Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Social Emotional Learning (Sel) For Secondary English Language Learners (Ells), Summer E. Wallace

Honors Projects

This literature review and unit plan seeks to understand what Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is and provide resources to educators on its importance in the classroom. The literature review provides an overview of peer-reviewed sources from various educational journals, as well as online publications. It also contains interviews with two educators currently in the field. This project examines the benefits of SEL within the classroom and beyond, and proposes steps and considerations for implementing SEL into the classroom. It also includes specific provisions for SEL instruction to secondary English Language Learners (ELLs). Additionally, it discusses specific strategies to implement in …

A Framework For Teaching Maya Aspect System: Pedagogical Strategies For Maya Grammar, Quetzil E. Castañeda

Journal of Maya Heritage

Abstract. Maya, an Indigenous language spoken primarily in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, remains under-resourced in materials for second-language and heritage-language learners. Its agglutinative morphology, split ergativity, and aspect system pose particular pedagogical challenges, especially when Maya grammar is explained through Spanish or English tense categories. Based on a critical review of existing teaching resources and the author’s more than twenty years of experience teaching Maya, this article proposes a pedagogical framework for understanding its aspect grammar. Rather than organizing verbal morphology around tense, the framework distinguishes four principal conjugational forms: Ongoing Incomplete, Simple Past, Completed Present, and Subjunctive. It also introduces …

Free Ebook! Research And Reflections On Southeast Asian American Education And Advancement, Wayne E. Wright

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Free eBook available:

• Purdue University Press (PDF and EPUB formats)
• Amazon (Kindle version)

Co-edited by our JSAAEA Editorial Team, this book is in commemoration of the 20^th Anniversary of the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement (JSAAEA) and the 50^th Anniversary of Southeast Asian refugee resettlement in the United States. A paperback version is also available.

This special collection celebrates the contributions of scholars whose works focus on Southeast Asian American (SEAA) issues and highlights empirical research, book reviews, and creative works from SEAA scholars and community leaders whose voices have been prominent in the journal …

Broadening The Community Of Nudibranch Enthusiasts Through Multilingual Educational Programming To Increase Climate Advocacy Engagement, Richelle Li Tanner, Cintya Felix Mendivil, Ashley Lam, Lorena Muñoz, Micah Kim, Elena G. Morales Poot, Gabrielle Keeler-May

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Environmental literacy and advocacy for environmental protections are essential components of responsible stewardship. For coastal communities, stewardship requires knowledge of ocean processes and the biological communities living within these ecosystems. While many studies highlight difficulties in engaging American audiences in environmental concern and stewardship due to hyper-individualistic societal values, tidepooling is one recreational pathway to coastal community engagement that strengthens sense of place, and therefore, responsibility to protect natural resources. We sought to broaden the tidepooling community to include more diverse voices through a participatory science program with inland city-dwelling, multilingual, and non-English speaking adults. Using nudibranchs as an environmental …

The Lessons I Never Took, Nadia Luong

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

“The Lessons I Never Took” is a lyric poem rooted in the author’s experience growing up as a first-generation Cambodian American child in an immigrant family. The poem examines how socioeconomic hardship and language brokering shape a child’s relationship to desire, responsibility, and unrealized possibility. While other children receive formal lessons that allow their interests and talents to be discovered, the speaker develops unrecognized interpretive skill by helping her parents navigate English-speaking institutions. Without assigning blame, the poem holds parental sacrifice and childhood loss together, revealing how survival can limit not only access to enrichment but also a child’s opportunity …

Impact And Utilization Of Asl Lab Spaces In University Settings, Nathan J. Dutra, Michele Vincent

Journal of Interpretation

American Sign Language (ASL) is a challenging yet rapidly growing language taught at both secondary and higher education levels. Despite its increasing popularity, there is limited literature on utilizing ASL labs as learning centers. This quantitative study examines the implementation of a new ASL lab at a large four-year university in California. It investigates the factors influencing participation, the motivations behind students' involvement, and their perceptions of the lab's effectiveness. Results indicate significant associations between course modality, instructor influence, and lab participation. The study suggests that ASL labs function as cultural and educational spaces that promote visibility of Deaf culture …

Centering California’S Black Multilingual Learners: Intersections, Equity, And (In)Visibilities, Ayanna Cooper, Ed.D., Magaly Lavadenz, Ph.D., Elvira G. Armas, Ed.D., Malane Morales Van-Hecke

Education and Policy Briefs

Grounded in an asset-based approach to educational transformation, this education and policy brief presents an exploratory inquiry into Black Multilingual Learners (BMLs) in California, recognizing the intersection of their racial, linguistic, and cultural identities. The inquiry draws on statewide demographic and English language proficiency data, relevant research, student and educator bright spots, and the Young, Bilingual and Black in California Survey of local educational agency representatives. Three key findings emerged: Visibility Gaps in state reporting systems, an Intersectional Data Gap caused by the absence of disaggregated racial data on public-facing data platforms, and an Infrastructure Gap in local data collection …

Designated Eld Through Evidence-Based Practices, Aida Walquí, Ph.D., Magaly Lavadenz, Ph.D.

