NCTE 2022 Elementary Committee - National Council of Teachers of English

Elementary Section Election Results

2022

NCTE Elementary Section Steering Committee

 

Associate Professor of Bilingual Education, Bilingual Program Coordinator, CBSE Department Chair, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY. Formerly: preK and kindergarten assistant teacher; first- and second-grade teacher; bilingual literacy coach, K–8, NY. Specialty Areas/Areas of Expertise: literacies, reading theory and practice, translanguaging theory and pedagogy, assessment, bilingualism, biliteracy, equity. Memberships: CLA; Language Arts (LA) Editorial Board; NY Association of Bilingual Educators; Literacy Research Association. Awards: 2018 Language Arts Distinguished Article Award. Publications: Journals: LA, Voices from the Middle, Journal of Literacy Research, Literacy Instruction & Research, The Reading Teacher, Language & Education. Books: Rooted in Strength: Using Translanguaging to Grow Multilingual Readers & Writers (Espinosa & Ascenzi- Moreno, 2021). Program Contributions: presentations at NCTE, AERA, NYSABE, ILA Intensive.

How has NCTE provided a professional home for you?

Without NCTE, I would not be the educator that I am today. One of my first experiences with NCTE (in the early 2000s) was acquiring a grant to study the multilingual lives of elementary school children. This experience changed the trajectory of my professional and personal life. Through NCTE I’ve been supported to engage in collaborative projects, and, most important, be part of a caring professional community that consistently pushes my thinking.

How does your current work in your career, community, and/or classroom contribute to NCTE’s mission and vision, and demonstrate alignment with NCTE’s commitment to equity and justice? How have your personal strengths and experiences contributed to making positive change(s) in the profession?

When I was an elementary bilingual teacher, conducting action-based research was a way to build community and to have the agency to fashion my teaching on students’ and their communities’ strengths. As a teacher educator, I have worked toward enlarging the community of teachers who participate in creating and sharing critical practices through inquiry, as this work is fundamental to reimagine and enact literacy practices aligned to equitable learning environments that are meaningful to students.

What is your rationale for seeking this office? What would you like to accomplish while in office?

Having been a bilingual paraprofessional, assistant teacher, teacher, literacy coach, and teacher educator, I know how important it is for educators to have opportunities to reshape their practice and be energized while doing it. NCTE has been an inspiring force for many. In seeking this office, I hope to collaboratively build a hopeful, diverse, and inclusive community of educators in the Elementary Section who find and make a home within NCTE’s broad range of activities.

Associate professor of elementary education, California State University, Monterey Bay; Chief Assistant to the Dean. Formerly: elementary teacher, district literacy coach, cofounder of Spanish-English dual-language immersion school; Specialty Areas/Areas of Expertise: culturally sustaining literacy pedagogy, writing. Memberships: NCTE, LRA, AERA. Awards: Spencer Small Research Grant, Cultivating New Voices among Scholars of Color Fellow, CSUMB Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Competition, CSUMB Faculty Incentive Grant. Publications: articles in Journal of Literacy Research, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Journal of Teacher Education, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Bilingual Research Journal, International Multilingual Research Journal. Program Contributions: presented at NCTE, LRA, AERA, NCTEAR.

How has NCTE provided a professional home for you?

NCTE has provided a professional home for me by cultivating critical, justice-oriented literacy pedagogy and research framed by an antiracist, inclusive stance that affirms and advocates for racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse perspectives. As a former CNV fellow, I received invaluable mentorship and support from the CNV family. NCTE members, publications, and professional learning opportunities have supported my professional growth in countless ways.

How does your current work in your career, community, and/or classroom contribute to NCTE’s mission and vision, and demonstrate alignment with NCTE’s commitment to equity and justice? How have your personal strengths and experiences contributed to making positive change(s) in the profession?

As a literacy teacher educator and researcher with over 14 years of serving ethnically and linguistically diverse learners in public elementary schools, I have worked in service of asset-based, socially just literacy education across multiple contexts. As an Elementary Section Steering Committee member, I would be well equipped to work with leadership to uphold NCTE’s mission and manifest its vision for literacy teaching, learning, and research for equity and social justice.

What is your rationale for seeking this office? What would you like to accomplish while in office?

As an Elementary Section Steering Committee member, I will work collaboratively to innovate and enact a strong vision for equity, justice-oriented literacy teaching, learning, and research. This includes organizing professional learning opportunities that support educators to reflect and deepen pedagogy premised on a commitment to providing culturally and linguistically sustaining literacy learning experiences for racialized multilingual students. I hope to be an asset to the NCTE community.

NCTE Elementary Section Nominating Committee

 

Assistant Professor in the School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies at Kent State University; member of Anti- Racist and DEI Committee at Kent State. Specialty Areas/Areas of Expertise: critical theories of race, translanguaging, popular culture, decolonial methods and revolutionary love. Memberships: NCTE, AERA, NCTEAR. Awards/Fellowships: Cultivating New Voices among Scholars of Color. Publications: Language Arts, Journal of Literacy Research, English Teaching: Practice and Critique, English Journal, and The ALAN Review.

How has NCTE provided a professional home for you?

