Verónica E Valdez

I am a Latina critical language education scholar committed to educational fairness that holds an asset-based perspective toward students, families, and communities which recognize their cultural wealth and individual agency. As a bilingual third-generation U.S. born Latina raised in poverty within the U.S. Texas/Mexico geographic borderlands, my interest in language education and issues of inequitable schooling for traditionally marginalized communities have been inspired mostly by family members' often difficult U.S. schooling experiences and varied Spanish language learning outcomes. They have also been spurred by over twenty years of professional experience working across culturally and linguistically diverse communities in multiple cities and states in the U.S. that illustrated to me the shared educational concerns communities hold. Grounded in these experiences, I undertake interdisciplinary research, teaching and service focused on four interrelated and often overlapping strands: language learning as education examines efforts in school and out-of-school family and community contexts to foster multilingualism/biliteracy; educational language policy and planning examines the macro-level of federal and state government policies that determine language education options as well as the micro-level classroom and family choices that promote or curtail particular language practices; Latina/o/x/e education that explores educational inequities in Latina/o/x schooling and their language learning efforts and outcomes; and the teacher education & practices that promote the values of multilingualism, multiculturalism, and justice across educational settings.