One of the important features of the The Discovering Our Experiences Project publications is the research component, adding to the academic nature of our work. However, since our last publication, we have created an expanded knowledge base, mostly from recent academic publications such as journal articles and books. In this post, we have compiled additional, supportive resources, many of which are recent research documents. We’ve also included research that was part of the original manuscript but had been inadvertently left out.
The list follows several strands of research relevant on the topics covered in each of the volumes: programmatic and curricular issues; culturally sustaining pedagogy; social literacy and cultural authenticity; family and school literacy; critical and new literacies; funds of knowledge; literacy, language, & identity; and teacher research. Some of the entries include informative highlights or comments.
Programmatic and Curricular Issues: Bilingual Education
August, D. and Hakuta, K. (1997) Improving Schooling for Language-Minority Children:A Research Agenda. National Research Council.
Boyle, A., August, D., Tabaku, L., Cole, S., & Simpson-Baird, A. (2016). Dual language education programs: Current state policies. American Institutes for Research.
The book highlights what caused some communities to rethink implementation of dual language and consider English-only programs instead.
Cervantes-Soon, C.G., & Dorner, L., Palmer, D., Heiman, D., Schwerdfiger, R., & Choi, J. (2017). Combating inequalities in two-way language immersion programs: Toward critical consciousness in bilingual education spaces. Review of Research in Education, 41, 403–427.
Authors point out that the growing body of evidence suggests that two-way immersion programs are failing to fulfill their ideal of providing equitable access to educational opportunity for transnational emergent bilingual students.
Cervantes-Soon, C. G. (2014). A critical look at dual language immersion in the new Latino/Latina diaspora. Bilingual Research Journal, 37, 64–82.
Absent careful safeguards, the implementation of a two-way immersion program may inadvertently appear to commodify Latino students’ linguistic and cultural resources.
Chavez-Moreno, L. (2022). Critiquing racial literacy: Presenting a continuum of racial literacies. Educational Researcher, 51(7), 481–488.
Chavez-Moreno, L. (2022). Racist and racio-linguistics teacher ideologies: When Bilingual Education is inherently culturally relevant for Latinos. Urban Review, 54. 554–575.
Cortina, R., Makar, C., & Mount-Cors, M. F. (2015). Dual language as a social movement putting languages on a level playing field. Current Issues in Comparative Education, 17(1), 5-6.
Cummins, J. (1979). Linguistic interdependence and the educational development of bilingual children. Review of Educational Research, 49, 222–251.
Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. Multilingual Matters.
Cummins, J. (2001). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society (2nd ed.). California Association for Bilingual Education.
When strong teacher-student relationships are established, they can help overcome the economic and social disadvantages that affect communities and schools in both inner-city and rural settings.
Cummins, J. (2021). Rethinking the education of multilingual learners: A critical analysis of theoretical concepts. Multilingual Matters.
Cummins, J., Brown, K., & Sayers, D. (2007). Literacy, technology, and diversity teaching for success in changing times. Pearson Education.
An example of an empowerment model: Project FRESA.
de Jong, E. J. (2016). Two-way immersion for the next generation: Models policies and principles. International Multilingual Research Journal, 10, 6–16.
Dorchin, S., Wang, M., & Steele, C. (2025). Translingual entanglements of emotions and translanguaging in language learning and teacher context. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 35, 987–995.
Fitts, S. (2006). Reconstructing the status quo: Linguistic interaction in a dual language school. Bilingual Research Journal, 30(2), 337–365.
Flores, N. (2016). A tale of two visions: Hegemonic whiteness and bilingual education. Educational Policy, 30, 13–38.
Freire, J. A., Valdez, V. E., & Garrett-Delavan, M. (2017). The (dis)inclusion of Latino/Latina interests from Utah’s dual language education boom. Journal of Latinos and Education, 16(4), 276–289.
García, E. E., & Nañez, J. E. (2011). Bilingualism and cognition: Informing research, pedagogy, and policy. American Psychological Association.
Garcia, G. E., & Lang, M. G. (2023). A longitudinal study of strengths challenges and inequities in a Spanish English dual language program. Bilingual Research Journal, 46(1-2), 9–24.
Although school personnel addressed some of the inequities and gentrification-related challenges, district actions and policies ultimately undermined the bilingual and bi-literacy goals of the dual-language programs; English-dominant students were privileged over Spanish-dominant students, and DSL students’ English development was prioritized over their Spanish development.
