While considering Makoni and Pennycook's (2006) critique of the colonial nature of the notion of singular languages in this dissertation, a documentation and investigation of English and Spanish use on billboards in Carolina, Guaynabo, and San Juan, three cities in Puerto Rico, is presented. The billboards in these towns make use of Spanish, the…

In the context of language diversity in schools, this research underscores the persistence of monolingual academic standards despite linguistic variety. Bilingual education, historically intertwined with sociopolitical agendas aligning with dominant societal power structures, necessitates a paradigm shift. Bilingual educators must empower students…

Globally, Indigenous people are marginalized and underrepresented in STEM professional fields in settler societies. For scholars, educators, policymakers, and the public, the most important thing is that every student has access to an equitable education. Developing curricula that are more relevant for all students and promoting meaningful science…

Perspectives from educators and students elucidate how systemic language discrimination and oppression (i.e., linguicism) are perpetuated in the New York education system, even though it has one of the most comprehensive approaches to supporting multilingual students in the nation (Sugarman, 2016). The legacy of teaching English as a colonizing…

One African-centered linguistic paradigm argues the primary language of most descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States is not English but an African language. The language is called "Ebonics." Clinical linguist Dr. Ernie Adolphus Smith (1938-) is the most conspicuous figure in the history of the paradigm. The reconstructed…

The term 'voice' has been a pivotal metaphor in the fields of composition studies and applied linguistics, and it still has a strong implicit and/or explicit presence in the U.S. classroom. This critical case study examines 6 Saudi graduate student writers' voices in various U.S. universities. Data were collected by analyzing texts of students'…

This ethnographic study documents the ways four Indonesian-Muslim families who migrated to the United States used online digital telecommunication technology in socializing children into languages, literacy, and religion. Within the primary framework of language socialization, I used multiple theoretical lenses (i.e., transnationalism, cultural…

Spanish-speaking parents choose to enroll their children in either an English only or English-Spanish dual immersion program when presented with both choices. This ethnographic study explored parent's perceptions of the purpose, advantages, and disadvantages of learning in school in English only or in a dual English-Spanish. Through focus group…

Dual language (DL) is an increasingly popular bilingual education model, touted for its promise to mitigate the historical achievement gap of the growing Latinx population while also teaching Spanish to English speakers. While DL programs may alleviate Latinxs' educational disparities in some cases, recent scholarship has noted a paradox: in other…