM) curriculum framework organized around Akker's ten curriculum elements. Finally, it translates these theoretical foundations into practical implementation through a detailed Monarch butterfly migration curriculum. The Monarch phenomenon, chosen for its deep cultural resonance and scientific richness, demonstrates how each curriculum element can integrate STEM concepts with …

Cognitive Validity In Listen-To-Write Summary Tasks: A Mixed-Methods Analysis Of Notetaking Data, Rebecca Yeager, Gomee Park, Junhee Park

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This study examines the cognitive validity of a listen-to-summarize task on a university placement test. Cognitive validity is underinvestigated in listening assessment, especially for higher-order listening processes (Holzknecht et al., 2017; Rukthong, 2021). However, student notes from listening tests can record evidence of these processes (Yeager et al., 2024; Cushing, 1991). This study employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design to investigate the higher-order listening processes elicited by an integrated listen-to-summarize task. First, notes from two administrations of the same test form – one with notetaking scaffolding (n = 25) and one without (n = 25) – were analyzed qualitatively. Second, …

Promises Fulfilled: 114-Year-Old Alelia Murphy’S Life Of Faith And Resilience, Jacqueline B. Koonce

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Alelia Murphy was the oldest living person in the United States, turning 114 in July 2019 until her death in November 2019. She and her family credit her longevity to her faith in God. This premise is explored through her words as she stated she had not seen everyone she needed to see and compared that statement to Simeon from the Bible who did not die until he saw the Messiah. Alelia Murphy also had not seen everything. She was seeing the relative success of her much admired, former President Barack Obama, and she had just met me, her great …

Autoethnography, Poetic Performance Narratives, And Pláticas As Dialogues Of Radical Love, Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This piece examines Autoethnography, Poetic Performance Narratives, and Pláticas as decolonial methodologies that challenge the coloniality of knowledge and center voices historically excluded from academic discourse. These approaches honor traditions rooted in community, solidarity, and radical love, presenting lived realities without oversimplification while inviting readers to inhabit contradictions and imagine ethical possibilities for equity. Grounded in Latin American and Chicana/Latina/Indígena feminist scholarship, this work situates these practices within a legacy of decolonial epistemologies that resist dominant Western paradigms and affirm lived experience as a site of theory-making. Through this lens, the piece seeks to: (1) bear witness to shared experiences, …

Beyond Binaries, Bridging Divides: Centering Identity, Resistance, And Educational Justice Along The Texas-Mexico Border. A Critical Autoethnography Of Underrepresented Intersectionality, Invisibility, And Transformation In Education, Alexander Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation employs solo autoethnography and counter-storytelling to examine how intersecting identities, queer, neurodivergent, bilingual, and fronterizo, shape lived experiences within U.S. educational spaces along the Texas–Mexico border. Grounded in Critical Race Theory as a historical foundation and guided by the braiding logic of Intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989), the study integrates Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit), Disability Critical Race Studies (DisCrit), and Queer Theory to analyze how race, language, ability, and sexuality converge within systems of schooling.

Using memory-work, poetic autoethnography, and narrative vignettes as primary data, the dissertation traces how educational institutions discipline identity through racio-linguistic policing, behavioral surveillance, and …

Voices Of Resistance: Multilingual Identity Formation Through Translanguaging In Dual Language Bilingual Education, Fernando W. Milmo

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored how students navigated their evolving multicultural and multilingual identities in a setting with varying emphases on English and Spanish in the context of a fourth-grade dual language classroom where the teacher employed translanguaging pedagogy. This study is grounded in a theoretical framework that integrates decolonial, raciolinguistic, and translanguaging perspectives. The study examined students' perceptions of linguistic hierarchies and the ways they utilized their full linguistic repertoires to negotiate meaning, identity, and a sense of belonging. This study included pláticas as a culturally grounded narrative method, classroom observations, and interviews, and used a qualitative case study …

Dual Language In Higher Education: Assessing Student Success And Student Experiences, Katherine Christoffersen, Ramsés Ortín, Dania López García, Ming-Tsan Lu, Javier Cavazos Vela

