MRC Speaker Series, Dr. Guadalupe Valdés

Title: Curricularizing Language: Unexamined Assumptions and Interacting Mechanisms

 Abstract: This presentation will focus on the seemingly neutral activity of “teaching” and “learning” languages. It will call attention to unexamined assumptions about language instruction that are seldom problematized by both teachers and students and examine the implication of these long-established (and yet current) “curricularizing” practices for the future multicompetence of minoritized students.

Bio: Guadalupe Valdés, Ph.D. is the Bonnie Katz Tenenbaum Professor of Education at Stanford University. Her research has focused on the bilingualism of Latinos in the United States. Her current NSF-funded research is concerned with the design of New Generation Science Standards materials for students who are in the process of acquiring English. Recent publications include: Latino Children Learning English: Steps in the Journey. (New York. Teachers College Press, 2010) and “Latin@s and the intergenerational continuity of Spanish: The challenges of curricularizing language.” International Multilingual Research Journal (2015).