Hadi-Tabassum, S. (2006) Language, space, and power: A critical look at bilingual education. Multicultural Matters.
A study focused on post-structuralist versus structuralist.
Lindholm-Leary, K. (2012). Success and challenges in dual language education. Theory Into Practice, Special Issue: Rethinking Language Teaching and Learning in Multilingual Classrooms, 51(4), 256–262.
Successful outcomes require a clear understanding of the DLE program and the full implementation of the characteristics associated with high-quality programs.
Martínez, R. A., Hikida, M., & Duran, L. (2015). Unpacking ideologies of linguistic purism: How dual language teachers make sense of everyday translanguaging. International Multilingual Research Journal, 9, 26–42.
A widely recognized challenge is resisting the hegemony of English and the devaluation of the home languages spoken by transnational bilingual students.bilingual students.
Palmer, D. (2010). Race, poverty and equity in a multiethnic urban elementary school with a dual language strand program. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 41(1), 94–114.
Pimentel, C. (2011). The color of language: The racialized educational trajectory of an emerging bilingual student. Journal of Latinos and Education, 10(4), 335–353.
Teachers need district and school-level structural support to challenge racist and raciolinguistic ideologies, since they are inevitably influenced by the ideologies embedded in program policies and institutional structures. Dual language programs should therefore explicitly include critical racial consciousness as a social justice goal.
Pimentel, C., Diaz-Soto, L., Pimentel, O., & Urrieta, L. (2008). The dual language dualism: ¿ Quiénes ganan? Texas Association for Bilingual Education Journal, 10, 200–223.
Ruiz, R. (1984). Orientations in language planning. NABE Journal, 7, 15–34.
Sanchez-Carmen, S. A., Domínguez, M., Green, A. C., Mendoza, E., Fine, M., Neville, H. A., & Gutiérrez, K. (2015). Revisiting the collective in critical consciousness, diverse sociopolitical wisdoms, and ontological healing in sociopolitical development. Urban Review, 47, 824–846.
Dual language programs should articulate counter-hegemonic goals and indicators of success, while affirming that schooling that sustains languages and fosters critical racial consciousness supports students’ well-being.g.
Torres-Guzman, M. E., & Kleyn, T., Morales-Rodríguez, S., & Han, A. (2005). Self-designed dual language programs: Is there a gap between labeling and implementation? Bilingual Research Journal, 29, 453–474.
There is a strong evidence that many TWI programs do not offer sufficient instruction in the minority language.
Thomas, W. P., & Collier, V. (1997). School effectiveness for language minority students. National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education.
The amount of formal schooling in the first language is the strongest predictor of how quickly students will catch up academically in the second language.
U.S. Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquisition. (2015). Dual language education programs: Current state policies and practices.
” … we have a valuable yet untapped resource within the estimated 4.6 million students who come to school already speaking a variety of home languages, most commonlySpanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Arabic, or Hmong.”
Potential research questions could examine student learning trajectories in dual language programs and the ways in which individual, contextual, and programmatic factors shape those trajectories.
Valdez, G. (1997). Dual language immersion programs: A cautionary note concerning the education of language minority students. Harvard Educational Review, 67, 391–429.
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy
Dolson, D., & Burnham-Massey, L. (2011). Redesigning English-medium classrooms: Using research to enhance English learner achievement. California Association for Bilingual Education.
Dunham, H., & Oti, O. A. (2025). Culturally sustaining literacy practices: What’s possible in the elementary classroom. The Reading Teacher, 79, e70008. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.70008.
Kelly, L., & Djonko-Moore, C. (2021). What does culturally informed literacy instruction look like? The Reading Teacher, 75(5), 567–574.
Transform your literacy curriculum with critical approaches. With knowledge of biases and gaps, literacy teachers can transform curriculum by locating or developing resources.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465–491.
Ladson-Billings, G. (2021). Three decades of culturally relevant responsive and sustaining pedagogy: What lies ahead? Educational Forum, 85(4), 351–354.
The purpose of this study is to review literature focused on culturally relevant and sustaining practices in the elementary literacy classroom to highlight the possibilities of what teachers and students can achieve together when teaching and learning are done in a culturally sustaining way.
