TLS Graduate Colloquy

Room 102

Laurel Hendrickson
Motivation for Production in Second Language Learners

Educational research on learner production of second language learners often focuses on isolated vocabulary or target language structures. There is also research focused on different forms of instruction and how they affect students’ acquisition abilities. In the SLA field, researchers and teachers know a lot about the stages of language acquisition (and how they vary for different learners), and we design curriculum to advance students through the stages while acquiring receptive and productive language skills. Although this type of research informs instructional styles and best practice for acquiring skills, more research is needed on individual students’ motivation to learn the target language. Students who are motivated to learn their target language can be found in any culture and any learning scenario, and with any kind of background. I contend that future research could focus on the things that motivated language students (particularly improving and excellent students) do of their own volition to improve their production skills in the target language. Information about motivated students’ habits in recreation, pleasure, and personal interests, specifically in things they do to improve their production (i.e. speaking and writing) of the target language, could ultimately inform classroom instruction around effective writing and speaking engagements to enhance all students’ ability to communicate effectively in the target language.

Gabrielle Yocupicio
From Language ‘Standards’ to Speaker Agency: An Exploration of Spanish Heritage Language Instructors’ Ideologies

Spanish heritage language (SHL) scholars have researched if and how the seven SHL instructional goals proposed by Valdés (1995; 2005) and Aparicio (1997) are being met. Unfortunately, studies have pointed toward the prevailing impacts of misguided beliefs under the umbrella of standard language ideologies (SLIs) (Leeman, 2012). Some of these beliefs include characterizing learners’ language varieties as ‘informal’ or ‘deficient’ compared to a subjective ‘standard’ Spanish variety. In response, SHL scholars are advocating for the application of frameworks aimed at dismantling hegemonic ideologies (Holguín Mendoza, 2018; Leeman & Serafini, 2016). With growing socio-political awareness surrounding U.S. Spanish, Loza & Beaudrie (2021) argue that the field is experiencing a “critical turn” centered on the adoption of critical language awareness (CLA) as a central framework. Since this critical turn is underway, there is a dearth of studies that assess if and how CLA is applied by SHL instructors and studies that explore if SLIs continue to have a foothold in SHL education. This qualitative study contributes to this line of research by focusing on the language ideologies of six current university-level SHL instructors in the U.S. Southwest. Data collection tools included questionnaires, interviews, and teaching observations. Findings indicated that all instructors were cognizant of the dominant ideologies impacting SHL education. Four instructors out of six understood, supported, and enacted CLA-type efforts, while two uncritically supported the acquisition of a prestige variety. Despite being part of the same SHL program, instructors’ language ideologies seemed to strongly influence their interpretation of SHL educational goals.

Anthony Díaz-Vazquez
Queer Linguistics and its implications in Second Language Teaching: toward a Queer Pedagogy

School spheres currently include diversity in curricula, educational policies, and methodologies. These contexts offer different conceptions of diversity, but this "diversity" often ignores or misunderstands the LGBT+ community and other minorities. However, few studies synthesize the published information, especially regarding Queer Pedagogy (QP). This paper examines the studies undertaken in recent decades on Queer Linguistics (QL) in education and the context of Second Language Teaching (SLT) as a way to understand the issues. It will reflect on the possibility and challenge of Queer Pedagogy in education. The essay will conclude with the importance and implications of Queer Linguistics in Second Language Teaching.

Room 312

Jihee Yoon
You Could Never: Aesthetics of the Art of Youth Embodiment

In this paper, I am not seeking arguments on how youth participatory action research (YPAR) methodologies work to humanize the experiences of youth but rather explore the adult researcher’s subject position within YPAR. The common rhetoric of YPAR’s “actionable” terms such as “humanization”, “building critical consciousness”, and “youth empowerment” of youth’s identities and experiences are often framed within YPAR literature and must be assessed (Yoon, et al., 2021; Cammarota, 2016; Cammarota & Fine, 2010; Tuck, et al., 2008). I critique how the adult researcher enforces a particular version of the human for youth to be categorized in and perform. I ask what types of investments have been made by the adult researcher to pursue such arrangements of the youth as an ideological scholarly choice to define, arrange, and remake youth within this methodology.

