Teaching Through a Transformative Lens: Exploring Teachers’ “Trans” Perspective in Diverse Classrooms

Employing the three “trans” concepts – translanguaging, transnationalism, and transculturalism – as a theoretical framework, this qualitative study examines teachers’ lesson plans, classroom fieldnotes, and journal writings that critically reflect on their teaching practices to explore how they provide transformative learning spaces in their racially/culturally/linguistically diverse classrooms. The findings show that the teachers reshaped their views on students’ translanguaging, prepared their lessons from the “trans” perspectives, and challenged current mainstream discourses by disrupting monolithic conceptions. The study provides implications that educators can create a transformative learning space in achieving social justice and equity by using assets-based lenses in their curriculum

Confronting the Raciolinguistic Hegemony of White Standardized English in U.S. Literacy Education: Promoting Multilingualism in Policy, Theory, and Practice

This conceptual article discusses language ideologies in the context of white standardized English hegemony by critically examining historical and contemporary perspectives on U.S. language policy across the intersection of race and language. Its primary goal is to promote equitable multilingualism in literacy education in the United States. Because educational language policy is inseparable from its colonial history, equity cannot be achieved without structural changes. Through a critical examination of policy, theory, and practice, this article emphasizes the role of raciolinguistic ideologies in literacy instruction, offering recommendations for research and practice to support more equitable approaches to instruction for multilingual learners

Tracing Translanguaged Voices in Bilingual Teacher Narratives

This case study explores how bilingual teacher candidates (BTCs) in a Texas dual language teacher education program reflect on their mathematics teaching experiences through a translingual, transcultural, and transdisciplinary lens. By analyzing bilingual teacher narratives, the study investigates how translanguaging and reported speech shape their teaching identities and pedagogical practices. Findings highlight "translanguaged polyvocal speech" (TPS), or polivoces, as a key process, where BTCs integrate multiple linguistic and semiotic resources to construct mathematical meaning and negotiate bilingual identities. The study emphasizes how BTCs use TPS to challenge rigid language hierarchies and promote dynamic, multilingual pedagogies in bilingual mathematics instruction

Generative AI in Multicultural Classrooms: A Narrative Inquiry into International Students' Experiences

This study investigates generative artificial intelligence (GAI) use among international undergraduates in multicultural educational settings at a Thai university. Using narrative inquiry with 64 students from 10 countries, it explores students' discourses and practices around GAI. A deductive thematic analysis revealed key themes: Benefits in learning and efficiency, dependency risks, the need for balance between tool and crutch, and concerns about academic integrity. Students’ uses of GAI included research, information gathering, writing assistance, brainstorming, and language translation, offering nuanced insights into GAI’s role in multicultural higher education

Higher Education Access for Undocumented Students in the United States: Mapping the Policy Terrain

This article focuses on higher education access for undocumented immigrants in the United States. Since individual states develop and govern their own policies, the political landscape around college access is always in a state of flux. This is confusing to school counselors, families, and students. We use cartography to make sense of this increasingly complex policy terrain. In addition to displaying a state-by-state overview of access and funding options for undocumented students, we interrogate the (un)intended consequences of these policies and reveal “sites for change and activism” (Marx, 2023, p. 286)

Seeing the Unseen: Critical Geospatial Mapping as a Pedagogical Tool to Center the Margins

A hyper-standardized and alarmist educational climate in the U.S. propagates deficit discourses about students and creates a roadblock for teachers seeking to center their students’ lives through critical and multicultural pedagogies. Scholars have called for attention to mapping as a pedagogical tool to unearth and push back against sociospatial injustice. In line with this, I offer the tool of critical geospatial mapping and provide two examples of how its application allowed preservice and in-service teachers to see the previously unseen strengths and resiliencies of historically-marginalized and multicultural communities. This allowed them to critique and reframe deficit narratives

Walking the Map

In this article, I discuss how walking as mapping serves as a method for observing and disrupting spatial geopolitics, opening possibilities for alternative systems of living. I explore three theoretical perspectives—posthumanism, Indigenous and decolonializing theories of land, and Black geography—that, while distinct, nonetheless share some overlapping characteristics: the recognition and contestation of knowledge systems, the turn toward a relational ethics of living, and a call for critical and creative methods of intervention into existing systems. In the final half of the paper, I consider these orientations and their call for creative and critical methods of intervention as I review my scholarship on walking and how it has served as a form of counterstory mapping

Exploring the Identities of Korean Americans Through Identity Journey Mapping in a Study Abroad Program

This study explores the identities of Korean American college students through identity journey maps during a faculty-led study abroad program in Korea. Drawing from Asian Critical theory (AsianCrit), this study presents how participants of Korean descent challenged a monolithic and unitary notion of Korean American identity while acknowledging multifaceted, dynamic, and fluid nature of their transnational identity. Furthermore, it suggests that identity journey maps can serve as a pedagogical tool to counter racial stereotypes and discrimination against Asian Americans

From Reading to Restoration: Using Book Clubs and Critical Dialogue to Challenge, Critique, and Change Us and Our Work

This transformative autoethnography focuses on the authors’ learning about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a result of their participation in university diversity-related book clubs and subsequent extensive dialogue with one another. The paper features three implementation vignettes where the authors engage in critical self-reflection and self-critique as they (re)consider ways to improve their educational practice as it pertains to DEI. The paper ends with implications for educators to consider as they engage in critical self-reflection/self-critique around DEI in their work

Exploring Experiences of Chinese Students Studying at U.S. Universities Since COVID-19

This paper presents a phenomenological study exploring what Chinese international students (CIS) have experienced since COVID-19. Three themes emerged through in-depth semi-structured interviews with eight participants. The first theme is the typical challenges that might be encountered by CIS such as cultural barriers. The concerns of safety and racism were illustrated in the second theme, which was amplified and intensified during the pandemic. The last theme involved support and services that need improvement. Implications of the findings are discussed to reflect on how to best support CIS after and beyond COVID-19, followed by limitations of this study