Center on English Language Proficiency Implementation Briefs

Designated English Language Development through Evidence-Based Practices is the third in a four-part series assisting educational agencies in implementing high-quality, comprehensive English Language Development (ELD) systems. This brief bridges the gap between research and practice by illustrating what implementation looks like for evidence-based practices in Designated ELD (DELD) curriculum and instruction. It introduces an ecological model of learning—conceptualizing education across macro- and micro-systems—alongside five fundamental shifts in classroom practice: Teaching as Apprenticeship, Language as Action, No Isolated Language Practice, Non-Linear Spiraling Design, and Vocabulary Taught in Context. Additionally, the brief outlines key guidelines for heterogeneous group composition and a productive …

Translating Higher Education Into Vietnamese: An Applied Linguistics Approach To Language Equity And Higher Education Access, Z.W. Taylor, Alan Do, Jase Kugiya, Tuan Le

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

One growing population of non-native English speakers in the U.S. education system are native Vietnamese speakers, yet no studies have examined how higher education communication could be made more accessible for Vietnamese speakers. As a result, this case study reports on human and machine translational linguistics work conducted in partnership with the University of Iowa focused on simplifying and translating English enrollment management information into Vietnamese. Findings suggest that the institution increased the clarity and accessibility of enrollment management information by using second-person pronouns, shorter sentence structures, clearer diction, and explanations of institution-specific jargon. Moreover, analyses of machine and human …

The Negotiated Identities Of Refugee-Background Women During Resettlement, Iuliia Fakhrutdinova

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Refugee-background women experience unique challenges while resettling in the U.S. as they navigate complicated transnational gender roles, education gaps, migration trauma, learning a new language, and literacy in the adaptation process during resettlement, which can derail the productive paths they are on. Therefore, ignoring refugee-background women’s unique experiences and failing to understand their identities prevents our society from doing social justice and creating a space for a smooth adaptation to the new context. Language plays a paramount role in identity formation, as it moves away from the belief that identity is an essential concept. For refugee-background women during resettlement, their …

Traversing The Broken Staircase: The Experiences Of Academic Neglect For Black & Brown First-Generation College Students, Kashmeel D. Mckoena

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Although Black and Brown students are diversifying college campuses and opening doors for their families as new cohorts of first-generation collegians, they often find themselves silently dealing with the aftermath of academic neglect from U.S. secondary education. This phenomenon can be understood from extant literature as absence of reliable guidance, mentorship, resources, and support that help students persist and succeed in their academic goals. Existing explanations of grit and resilience (Duckworth et al., 2007) not only erase the existence and impact of academic neglect, but also mask the creative solutions and compensatory strategies that Black and Brown first-generation college students …

Factorial Structure Of A Bilingual Progress Monitoring Tool For Mindfulness Interventions, Andrea V. Molina Palacios

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are an increasingly popular option for schools to support youth in each of the multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). MBIs have proven to increase attention, help with emotion regulation, decrease symptoms of anxiety and depression, and overall increase students’ wellbeing with a cost-effective package that makes it affordable for schools to implement. Moreover, MBIs have also proven to be effective for Hispanic youth who are at a higher risk of experiencing low access to mental health care and higher levels of poverty, which puts them at risk for dropping out and having low academic achievement. However, there …

Remixing Dialogue: A Case Study On Perceptions Of Hip Hop Pedagogy In A Professional Learning Course, Kelly J. Thelen

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This qualitative case study examines how teachers’ decision-making and professional autonomy shift while participating in a Hip Hop Pedagogy Professional Learning course supported by structured FIXIT (Lo & Wachter, 2023a, 2023b, 2023c, 2023d; Wachter & Lo, 2024) game-facilitated dialogue in a rural, culturally and linguistically diverse Midwest community. Grounded in Freire’s (1970) Critical Pedagogy, Ladson-Billings’ (1995) Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Paris and Alim, 2017), and Adult Learning Theory (Knowles et al., 2005), the study explores the reclamation of agency by teachers in a time of constrained creativity and educator autonomy shaped by strict policy environments, an emphasis on …