I have been in academia for 7 years now and NCTE has been the only space I have seen truly attempt to engage with issues of inequities in our communities and schools. It is also in this space, through the Black and Latinx Caucuses and CNV, that I have found colleagues/family that have supported me and my work more than any other group of scholars before coming into this space.

How does your current work in your career, community, and/or classroom contribute to NCTE’s mission and vision, and demonstrate alignment with NCTE’s commitment to equity and justice? How have your personal strengths and experiences contributed to making positive change(s) in the profession?

As a Puerto Rican scholar, my work has always taken on issues of injustice in schools, especially for Latinx children. I have pushed the field to consider the political knowledge children bring into our spaces and the issues of injustice they see in their lives that they want to change. Children are more capable than we give them credit for, and we as researchers, teachers, and administrators could do more to recognize that.

What is your rationale for seeking this office? What would you like to accomplish while in office?

As a Puerto Rican scholar/teacher, I wish to push the nominating committee to consider what’s possible with slates that aren’t just culturally diverse, but also linguistically and international. I believe my experience as a colonial subject of the US, my work with children, and my close attention to issues of justice in all I do make me a good candidate for this work.

Assistant Professor of Literacy Education, The Ohio State University at Newark. Present Positions: Member, Committee against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English and Member, Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts Committee. Formerly: elementary school teacher for more than 10 years; grade level team leader; EL certified teacher; Tennessee Education Association. Areas of Expertise: culturally relevant pedagogy, critical literacy, multilingual learners. Memberships: NCTE, ILA, LRA, NAEYC. Awards:

OSU Newark Service Award, Early Career Educator of Color Award. Publication(s): “Pre-service Teachers Confronting and Examining Media Bias” (International Journal of Multicultural Education), “The Building Blocks: A Return to Discussions of Cultural

Competency Approaches” (Journal of Language and Literacy Education). Program Contributions: presentations at NCTE; Conference proposal reviewer

How has NCTE provided a professional home for you?

NCTE gave me the research and knowledge I was seeking in education to be able to be successful. It gave me additional resources that I needed for the work and the studies that I was engage in while a student and professionally. I have been able to stay connected with issues that are occurring in classrooms across the nation and I have been able to build strong connections and partnerships with educators across the nation.

How does your current work in your career, community, and/or classroom contribute to NCTE’s mission and vision, and demonstrate alignment with NCTE’s commitment to equity and justice? How have your personal strengths and experiences contributed to making positive change(s) in the profession?

The chance to learn and grow is important for teachers, and ultimately makes them feel invested in what they are charged to do. In my college courses we often lean on position statements that NCTE has provided. My use of resources is not limited to my college courses but also includes the community work I do with early childhood classrooms, not for profit organizations, and local libraries.

What is your rationale for seeing this office? What would you like to accomplish while in office?

The next phases of NCTE are shaped by the choices we make, so we must ensure we are representing our pluralistic society. The steering committee is a great opportunity to help ensure a diverse set of representatives leads the section. I hope to continue putting forth names of individuals who have great leadership potential but may not have envisioned themselves in leadership positions. I hope to inspire continued dedication to the section and organization overall.

Elementary English language teacher leader, Dublin City Schools, 2013–present; PhD student, The Ohio State University; adjunct instructor, Ashland University; board member, The Literacy Connection; mentor, Latina Mentoring Academy. Formerly: NCTE Lead Ambassador. Awards: 2019 Women WELDing the Way Calendar Honoree Women in Economic and Leadership Development. Publications: International Outstanding Educator Nominee Award (2011), Columbus Council on World Affairs; Skillful Teacher Award (2003), Bryant Webster Elementary, Denver Public Schools-Northwest Area. Publication: “Woke Enough: Myths We Tell Ourselves about Teaching Immigrant Literature” (2020), Oregon English Journal. Program Contributions: NCTE, The Literacy Connection, Reading Recovery.

How has NCTE provided a professional home for you?

Since the first time I attended the NCTE conference in 2011, I fell in love with the community of thinkers. I found at NCTE, a casa to come home to every November. I can always count on NCTE’s commitment to growth, critical literacy, advocacy, and forward thinking. Even during our hardest time during the pandemic, NCTE kept showing up for all of us, holding space for conversations, reflection, and to be in community with one another.

How does your current work in your career, community, and/or classroom contribute to NCTE’s mission and vision, and demonstrate alignment with NCTE’s commitment to equity and justice? How have your personal strengths and experiences contributed to making positive change(s) in the profession?

Working with culturally and linguistically diverse students has allowed me to transform the lessons learned into possibilities for co-constructing a more just education for our students. I have been able to accomplish this by being a learner and then by sharing this knowledge with others through conferences, panels, and through writing. NCTE’s commitment to equity and justice include the conversation of how to better serve multilingual learners as they thrive in transnational spaces.

What is your rationale for seeking this office? What would you like to accomplish while in office?

My commitment to this work includes the active participation and representation of teachers that represent the global majority and that are invested in humanizing education for all. As NCTE continues to grow as a professional organization, I’ll continue to make the commitment to invite culturally and linguistically diverse educators to join the community and the ongoing conversation.