Verónica E Valdez

In my interdisciplinary research, I focus on four strands: language learning efforts that foster multilingualism/biliteracy in school and out-of-school contexts; educational language policy and planning and its equity impact on multilingual learners designated as English learners (MLs); Latina/o/x and education; and teacher education & practices that promote the values of multilingualism, multiculturalism, and educational equity across educational settings. Overall, I specifically see my research efforts building toward a comprehensive understanding of how and the degree to which sociocultural factors (e.g., race, language, class, ideologies, laws, and policies) intersect within the family, school, and community to contribute toward multilingualism and multilingual literacy development in children and its implications for educational equity and the educational trajectory of students—particularly Latina/o/x students—marginalized on the basis of entering schools speaking a language other than English (EL designation), race/ethnicity, poverty, gender, or citizenship status. I situate myself within a critical sociocultural framework that understands multilingualism as a socially mediated process deeply connected to the broader social-cultural-historical contexts and the dynamics of power in which they occur. This framework allows me to connect a sociocultural perspective with other critical frameworks that offer a more nuanced interrogation of issues of power (e.g., critical race theory, critical language policy and planning, borderland theory, Chicana feminism) in ways that capture a more holistic understanding of the issue of language and its role in the day-to-day lives of students and their families. As such, my research necessarily uses an interdisciplinary approach (linguistic anthropology, sociology, multilingual education, and cultural studies) and a variety of methodological skills.