003 | Dr. Deb Palmer & Alex McGrath | Language, leadership & BIPOC students
In this episode, we talk with Dr. Deb Palmer and second-year doctoral student,Alexandra Federico McGrath, about their research study about the leadership landscape for students of color at the University of Colorado Boulder. They will be taking a deep dive into a case study of one of the pathway programs at CU, Multicultural Leadership Scholars, nurtures leadership education for BIPOC students for their time at CU and beyond. We spend a good amount of time examining the dynamics around the impact of a student's primary language and how they are able to navigate the educational constructs in the US.
Deborah K.Palmeris Professor of Equity, Bilingualism and Biliteracy in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. She studies the construction of equitable educational opportunity for emergent bilingual children in schools. A former two-way dual language bilingual teacher in California, she conducts qualitative research using ethnography, narrative interview, and critical discourse analysis. Her interests include bilingual education policy and politics; critical additive dual language bilingual education; teacher preparation for linguistically/culturally diverse teaching contexts; teacher advocacy and activism; and issues of language, power and identity in schools. Her 2018 book, “Bilingual Teacher Leadership for Social Change” published by Multilingual Matters, explores and defines agency, activism and leadership for bilingual educators, based uponProyecto Maestría, a Title III National Professional Development project she directed in Austin, Texas. Her articles have appeared in a range of journals, includingTheory Into Practice; Review of Research in Education; International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism; Language Policyand theJournal of School Leadership.
Alexandra F. McGrath (she/her/hers) is a second year Ph.D. student in Equity, Bilingualism, and Biliteracy in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. A former secondary public school teacher and academic advisor in the South Bronx, Alexandra has worked closely with many first-generation students in the college application process. Her research interests center around the access and persistence of underrepresented student populations in higher education, particularly first-generation, BIPOC, and bilingual students. Alexandra is an instructor of School and Society, an upper-division undergraduate elective in the School of Education. She also serves as a graduate research assistant on the project School Policies, Practices, Attitudes, and Behaviors for Emerging Bilingual Students funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition.