University of California, Los Angeles
Faculty Member, Education
Associate Professor
University of California, Los Angeles
Thesis Title: Literacy as a Gendered Social Practice in Two Bilingual Classrooms
Robert Rueda
Nelly Stromquist
Barrie Thorne (postdoctoral)
About
I am an ethnographer of children’s daily lives and language practices. I bring an interdisciplinary orientation to my work, having been trained in Psychology (as an undergraduate and as a postdoctoral researcher in Human Development), Sociology (postdoctoral), and Education, with a focus on language, literacy and culture. Through a longitudinal, mixed-methods, multi-dimensional program of research, I have documented the multitude of ways in which children use their knowledge of two languages and cultures to read, write, speak, listen and do things for their immigrant families - what is referred to as “language brokering.” I have identified the linguistic, literate and transcultural skills that youth deploy and develop through this work, the meanings that are given to this work by different adults, and children’s perceptions and feelings. I have also researched these children’s experiences in schools and classrooms. Based on comparative analyses of children’s school and out-of-school language practices, I have designed curricula that leverages translation skills toward the development of academic competencies, and studied its implementation.
Contact Information
Box 951521, Moore Hall
UCLA
LA, CA 90095-1521
310-206-0102