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Although long-standing research has documented the many benefits of dual language (DL) education programs in the K-12 setting, there are few studies on the impact of DL in higher education. This study analyzes DL education at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) where certain classes are taught in Spanish or bilingually across diverse disciplines. In this mixed methods research study, we examine (1) how enrollment in these classes impacts student success through an analysis of cumulative grade point averages, retention, and time to degree and (2) how students perceive these classes through an analysis of course evaluations and surveys responses from current …

Reflections Of Linguistic Experiences In A Borderland: Influences On Cultural Identity And Teacher Praxis, Iliana Cantu

Theses and Dissertations

This Autoethnographic dissertation uses autohistoria-teoria to critically analyze my lived curriculum as a Mexican-born raised in the borderland of the Rio Grande Valley. This research aims to understand the influence of my linguistic experiences on my cultural identity and teaching praxis within the same context. Drawing from Anzaldua’s (1987) concept of Borderlands as a contextual lens and Raciolinguistics as a theoretical framework, I examine and reflect on key linguistic experiences that have perpetuated colonizing linguistic practices rather than fostered linguistic diversity. Additionally, Culturally Linguistic Sustaining Pedagogy serves as a framework to critically analyze my teaching praxis in relation to my …

Barriers To Hispanic Post-Secondary Education In Science Fields, Luis Slayton

Theses and Dissertations

The study aimed to examine whether external barriers could be identified and are present throughout a Hispanic individual's educational life. The beliefs of the Hispanic community regarding education and the nature of acquiring an education could be relevant to the factors that impede the completion of high school. A survey approach was chosen as the methodology for the study due to the confidential nature of a questionnaire. Human nature tends to be more honest when not asked personal questions face-to-face. Additionally, there is potential to generalize attributes from a small sample to a larger population, allowing inferences about the identified …

La Imposición Del Neoliberalismo En México: Resistencia Y Opresión Del Profesorado De Lenguas A Nivel Universitario, David Martinez-Prieto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Este estudio utiliza las ideas de Althusser (1970) sobre el aparato ideológico del Estado para examinar las trayectorias de profesores (n=4) de lenguas que enseñaron en la Meritoria Universidad de Puebla, una de las principales universidades públicas en México. A través del análisis de los testimonios de dichos participantes, el presente trabajo analiza la represión de la comunidad universitaria durante la imposición de políticas neoliberales que pretendían privatizar la educación pública y limitar el derecho a la libertad de cátedra en esta universidad. De igual forma, en este artículo se examina la opresión que los docentes de lengua han experimentado …

Acquisition Of The Tap-Trill-Lateral Contrast By Speakers Of L1 Cantonese-L2 Spanish, José Esteban Hernández

Spanish Faculty Publications

In the present study an assessment of the on-target and off-target production of liquids (laterals and rhotics) is undertaken in a corpus of second language (L2) Spanish. The Chinese-origin participants have immigrated to Mexicali, Mexico where they have acquired L2 Spanish in a natural setting. As a major aim, a quantitative analysis of the data is performed to determine the production of on-target and off-target articulations in lateral, tap, thrill, and syllable-coda rhotic. Internal and external factors are considered in the analysis; for example, liquid production in syllable onset, coda and consonant clusters was considered. The data were subjected to …

Translanguaging As A Cultural Bridge: Entretejiendo Voces Bilingües En La Frontera [Translanguaging As A Cultural Bridge: Interweaving Bilingual Voices At The Border], Gloria Sarahi Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

El presente estudio cualitativo explora las autohistorias de cuatro maestras bilingües que viven y enseñan en el Valle del Sur de Texas, una región fronteriza entre Estados Unidos y México. A través de pláticas íntimas, tejimos juntas narrativas que revelan la complejidad de ser mujer, ser educadora, ser transnacional, y ser bilingüe en un espacio donde las lenguas, culturas e identidades se cruzan, se fracturan y se reconstruyen. “Pláticas can provide a space of healing as the platicadoras release past trauma and current struggles rigged with sexism, racism, classism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism” (Morales et al., 2023). Utilizando un …