Paris, D. (2012). Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: A Needed Change in Stance, Terminology, and Practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97. http://www.jstor.org./stable/41477769
Culturally sustaining pedagogy seeks to perpetuate and nurture linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling. In response to policies and practices aimed at producing a monocultural and monolingual society, research and practice must offer equally explicit forms of resistance that affirm cultural pluralism and cultural equality.equality.
Paris, D., & Alim, H. S. (Eds.). (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. Teachers College Press.
Social Literacy and Cultural Authenticity
Barton, D., & Hamilton, M. (2012). Local literacies: Reading and writing in one community. Taylor & Francis Group.
Literacy used as a resource so that people, both as individuals and as members of groups, can draw on to make sense of events in their own lives.
Cook-Gumperz, J., & Gumperz, J. (1990). Changing views of language in education and the implications for literacy research: An interactional sociological perspective (Occasional Paper No. 23). ERIC.
This article describes how, over the past 25 years, sociolinguistics and education have entered into a methodological and intellectual dialogue that has significantly changed both views of language and theories of how language enters into school learning processes.
Fox, D. L., & Short, K. G. (Eds.). (2003). Stories matter: The complexity of cultural authenticity in children’s literature. National Council of Teachers of English.
Gumperz, J. J., & Cook-Gumperz, J. (2005). Making interactive space for bilingual communicative practice. Intercultural Pragmatics, 2(1).
Sanchez, P. (2007). Cultural authenticity and transnational Latino youth: Constructing a meta-narrative. Linguistics and Education, 18(3–4), 258–282.
Retelling transnational experiences through an illustrated children’s book helps produce, reproduce, and transform the identities of both the storyteller and the readers.
Family and School Literacy
Auerbach, E. (1995). Deconstructing the discourses of strengths in family literacy. Journal of Reading Behavior, 27(4), 643–661.
“Multiple literacies view posits that not only should programs be informed by participants’ beliefs and practices, but they should incorporate culturally familiar and relevant content.”
Ada, A. F. (2003). A magical encounter: Latino children’s literature in the classroom. Allyn & Bacon.
Flores, T. (2019). The family writing workshops: Latinx families cultivando comunidad through stories. Language Arts, 97(2), 59–70.
González-Carriedo, R., Svensson, M., Luna, G., & Del Rincón, L. (2025). Empowering Latino parents through literacy: A home school partnership. Journal of Latinos and Education, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2025.2579231
Martínez, D. C., Morales, P., & Aldana, U. (2017). Leveraging students’ communicative repertoires as a tool for equitable learning. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 477–499.
Pérez, B., & Torres-Guzmán, M.E. (2002). Leaning in two worlds: An integrated Spanish/English biliteracy approach (3rd ed,). Pearson Education.
First published in 1992, this book served as a textbook for bilingual education methods courses at the university level.
Taylor, D. (1983). Family literacy: Young children learning to read and write. Heinemann.
Valdés, G. (2018). Analyzing curricularization of language in two-way immersion: Restating two cautionary notes. Bilingual Research Journal, 41(4), 388–412.
“As bilingual educators, we believe that we need to nurture and grow the resources that students come with from homes and communities.”
Zentella, A. C. (2005). Building on strength: Languages and literacy in Latino families. Teacher College Press.
Critical and New Literacies
Hornberger, N. H., & Link, H. (2012). Translanguaging and transnational literacies in multilingual classrooms: a biliteracy lens. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 15(3), 261–278.
Street, B., & May, S. (Eds.). (2017). Literacies and language education. Springer International Publishing.
Several articles in this edited volume feature advanced studies in the topics of critical and new literacies. For example, these authors present their work that push our boundaries of critical literacies: Jim Cummins, Yvonne Foley, Vivian Gadsen, Anna Robinson-Pant, Nayr Brahim, Schulz & Hull, Bloom & Ryu, Bryan Maddox, and Judy Kolman.
McLaren, P., & da Silva, T. T. (1993). Critical literacy, resistance, and the politics of memory. In P. McLaren & P. Leonard (Eds.), Paulo Freire: A critical encounter (pp. 47–89). Routledge.
Funds of Knowledge and Related Research
Acevedo, N., & Solorzano, D. (2023). An overview of community cultural wealth: Toward a protective factor against racism. Urban Education, 58(7), 1470–1488.
Esteban-Guitart, M. S., & Moll. L. C. (2014). Funds of identity: A new concept based on the funds of knowledge approach. Culture & Psychology, 20(1), 31–48.