Then I hope to explore the aesthetics of youth life so we can start to uncover the ways that the performance of self can create and imagine a ritualistic and liberating art form that marginalized black, brown, and queer youth have developed and have served as a vital function of self-preservation and self-declaration. For example, we can look towards Hurston (1938) who urges us to distance forms of life of youth away from “singular and binary sensory expressions in which objects could be easily commodified into a collectible artifact.” We hope to draw from Wright who reminds us that, “no theory of life can take place of life” and we must start to discuss the ways of being that are unwritten, ignored, and left invisiblized within youth embodiment of life. Where we then are able to collaboratively have space for youth and ourselves, to foster and strengthen our own highly complex practices of being and aesthetics that are not entrenched in a neoliberalism or essentialism theology as the basis of Soil Work. Where youth can theorize themselves, create and recognize their being for them not for anyone else.

Mary McLachlan, Juanita Sandoval
Teachers collaborating across borders: Connecting voices in the Middle East, North Africa and the U.S.

This paper presentation will discuss Teachers Collaborating Across Borders, an outreach project of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies which connects teachers and students in the U.S. with those in MENA regions. Through this year-long program, participating educators share information about their local culture, teaching experiences and pedagogical practices with one another. In addition, participants develop a student exchange project where students from the U.S. and MENA collaborate on a shared learning experience. This session will discuss the take-aways (so far) from 3 years of this program and ideas for future iterations. Attendees will be encouraged to share ideas and suggestions for the future of this program.

Colleen Hill
Learning to be socially just and antiracist: Disentangling future teacher sources of knowledge about race

Prior research has explored the complex issue of how future teachers learn to engage in socially just and antiracist teaching practices. Using Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies, I examined how knowledge sources impact future teacher decision-making around engaging race in classrooms. Results revealed that multiple knowledge sources influence decision-making around race including future teachers’ families, interactions with children, and university coursework.

Room 437 WOW

LaCher B Pacheco
Successful Sixth Graders at Polk Middle School

Culturally relevant books should be included in a school’s curriculum to support equity by allowing students to discuss socio-cultural topics presented in the literature. Literacy can take place in social contexts, especially in English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. Educators are expected to acknowledge their student’s cultural identity, yet most educators do not understand their own cultural identity. For example, if an educator grew up in Georgia, they have a different lens and identity (Au, 2006) than that of a person who grew up in a rural community such as Albuquerque’s South Valley. According to Au, “literacy educators face the challenge of bringing all students to high levels of literacy regardless of ethnicity, primary language, and family income” (Au, 2006, p 6). ELA teachers should bridge their discourse to culturally responsive instruction. “Educators must recognize the strengths that students bring from the home, identify negative patterns detrimental to students’ literacy learning in school, and create positive patterns that promote higher levels of literacy achievement” (Au, 2006 p 17) by including culturally responsive instruction in the curriculum where teachers can recognize variations in how students acquire literacies and other cultural information.

While teaching at Polk Middle School, I was able to recognize two cultural identities present in my sixth-period ELA classroom. The class consisted of five boys and six girls who self-identified as Hispanic American or of Mexican descent. The class selected New Kid by Jerry Craft (2019) using the book-browsing method. The book topics discussed racism and being the new kid at a school. Polk’s census is made up of 97% Hispanic or Mexican students.

Christopher Sanderson
Digital equity as a literacies issue: A literature review

Understanding the multiple facets surrounding the digital divide requires updated literature reviews to keep current with changing and evolving trends. This roundtable discussion of the digital divide examines the field’s current understanding from a literacy and learning perspective. It discusses impacts on schools and communities. The ubiquity of the Internet poses challenges and opportunities for individuals and communities alike. As is evident now more than ever, most daily activities that require people to maintain a productive, economically viable, and healthy lifestyle depend on access to and the ability to navigate digital resources. This study is essential as it strives to offer clarity of the continuously transforming and shifting dimensions of the digital divide from a learning and literacy perspective. It is crucial to inform and highlight the factors perpetuating the digital divide. This review aims to critically examine digital inclusion to reveal the specific ways digital literacies approaches may be able to address digital inequalities.

