Language and Literacies: Bilingual Education

Effective and equitable work with bi/multilingual students requires educators and researchers to develop deep theoretical and practical understandings of the factors that impact bi/multilingual students’ lives in and beyond classrooms and schools. The graduate program in bilingual education draws on and contributes to current conceptualizations of the complex and dynamic sociocultural and linguistic factors affecting everyday bi/multilingualism—factors that include students’ background, identities, histories, experiences, language repertoires, and practices.

The graduate program employs robust theoretical, pedagogical, methodological, and curricular approaches to explore the following: (1) ways to build on and expand students’ bi/multilingualism, (2) multilingual teaching and learning across content areas, (3) bilingual education program models and their affordances and constraints, and (4) how social, cultural, political, and ideological contexts affect bi/multilingual students’ learning and educational potential. Students in the bilingual education program will have practical opportunities to engage in research projects that explore the topics described earlier. Examples include the following:

• Theoretical perspectives that advance equitable teaching, learning, and curriculum for bi/multilingual students
• Classroom experiences of bi/multilingual students in different bilingual programs/models
• Alternative programs that build on bi/multilingual students’ linguistic resources and practices
• Immigrant parents’ perspectives on bi/multilingual students’ educational opportunities
• Teacher preparation for equitably advancing bi/multilingualism
• Methodological approaches that advance novel ways to understand bi/multilingual students school experiences and learning opportunities
• Linguistic, socioeconomic, racial/ethnic diversity among bi/multilingual students
• Bi/multilingual students’ language practices in content area learning
• Design of elementary and secondary education programs that serve bi/multilingual students