Reading Comprehension Success For Multilingual Learners, Meilian Wang

Masters Projects

Multilingual learners (MLs) often struggle with reading comprehension as they simultaneously develop English language proficiency and learn grade-level academic content. Although research has identified effective instructional strategies for supporting ML reading comprehension, many general education teachers feel underprepared to implement these strategies effectively. This project examines the research-based approaches for supporting ML’s reading comprehension while addressing the need for sustained professional learning and instructional coaching for classroom teachers. The literature reviewed in this project focuses on sociocultural theory, translanguaging, culturally responsive pedagogy, and the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). There will be additional research-based instructional strategies such as explicit vocabulary …

The Effects Of Using Home Language Vs English In Teaching Safety Skills, Emma Ruiz

Thesis Projects

Cultural competence and cultural awareness are terms that have started to become more widely used when discussing how therapists impact their clients. The push for cultural competence and awareness has started to create new questions about how a client’s culture can be intertwined with the services that they are receiving. The purpose of this study was to teach a combination of basic safety skills and identify if language impacted behavior. This study utilized one participant who did not acquire the skill to stop in either language. During the experiment, a third language was added to measure control; however, responding remained …

Addressing Haitian High School Students’ Educational Challenges Through Their Self-Cultural Awareness, Gregory Louis

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

The study is grounded in the understanding that culturally responsive education practices can promote academic success and empower students to navigate multiple cultural contexts. A review of literature highlighted the complexities of Haitian students' educational experiences, the impact of cultural identity on academic achievement, and the need for further research on this topic.

The research employed in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Haitian high school students and their parents to gather data on their experiences, perceptions, and attitudes towards education and cultural identity. The study aimed to contribute to a deeper understanding of the educational experiences of Haitian students and inform strategies …

Contradiction And Critical Consciousness: Engaging Canadian University Students In Racial Dialogue On Anti-Chinese Racism, Dan Cui

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

This study examines how Canadian university students perceived and engaged with anti-Chinese racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on grounded theory and interviews and written reflections from 28 undergraduates at a predominantly White university, the study analyzes students’ contradictory understandings of racism shaped by media, national narratives, and prior educational experiences. Informed by Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, it conceptualizes these tensions as a contradictory racialized habitus, in which awareness and denial, empathy and distancing, coexist. Three themes emerged: contradictory orientations toward anti-Chinese racism, the transnational influence of U.S. political discourse, and the limited transformative impact of a social justice course. …

Equitable Science Instruction For Diverse Learners: Differentiation With Consideration For Multilingual Students, Alicia Reyelts

Masters Projects

Multilingual learners (MLs) continue to experience persistent achievement gaps in science, often due to the linguistic demands of academic language and the limited availability of instructional supports within general education classrooms. As classrooms become increasingly diverse, science teachers require practical instructional resources that promote equitable access to rigorous, standards based learning while supporting students' language development. This master's project addresses this need through the development of a differentiated seventh-grade chemistry unit aligned with the Michigan Middle School Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The project is grounded in the principles of differentiated instruction (DI), drawing upon the work of Tomlinson as …

Addressing The Absence Of Formal Curriculum In Dual Language Immersion Program, Janet Roque

FDLA Journal

This strategic research project (SRP) was designed to provide a comprehensive, actionable solution to the critical challenge of inconsistent instruction resulting from the absence of a formal, aligned curriculum within the district’s Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program. This gap had previously led to instructional variability, disparate student outcomes, and increased teacher frustration due to a lack of shared resources and pedagogical direction. The project’s central objective was to develop, implement, and evaluate a vertically and horizontally aligned DLI curriculum framework designed to ensure instructional fidelity, promote sustained academic achievement, and guarantee equitable opportunities for biliteracy development across all participating grade …

Multimodal Digital Libraries: A Response To Culturally And Linguistically Sustaining Classrooms, Abigail Lopez

Masters Projects

Poorly represented minority groups fail to connect reader identity backgrounds

with the characters in texts due to curriculum traditionally relying on English dominant

translations. This system challenge deficit fails students by placing limitations on the

exposure of rich vocabulary, cultural awareness and sets up lack of engagement. This

project is grounded in Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Pedagogy, Sociocultural

Theory, Constructing Reader Identities and Engagement theories that transforms

student diversity into an instructional practice that empowers multilingual learners.

To empower students, this digital culturally relevant library optimizes educator

planning time. This digital library provides immediate access to multicultural books

alongside a …