Exploring Secondary Content And Career And Technical Education (Cte) Teacher Self-Efficacy In Supporting The Literacy Needs Of Long-Termed Emergent Bilinguals: A Mixed-Methods Inquiry, Jennifer Louise Burden

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation employed a mixed-methods convergent design, incorporating survey data and semi-structured interviews to investigate the self-efficacy of high school teachers in content areas and Career and Technical Education (CTE) towards their perceived abilities to support emergent bilingual students, particularly in content-specific literacy.

Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of Bandura's (1977) self-efficacy theory and Dweck's (2008) growth mindset, this study explores how educators' perceptions of their abilities impact their instructional practices and student outcomes.

Findings reveal a need for more training and resources to increase student engagement, which impacts academic outcomes and attendance and calls for comprehensive reforms in teacher …

¿Puedo Decirlo En Español?: Teacher Views On Utilizing Translanguaging Pedagogies To Bridge The Language Gap In Secondary Classrooms, Luis Carlos Bocanegra

Theses and Dissertations

Translanguaging disrupts the notion of language as a fixed, separate system, offering a deeper insight into how individuals fluidly navigate and construct meaning across linguistic boundaries. This research study uses narrative research and participatory action research to employ translanguaging as a pedagogical framework to create inclusive spaces where emergent bilinguals could fully utilize their linguistic repertoire in secondary schools in the borderlands of the Rio Grande Vally in deep South Texas.

The findings of this study are organized into two overarching themes: cultural relevance and inclusivity in borderland schools, which brings to light the importance of culture, inclusivity, and supportive …

Linguistic (In) Security And Persistence In Doctoral Studies: A Mixed-Methods Study Of The Impact Of Metapragmatic Discourses On The Persistence Of Multilingual Doctoral Students, Germaine Tondji

Theses and Dissertations

Linguistic beliefs and practices in doctoral studies have often been overlooked, partly due to the assumption that advanced students face fewer language-related challenges. However, research on multilingualism in hypernormative academic contexts suggests that linguistic concerns persist even among the most educated. Multilingual doctoral students (MDSs) operate at the intersection of multiple linguistic and epistemic systems. In English-dominant, monoglossic environments, they must not only navigate the complexities of doctoral study but also reconcile competing linguistic and epistemic identities. This study explores the role of linguistic insecurity (LI) in MDSs' doctoral persistence through a mixed-methods design. The quantitative phase draws on survey …

Exploring The “4-Trans” In Bi/Multilingual Teacher Education: Introduction To The Special Issue, Sandra I. Musanti, David Martinez-Prieto, Xiaodi Zhou

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

In this introductory essay, the editors of the special issue on the 4-trans in bi/multilingual teacher education, highlight the contributions of one or more of the “4-trans” lenses—transnationalism, transculturalism, translanguaging, and transdisciplinarity—to explain, question, challenge, or propose new ways of understanding bi/multilingual teacher education. Eight articles that challenge monolithic perspectives of teacher education are presented.

Dialogic Foundations Of The “4-Trans” Framework: Towards A Comprehensive And Dynamic Understanding Of Multilingual Teacher Education, David Martinez-Prieto, Sandra I. Musanti, Xiaodi Zhou

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

In this article, we develop the “4-trans” framework by reflecting on the way current multilingual teacher preparation scholarship has addressed translanguaging, transnationalism, transculturality, and transdisciplinarity either in compartmentalized or integrative manners. While current literature has addressed some “trans” intersections, we propose the enunciation of the “4-trans” as permeable and complementary principles in multilingual education that can serve to better examine the experiences and challenges of multilingual pre-service teachers. To amalgamate the “4-trans” to examine the development of multilingual pre-service teachers, this article describes the construction of a multidimensional framework based on a dialogic conception of social …

A Manifesto To Young Activist Scientists And Science Educators: Toward Pluriversal Sciences And Science Educations Within Bioregions And Communities, James C. Jupp

