Laboratory for the Study of Interaction and Discourse in Educational Research

Central to the study of language in society  is the examination of multiple layers of meaning around the histories, narratives, and intersections of race, social class, and migration status.  For this reason, attention to the ways language/discourse is used across learning contexts offers a view into how these categories are upheld or disrupted, and how they might determine learning opportunities and outcomes. We are interested in examining multilingualism and translanguaging practices as integral to learning and we study its transformative effects on pedagogy and policy. 

A central focus concern at the Lab focuses on the experiences of migration, displacement, and relocation. We also consider the spatial and temporal dimensions of Indigenous people's  transregional, and transborder, and transnational experience, including the shifting meanings of migration, Indigeneity, and Land. We examine processes of knowledge production and circulation asking who has access to knowledge (where, how, why)

• Developing Language and Academic Supports for Indigenous Maya (Yucatec)  Students in California Schools. Lead Researcher Patricia Baquedano-López.   (Spring 2024)

Research Assistant Emma Pontius 

Project goals include the design of a sustainable model of academic support for Indigenous students and design new content and lesson plans matching CA core standards grades 1-3

• Developing Language and Academic Supports for Speakers and Learners of Mam (Maya). Lead Researcher Cristina Méndez 

Spring 2024:

Research Assistants: Alexia Guerra and Persephone Dardon 

Project goals focus on  an ethnographic study  that also includes  a grassroots Mam language course to teach mostly non-Mam people about the language and culture; 2) identify and study language and cultural activism in the US and Guatemala. 

Spring 2025:

Research Assistants: Juana Mendoza Cruz, Anadeisi Pablo Mendoza, and Brenda Rodriguez

A focus in this area of work advances decolonial frameworks for transformative praxis that seek collaboration and mutual support among those coming together to learn and expand epistemological locations. This work includes, but it  is not limited to, university-school-community partnerships, projects related to Indigenous land recognition and sovereignty, Indigenous language revalorization projects in schools and community, and  transborder coalitions to support projects that recognize multiple linguistic and cultural knowledge sources.

A goal of research in the Lab is to support the development, planning, and engagement of projects that recognize and redirect research efforts and stances that impede rather than advance radical inquiry, educational equity, and social justice.  

New course developed from this efforts and offered once a year since 2023: EDUC 242 Critical Qualitative Research Methods in Education: Issues, Approaches, and Design

Two questions  guide this research focus center: How can/will/should schools (from pre-K to graduate school) support the education of immigrant students? and How can we 'translate' research findings into policy for social change? Ongoing research projects include:

• Policies in Higher Education that Promote Access for Undocumented Students.

Lead Researcher Deyaneira Chic-Hernandez (Fall  2024, Spring 2025)

Research Assistants: Mariah Del Bosque and Isabelle Escobar

This project aims to understand the impact of current immigration policies on undocumented students' pursuit of higher education. Its goals are twofold: (1) to identify which immigration policies in the United States support higher education for undocumented students, and (2) to determine whether Higher Education Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Emerging HSIs have more progressive policies compared to non-HSIs.  To achieve these objectives, we will gather data on immigration and higher education policies that facilitate access for undocumented students. We will also collect information on the number of HSIs in each state. After compiling this data, we will analyze it to determine if states with more HSIs tend to have more progressive policies promoting higher education access for undocumented students. This research will add to the growing body of knowledge about the support structures for undocumented students within HSIs.