Room 312

Jon Brown
Math Teachers Learning to Be Culturally Responsive

Although research has shown many ways teachers have successfully implemented culturally responsive math teaching (CRMT) practices, we need to know more about how teachers take up these practices or why they decide not to. Teachers struggle with the meaning of CRMT, the additional time needed to plan, the connection between students' cultures and math content, and the current political climate. Many teachers do not take up this work for these reasons. However, some teachers want to see themselves and be seen by others as culturally responsive but still feel they have work to do. If we are to understand how and why teachers engage in the practice known as CRMT, we need to know more about how they identify with, make sense of, and own cultural responsiveness in math class. Using exploratory case study methods, I interviewed two elementary and two secondary teachers as they reflected on their culturally responsive practices. This presentation will report on a preliminary analysis of these interviews using a CRMT identity framework adapted from Wenger's (1998) social ecology of identity.

Tasnim Alshuli
Mathematics and visual impairments: Study of teachers of students with visual impairments mathematical pedagogical content knowledge

This paper will investigate teachers’ of students with visual impairments (TSVIs) prospective and role in students’ with visual impairments (SVIs) mathematical education, including TSVIs’ mathematics teaching practices and their perspective regarding SVIs’ learning and experiences in mathematics education. Additionally, this paper will also include a study discussing findings and implications from an interview targeted to TSVIs using the mathematical pedagogical content knowledge framework.

Room 104

Kenneth Shelton, Nurturing Learning Experiences and Environments for the Next Generation of Educators

In Defense of Good Teaching Award (Presented by Dr. David Yaden)

This award was established to honor professional educators who stand up to harmful laws, policies, and practices in extraordinary ways, and who set an example of well-grounded, humanistic, holistic education. Learn more about this award and view the list of former award winners and read about their experiences. 

Room 208

Angelica Loreto
Dissecting the corrido: Cultural affirmation of the narco-corrido as an interactive piece on cultural identity, historical value and sustainability in the borderlands.
1:00-1:30

The Mexican corrido (Ballad) has had a long connection to the lived experiences of working poor Mexicans on both sides of the “so-called” Mexican-US borderlands. The corrido has its roots as a representation of cultural resistance to oppression. This music attests to historical resistance in Mexico by the poor rural proletariat against centralist oppressive forces that would terrorize the country side (Herrera-Slobek, 1979). The contemporary narco-corrido has been a subject of controversy in regards to the content of this music. It can be in relation to a tragedy or an event that is preserved through the telling of an oral history through music. This particular kind of music is usually listened to by the working poor of Mexico, and serves as a testimonio to their lived experiences. The purpose of this workshop is to scrutinize how narco-corridos have been historically interpreted. Using an interdisciplinary approach this workshop will aim to engage a greater audience with the music of corridos. I will be presenting my documentary, "La Voz del Narco" and lead a critical conversation that will problematize the messages narco- corridos convey based on the following research questions. (1) Do narco- corridos glamourize violence? (2) Do narco-corridos promote a hegemonic message of consumerism and materialism? (3) Do narco-corridos continue to give testimonio to the lived realities of the poor? (4) Do narco-corridos assist in the preservation of language and culture? These dynamics through secondary research and discourse analysis will critique the meaning of the narco-corrido.

Cecilia Serrano, Grace Tapia-Beltran
Culture Circles in K-5 Classrooms
1:30-2:00

Culture circles in K-5 classrooms take on various modalities and are complex. With its complexity, vital stories are shared, heard, and applied in meaningful connections that lead to praxis. Students are waiting for their stories to take root in classrooms where not only teachers lend them ears to hear but everyone around them too. The purpose of this research is to awaken the understanding that culture circles with children’s literature can be possible in a classroom setting. Although culture circles have been used extensively in upper elementary through adult education, culture circles need to be invited more in classrooms. The theoretical framework and literature review indicate what culture circles are, the frameworks that guide this research, and the continued experience to carry on this research. Using the theoretical framework of Critical Pedagogy (Freire), Transactional Theory (Rosenblatt), and Indigenous Social Justice Pedagogy (Shirley) culture circles are used alongside picturebooks as anchors that promote critical discussions. This study embodies action research and an ethnography/autoethnography lens. Action research will be used to help transform inquiry into praxis or action by becoming co-participants and stakeholders in the process of inquiry. Using picturebooks is powerful in classrooms to reflect the very issues that students have and continue to face personally, socially, or internally. Culture circles are an invitation where students can discuss social justice issues and evolve praxis amongst themselves and outside the classroom by establishing a critical consciousness lens. Through culture circles and confianza, students aspire to share their stories in today’s classroom.