Lynch, A. W. (2018). Identity and literacy practices in a bilingual classroom: An exploration of leveraging community cultural wealth. Bilingual Research Journal, 41(2), 117–132.
Moll, L. C., & González, N. (1994). Lessons from research with language minority students. Journal of Reading Behaviors, 26(4), 439–456.
Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & González, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, 31, 132–141.
Orellano, M. F., Reynolds, J., Donner, L., & Meza, M. (2003). In other words: Translating or paraphrasing as a family literacy practice in immigrant households. Reading Research Quarterly, 38, 12–34.
Vélez-Ibáñez, C., & Greenberg, J. (1992). Formation and transformation among US – Mexican households. Anthropology of Education Quarterly, 23(4), 313–335.
Williams, A., & Gregory, E. (2001). Siblings bridging literacies in multilingual contexts. Journal of Research in Reading, 24, 248–265.
Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69–91.
Literacy, Language, Identity
Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Racio-linguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review, 85, 141–171.
“Expecting minoritized students to conform while their language is still perceived as deficient.”
Flores, N., Kleyn, T., & Menken, K. (2015). Looking holistically in a climate of partiality: Identities of students labeled long-term English language learners. Journal of Languages, Identity, & Education, 14(2), 113–132.
Gee, J. P. (1989). Literacy, discourse, and linguistics: Introduction. Journal of Education, 17(1), 5–17.
“A discourse is a sort of an identity kit. We all have many discourses.”
Gee, J. P. (2001). Reading as situated language: A socio-cognitive perspective. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 44(8), 714–725.
“Meaning in language is tied to people’s experience of situated action in the material and social world. These experiences are tied to perception, both of the world and self (identity).”
Jiménez, R. T. (2000). Literacy and the identity development of Latino/a students. American Educational Research Journal, 37(4), 971–1000.
Jiménez’s analysis focused on students’ understanding, of how key participants influenced their literacy development, their views of literacy in English and Spanish and their evolving sense of identity.
Mitchell-Kernan, C. (1972). On the status of Black English for native speakers: An assessment of attitudes and values. In C. B. Cazden, V. P. John, & D. Hymes (Eds.), Functions of language in the classroom (pp. 195–210). Teachers College Press.
Moje, E. P., & Luke, H. (2009). Literacy and identity: Examining the metaphors in history and contemporary research. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(4), 415–437.
Includes a brief review of Gloria Anzaldua’s work.
Norton, B. (2013). Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation (2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters.
“Language serves not only to define institutional practices but also to construct our sense of ourselves, our subjectivity.”
Teacher Research
Bissex, G. L., & Bullock, R. H. (1987). Seeing for ourselves: Case-Study research by teachers of writing. Heinemann.
“…doing research changes teachers and the teaching profession from the inside out, from the bottom up, through changes in teachers themselves. And therein lies the power.”
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. (2009). Inquiry as stance: Practitioner Research for the next generation. Teacher’s College Press.
DeLuca, C., Shulha, J., Luhanga, U., Shulha, L. M., Christou, T. M., & Klinger, D. A. (2015). Collaborative inquiry as a professional learning structure for educators: A scoping review. Professional Development in Education, 41(4), 640–670.
James, F., & Augustin, D. S. (2018). Improving teachers’ pedagogical and instructional practice through action research: Potential and problems. Educational Action Research, 26(2), 333–348.
Johnson, K. E. (2009). Second language teacher education : A sociocultural perspective. Taylor & Francis Group.
A sociocultural perspective on human learning challenges the way L2 teacher education has traditionally thought about how teachers learn to teach, how they think about and teach language, the broader social, cultural, and historical macro-structures that are ever present and ever changing in the L2 teaching profession, and what constitutes L2 teacher professional development.
Lambirth, A., Cabral, A., McDonald, R., Philpott, C., Brett, A., & Magaji, A. (2021). Teacher-led professional development through a model of action research, collaboration and facilitation. Professional Development in Education, 47(5), 815–833.
Willegems, V., Consuegra, E., Struyven, K., & Engels, N. (2017). Teachers and pre-service teachers as partners in collaborative teacher research: A systematic literature review. Teaching and Teacher Education, 64, 230–245.
Yosief, A., Sulieman, M.-S., & Biede, T. (2024). Improving the practices of teacher educators through collaborative action research: Challenges and hopes. Educational Action Research, 32(2), 204–221.