About my research

Multicultural School Liaisons in the United States and Canada (ongoing)

In response to immigration flows and rapid demographic changes, a growing number of schools across the United States and Canada are hiring staff who primarily or exclusively work with immigrant students and families in non-instructional roles. This review article provides an overview of the research on multilingual school liaisons (MSLs) that explains how educators in these roles support diverse families across various contexts in the United States and Canada; identifies barriers to MSL success, and MSLs’ strategies for dealing with these barriers; and encourages additional research on MSLs in North America and worldwide. Extant evidence shows that while these liaisons are often perceived by teachers and administrators as “just” translators, the full scope of their work includes advocacy, cultural and resource brokering, mediation, and more. Thus, they play a central role in school-community collaboration, student engagement, family literacy, and educator professional development.

Toward an Expanded Typology of Youth Work Settings (ongoing)

with Bianca J. Baldridge, Harvard University; Deepa S. Vasudevan, American Institutes for Research; Virginia Downing, University of Kentucky; and Pablo Aquiles-Sanchez, University of Wisconsin-Madison

In this project, we present a typology of youth work (also called out-of-school time) settings, mapping key sectors and organizational types where youth work occurs in the United States. We discuss program types, characteristics, and attributes within each context. We explore the intersections between sectors and pose questions for deeper inquiry to support future study and action. This research shows the fullness of the youth work landscape and its organization types to capture the diversity and opportunities for a more robust understanding of where youth work happens; creates openings to target specific policy efforts to strengthen youth-serving programs and provide structural support for the workforce; and identifies how the political economy and sociopolitical forces shape and reshape the landscape of youth work.

Funded by the Wallace Foundation.

Youth-Serving Organizations in Rhode Island

with John Diamond and Jonathon Acosta, Brown University

Details coming soon.

Understanding the Experiences of School Leaders in Rhode Island (ongoing)

with John Diamond, John Papay, Kate Donohue, Francisco Santelli, Jonathon Acosta, and Jazmin Isaacs, Brown University

In partnership with the Rhode Island Department of Education, this project explores principal preparation programs in Rhode Island and the trajectory of aspiring leaders following their licensure.

CALL-ECL Equity-Centered Principal Pipeline Initiative (ongoing)

This project studies urban school district efforts to prepare equity-centered school leaders. The project documents the development of principal development pipelines, traces the growth of professional networks, and develops data tools to support the practices of equity-centered leaders in schools. For more information, see the CALL-ECL website.

Funded by the Wallace Foundation.

Contexts of Care: Supporting Immigrant Students in a New Destination (completed)

How do immigrant students and families experience care (or a lack thereof) at school? What barriers to care-giving and care-receiving exist? How do educators work around those barriers to create and maintain a caring context of reception? To answer these questions, I looked to "Northfield," a newly diversifying city in northern New England, USA. I engaged in a year (2023–2024) of embodied ethnography as a researcher and educator in Northfield, supplemented by interviews conducted between 2019 and 2023. 

I found that caring contexts of reception like Northfield actively recognize immigrants’ assets; hire and retain diverse staff; make housing, health care, and food economically, culturally, and linguistically accessible; and expand access to postsecondary education or vocational training. However, the development of caring contexts of reception is constrained by austerity and anti-immigration measures at the state and federal level, which adversely affect networks of care for immigrant youth, families, and educators. I argued that in order to develop truly caring contexts of reception for immigrants, schools and cities must move from mere recognition of multicultural capital to a redistribution of resources. Institutions and leaders must adopt a frame of redistributive solidarity, which calls for redistributing economic, social, and educational capital to those most in need. 

Findings from this study provide insights into how schools become sites of care and possibility in resistance to local, regional, and national crises. Findings from this project can also inform educational practices and policies in emerging contexts of immigrant reception.

Funded by the National Academy of Education and the Spencer Foundation.

Putting Immigration and Education in Conversation Everyday (PIECE) (completed)

with Rebecca Lowenhaupt, Boston College; Dafney Blanca Dabach, University of Washington; Ariana Mangual Figueroa and Jennifer Queenan, CUNY Graduate Center; Paulette Andrade Gonzales, Universidad Diego Portales; Julie Kim Yammine, Boston Public Schools; and Roberto Gonzales, University of Pennsylvania

Ongoing changes to immigration policy threaten immigrant-origin students’ socio-emotional wellbeing, exacerbating existing inequalities between them and their non-immigrant peers. These policies also impact educators working to develop practices to serve these students. This study acts: How do public school educators interpret and respond to rapidly-changing immigration policies as they develop equitable practices when serving immigrant-origin students? We conducted a longitudinal mixed-methods study of educator practices in six school districts in various contexts of reception in the United States. Through qualitative case studies, survey research, and collaborative design-based implementation research, we documented and analyzed educator practices for immigrant-origin students nationwide. Our data collection period overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, from spring of 2020 to the fall of 2021, we engaged in ten group discussions to support planning and inform district leaders’ policy making. 

We found that schools' methods of serving immigrant-origin students, including through the pandemic, varied significantly based on local and state context. Geographic location, existing infrastructure relevant to language access and pandemic response, and local policy making differentially affected these contexts of reception. As they navigated obstacles and disruptions, district leaders employed sustaining, adaptive, and innovative practices to address the needs of immigrant-origin students and families through multiple crises.

Funded by the W. T. Grant Foundation.