Room 312

Seneca Beth Miller
Beyond a Crisis of Imagination: Freedom Dreaming the Future of Schools

Kaba et al. (2021) remind us that our imaginations are limited because we are “deeply entangled in the very systems we are organizing to change” (p.4), and we must therefore transform ourselves as we work to transform the world. This requires humility, dignity, risk-taking, radical-self love (Taylor, 2017), a powerful relationship to joy (Iruka, 2020; Love, 2019), and co-conspirators. We also need each other. This workshop is for educators who are interested in imagining, visioning, strategizing, and acting toward liberatory transformation of the educational spaces we inhabit, starting with ourselves. This workshop is for anyone who has concerns or critiques about the structure of schools and universities and is willing to move beyond the limits of our collective imagination to envision a future of schooling that truly serves all involved.

Grounded in the belief that “the origin of emancipatory possibility and human solidarity resides in our bodies” (Darder & Mirón, 2006, p.16), this workshop will provide opportunities for participants to explore abolition, radical-self love, and freedom dreaming through play and other experiential and embodied practices, such as theater of the oppressed, creative expression, and mindfulness. Together we will confront the crisis of imagination that limits what is possible in ourselves, our schools, and our communities.

Room 504

Sanjukta Sarkar
Rehearsal for research: Decolonizing ethnography 

Building heavily on Anna Deavere Smith’s work on solo documentary theater, Joe Salvatore’s Verbatim Documentary Theater, a subgenre of ethnodrama builds upon interview-based data, found media artifacts, and historical events, with the end products ranging between live performances and video projects. This form of community-engaged theater has ethnoactors (who differ from the interview subjects in terms of age, race, and gender) mirror the words and gestures of the original speakers verbatim. This practice aims to facilitate deeper listening with empathy by getting past the constructs of age, race, and gender.

This work explores if adapting Verbatim Documentary Theater in high school English pedagogy can help decolonize research and get scholars, especially from underrepresented communities, interested and excited about research and subsequently, higher education. My decolonizing praxis is community-based with a refusal to keep students from underfunded communities from participating in ethnographic practices. I argue that colonization is not an unintentional metaphor for ethnographic- in particular- and research- in general- practices to continue historical exclusion of the marginalized. My focus is on the process of rehearsing, living, and enacting research with students, in their journey from designing the research process to transforming into ethnoactors. Besides developing agency in research, this interdisciplinary pedagogy has the transformative potential to shape engaged agents of change and inspire multicultural empathy in students.

I propose to workshop the process of rehearsing this research.

Room 437 WOW

Yousra Abourehab, Wen Wen, Veronica Oguilve, and Onur Ural
Virtual Field Experiences for global learning

The purpose of this workshop is to highlight teachers' processes of designing a Virtual Field Experience (VFE) for language learning. Teachers in this study took part in the Worlds of Experience for Language Learning (WELL) professional series which encourages educators to to design immersive VFEs for all learners. VFEs are flexible, web-based, immersive, and interactive experiences created by teachers that embed audio, video, and visual resources into interactive learning experiences. The design process educators engaged in involved developing a focus, locating and creating resources that advance a communicative purpose, and sequencing resources to create a product that supports discovery learning. Perspectives, design processes, and outcomes generated throughout the design process were examined. Teachers' VFE products show immersive, interactive, and contextualized language learning experiences and ways to engage their students’ global language learning, including intercultural connections.

Employing the Create-to-Learn approach (Hobbs, 2017), teachers engaged in a design process that promotes language learning in the classroom while developing intercultural communication (Diaz & Dasli, 2016; Holden, Michailova & Tietze, 2015; Holmes, 2017). Using multimodality (Kress, 2000) and intercultural communication (Moeller & Nugent, 2014; Sinecrope et al., 2012) frameworks, researchers examined how participating teachers imbued their VFEs with linguistically and culturally diverse topics that address global issues.

In this workshop, we showcase the VFE design process and products that teachers from two cohorts implemented in their work. Participants in this workshop will engage in hands-on activities that provide pedagogical implications for intercultural and global education.

Room 312

This is an interactive session in which graduate students will explore how to go on and be successful in the job market. Graduate students are encouraged to bring a current CV and a cover letter if they have one. We will also work through how to dissect a job announcement and tips for a first interview and a campus visit.

Room 312

Alberto , Julio Cammarota

Room 104

Join us for critical dialogue, theatre games, storytelling, scene-building and performances to uplift our UA and Tucson community!