Equity in education has become increasingly prioritized, due to the growing mainstream recognition of the inequitable practices that historically have and presently continue to exist in K-12 education. With the K-12 student population diversity continuously increasing in areas such as abilities, race/ethnicities, socioeconomic status, languages,…

This article explores the parallels experienced when pre-service teachers and those teaching multilingual students in elementary school design classroom spaces around the Right of the Learner to speak, listen, and be heard. We share examples of democratic commitments and shifts in our own understandings of the role of the teacher and professor. We…

This year-long multiple case study examines how three elementary-level ESL teachers understood their advocacy for emerging bilinguals, what tensions arose during their advocacy, and how they dealt with those tensions. Interviews, teaching artefacts, and observations were analyzed using a theoretical model informed by third space theory and…

In this position paper we present research and data demonstrating how pedagogical frameworks traditionally used in TESOL contexts can be harnessed by world language (WL) educators to scaffold language learning and advocate for emergent multilingual language learners (EMLLs). Focusing on three pedagogical frameworks--Sheltered Instruction…

The number of emergent bilingual students in the United States increased by over half a million students between 2010 and 2020, and Texas' school counselor ratios do not reflect the minimum ratio recommended nationally, nor do they reflect the recommended ratio by The Texas Counseling Association, Texas Association of Secondary School Principals,…

This autoethnographic study uses personal memoirs to explore the author's allyship and advocacy efforts throughout the past 24 years in the language teaching profession. Through the process of self-reflexivity and introspection, "turning points" are investigated to understand more about what influences the actions and behaviors of…

As two-way immersion (TWI) programs continue to grow in the U.S., it is urgent that teachers counter deficit ideologies about bilingual children who come marginalized backgrounds. Neoliberalism ideologies have contributed to the growth of TWI programs because parents from mostly white and upper middle-class backgrounds see the economic/global…

As schools seek to bridge the cultural and linguistic gap between special educators and students at the intersections of learning and language, the case described in this article illustrates how educators can continue to apply one of the key tenets of special education, the strengths-based approach. The hegemony of English has become so pervasive…

This study investigates how an elementary-level content classroom teacher and an elementary-level ESL teacher in a metropolitan region in Massachusetts negotiated teachers' identities and identity dissonances in teachers' attempt to advocate for emergent bilinguals. Using critical discourse analysis of qualitative data, this study examines the…

This study examines how three bilingual education teachers engaged with a transitional bilingual policy while balancing the demands of monolingual high-stakes assessments in ways that contributed to advocacy on behalf of their bilingual learners. The consequences of high-stakes accountability can be exacerbated in bilingual settings, because in…

Across the United States, school stakeholders are grappling with how best to serve the large and often marginalized student subgroup of emergent bilingual learners (EBLs), which includes preparing the wide array of teachers who work with EBLs. This mixed-method study probes one university's efforts to prepare teachers spanning settings from early…

In this qualitative case study, six novice English as a second language (ESL) teachers in a graduate course were asked to describe how they had enacted advocacy for emergent bilinguals. Data were gathered from pre- and post- surveys and semistructured interviews conducted after the semester ended. While the ESL teachers in this study were willing…

This article explores an action-oriented research study designed to provide better understanding of ways to leverage school and community partnership through family engagement, focusing on the development and enactment of an approach to nurture family-school partnerships. Specifically, in partnership with seven school districts, a team of…

Throughout education history, inequities have evolved in our public schools. History has attested to numerous injustices, such as segregation, unequal funding, undifferentiated teaching of English learners, within our school systems. The rise of a pandemic revealed how layered and problematic these injustices were entrenched in our public school…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Policy Priorities." Contents include: (1) IDRA Kicks Off 50th Anniversary…