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

What follows is a manifesto to substantiate four theses. First, science and science education are not what they purport to be and require recategorization as technoscience and technoscience education. Second, technoscience and technoscience education are constituted in the pernicious whiteness of coloniality and need to be understood as mechanisms of domination. Third, pluriversal sciences and science educations toward bioregion and community are emerging and require leveraging. Fourth, the notion of contextual mitigating factors provides an essential analytic for pluriversal sciences and science educations. The manifesto is a clarion call for affinity …

The B3 Scholar Seal: Designing And Implementing An Alternative To The Sobl At A Hispanic-Serving Institution In South Texas, Katherine Christoffersen, Dania López García

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

This chapter describes how the Bilingualism, Biculturalism, and Biliteracy (B3) Institute at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) developed the B3 Scholar Seal. Since its founding, UTRGV has provided a rare example of dual language education at the university level, offering courses taught bilingually or in Spanish across diverse disciplines. However, the language of these courses was not formally recognized upon graduation. The B3 Institute developed the B3 Scholar Seal to acknowledge students who successfully complete five courses, including at least three courses taught in Spanish or bilingually and at least one course, including culturally sustaining pedagogy. In …

Resisting Neoliberalism: Testimonios Of Language Teachers As Social Activists, David Martinez-Prieto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This study examines the testimonios of Mexican language teachers who experienced the violent and institutional imposition of neoliberal policies at the main university at the state of Puebla. Through the analysis of testimonios, language teachers narrated their own trajectories to resist the implementation of the neoliberal policies, such as the restriction of teaching freedom for educators, the elimination of the right to free education for students, and the current subjugation educators experience at the site of study. Based on the Foucauldian concepts of sovereign and institutional power, along with governmentality, this article analyzes the activism of language teachers, and …

Decolonizing Educational Research: Pláticas As Sites Of Reciprocity, Vulnerability, And Reflexivity, Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Non-Plus Ultra Ideologies In Multilingual Teacher Education Research: Towards Real Inclusion, David Martinez-Prieto, Xiaodi Zhou

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

In this duo autoethnography, we reflect on the ideologies prevailing in the United States regarding the use of English as the de facto academic language. In a parallel manner, we analyze the ideologies embedded in the rejection of academic variations in other languages (i.e., Spanish and Mandarin). We collected data from 2016 to 2023 in physical and digital spaces while interacting with U.S. academia. To analyze our experiences, we used a framework that combined critical literacies and language ideologies. We found the rejection of non-English academic domains related to structural and epistemological ideologies present in some U.S. institutions and among …

Los Retos And Opportunities Del Transnational Translanguaging In English-Language Teaching Programs In Mexico, David Martinez-Prieto, Sue Kasun, Peter Sayer

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Nuestro principal objetivo en este ensayo es promover el uso del translingüismo como una alternativa para la formación de profesorado bilingüe en universidades mexicanas. Defendemos esta postura no simplemente por las ventajas pedagógicas del translingüismo, sino como una imperiosa necesidad ante la multiculturalidad y transnacionalismo de los futuros docentes de lengua inglesa en México. En otras palabras, en este ensayo promovemos el uso de translanguaging as a reaction towards the reproduction of systemic oppression which occurs in many English Language Teaching programs in Mexican universities regarding nativism, raciolinguistics, and irreflective neoliberalism.

Black Lives Still Matter: Freedom Schools As An Embodiment Of Critical Literacy Through Reflection And Action, Elena M. Venegas, Lakia M. Scott

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

The continuation of racial inequities in the United States has ignited the recent Black Lives Matter Movement, a protest of police brutality and gun violence. Black lives matter in public school classrooms, too—where students of color face barriers to equitable educational experiences. The Children's Defense Fund Freedom School program is a major component in developing critical literacy skills through critique, inquiry, and transformation through social justice and action. Critical literacy is enacted through identity—mainly as difference, self, consciousness, narrative, and positionality. Historical and contemporary relevance of Freedom Schools connects to the urgency of the Black Lives Matter Movement.