This state-of-the-art paper is centered on bilingual education teachers' linguistic qualifications with special reference to Spanish competencies needed to meet the needs of emergent bilingual education learners in the U.S. The paper spans over a forty-year period drawing on the experiences and related publications of the principal author…

Education and outreach bring science to the general public, engage families, and ignite a passion for science in youth to seek careers in STEM. However, engagement in science depends on access, and language can be a major barrier. To ensure a welcoming, inclusive, and diverse community in the geosciences, we are calling for a community of practice…

The author posits that if teachers can tap into family funds of knowledge, they can be better prepared to foster parental and family engagement.

This article is a personal reflection about the acknowledgement of my "taken-for-granted frames of reference" (Mezirow, 2003, p. 59), which were replicating the hegemonic narrative I grew up surrounded by as a white, Mexican, Spanish-speaker; while hindering a more thorough understanding of the educational and linguistic topics that…

This chapter outlines an interview conducted with a principal of a high-performing high school with a majority Latinx student population, regarding how she fostered and engaged in activism in her school and with her students.

In this personal reflection, Sonia Nieto recounts the lessons she learned about language and literacy from learning to speak Spanish and then English; to reading and writing; and the impact of these lessons on her identity, teaching, research, and life; and, more broadly, on the fields of education and literacy.

This article presents the experiences of six bilingual Spanish-English students transitioning from high school to college, highlighting the ways they theorize translation and its relationship to writing and learning. As increased attention to theories of translingualism has established translation as deeply embedded in writing processes, and…

La Casa de los Colores (the House of Colors) is a feminist organization dedicated to defending human rights, particularly those of the LGBTQ+ community in León, Nicaragua. In 2016 Helen Alfaro, Yova Briones, Ani Guerrero, and Tannia Rizo Lazo, four members of La Casa's leadership team, "Las Coloras," were invited to speak about…

In this commentary, the author defends the Multiple Grammars (MG) theory proposed by Luiz Amaral and Tom Roepe (A&R) in the present issue. Topics discussed include second language acquisition, the concept of developmental optionality, and the idea that structural decisions involve the lexical dimension. The author states that A&R's…

This article offers the author's commentary on the Multiple Grammar (MG) language acquisition theory proposed by Luiz Amaral and Tom Roeper in the present issue and touches on other second language acquisition research. Topics discussed include the concept of second language (L2) optionality, a hypothesis regarding the acquisition of the…

Located in East Oakland, Bridges Academy serves nearly 430 students, the majority of whom are Spanish speakers. Students who are considered socio-economically disadvantaged comprise 98% of the population and English Learners make up 83%. The school also hosts one of Oakland Unified School District's (OUSD) bilingual programs. In 2016, Bridges…

It is late at night, after working all day on her postdoctoral research Laura Colombo is trying to wind down while drawing and jotting down thoughts in her notebook. She is in the living room/office of her apartment in Buenos Aires, the city where she was born and left when she was 26 years old to pursue her graduate studies in the United States…

The author begins this article with an anecdote describing the behavior of a few members of her ESL class, and their behavior during the morning "Pledge of Allegiance." Not only did these students not stand, they displayed a dramatic performance of "remaining seated." The narrative that follows is an attempt by the the author…

The Summer 2013 issue of "Voices in Urban Education" presents an interview with Dania Vazquez, founding principal of the Margarita Muñiz Academy, a Boston public high school offering dual-language education in Spanish and English. The first dual-language high school in Massachusetts, this Innovation School opened in the fall of 2012 with…

As a sixth year student of Spanish looking back on her foreign language education, the author believes she has a greater understanding of what attracted her to and maintained her interest in the language. Yet she also recognizes areas in her education that could have benefited from change, including flexibility in creating her own program of study…