BESO Guest Speaker: Dr. Luis Huerta

Dr Luis Huerta was invited by the Bilingual Education Student Organization (BESO) to conduct a presentation on Emergent Writer's Biliteracy on November 14th at the Farnsworth Room at the Student Union Building. Dr. Luis Huerta is an Assistant Professor in Early Childhood and Bilingual Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education at New Mexico State University. His research focus is on participatory action research and early biliteracy development in the borderland. Last semester, he was researching in a bilingual kindergarten setting right on border of El Paso, TX-Juarez, MX. His research analyzes kinder bilingual children’s transference hypothesis. He also analyzed the pedagogy of teachers working with bilingual immigrant students in the borderland. He has published articles, encyclopedia entries and co-edited a book with Marc Pruyn regarding Peter McLaren’ oeuvre. Right now, he is writing a chapter for a book on critical pedagogy and editing a book on international comparative studies on early childhood curricula from different countries.

Honorable Mention at Examples of Excelencia 2008

Faculty and staff of the Bilingual Department during graduate students ceremony

The Department of Billingual Education has been awarded with an honorable mention at the Examples of Excelencia 2008, organized by Excelencia in Education. This organization aims to accelerate higher education success for Latino students by providing data-driven analysis of the educational status of Latino students and by promoting education policies and institutional practices that support their academic achievement. The Examples of Excelencia award is an initiative that identifies and honors programs that are in the forefront of increasing achievement for Latino students in higher education. 

As an honorable mention the Bilingual Education Department’s profile will be included in the 2008 edition of What Works for Latino Students: Examples of Excelencia Compendium. The 2008 Compendium will be distributed widely later this year through an electronic dissemination to Excelencia’s over 13,000 constituents and key educational organizations and policy leaders will receive printed copies. Further, as an honorable mention our Department is now part of Excelencia’s national campaign to promote the use of effective institutional practices with real evidence of supporting greater numbers of Latino students earning higher educational degrees. 

The award ceremony will be held in Houston, Texas on Tuesday, September 23rd

Special Guest Summer Institute 2008                       

Dr. Donaldo Macedo

Donaldo Macedo is a full professor of English and a Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He is the Graduate Program Director of the Applied Linguistics Masters of Arts Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He has published extensively in the areas of linguistics, critical literacy, and bilingual and multicultural education. His publications include: Literacy: Reading the Word and the World, Literacies of Power: What Americans Are Not Allowed to Know, Dancing With Bigotry, Critical Education in the New Information Age, Chomsky on Miseducation, Ideology Matters, among others.

This summer Dr. Macedo is leading the ED-BLESL 497/597 special topics course "The Hegemony of English or Critical Citizenship". This course addresses arguments in favor of the promotion of equitable education experience for all learners and problematizes current educational practices and research designed for dehumanization. 

Class dates: July 21st-25th, 2008                                                                                                    

Class times: 5pm-8pm                                                                                                            

Location: Lookout Room SUB

News & Important Events

Master Graduates Fall 2007 Congratulations!

M. Ed in Bilingual Education                     M. Ed in English as a Second Language 

Deitra Batt                                                            Paula Carroll                                                             Silvia Flores                                                         Kristin Cavanaugh                                                        Norma Gonzales                                                   Elizabeth Elison                                                           Yesenia Guevara                                                  Regina Indart                                                            Gilberto Lara                                                        Jami Johnson                                                       Maria Leija-Lara                                                   Mary Kaiser                                                              KC Longoria                                                         Christine McGrew                                                   Luis Monjarras                                                      Cynthia Sandford                                                Elizabeth Ornelas                                                 Marvin Schroeder                                                  Juan Salamanca                                                   Lisa Thilmont                                                      Maria Iliana Sandoval                                          Tamara Vandeventer                                       Courtney Shearer                                                                                                                                Tryntje Van Slyke                                                                                                                           Courtney Davlin-Witherel          

Special Guest Speaker: Christine Sleeter

Christine Sleeter, a leading voice in antiracist multicultural Education was invited by the Bilingual Education Department to conduct presentations for graduate, undergraduate students, and faculty members on September 4 and 5 2007 at the Student Union.  The titles of her talks were: “Critical Family History and Historical Memory, “Intellectually Challenging Teaching in Multicultural Classrooms” and “Teaching  for Democracy in an Age of Corporatocracy".