My research focuses on the preparation of teachers for the implementation of transformative, critical and anti-colonial literacy practices in the elementary classroom, as well as on what young, bilingual children do when presented with these transformative literacy practices.

 

I have collaborated with faculty to analyze what we know regarding the preparation of literacy teachers for this task (See Wetzel, et al., 2019) and the role Cooperating Teachers play in coaching pre-service teachers critically (See Wetlzel, Batista-Morales and Steinitz, in review). 

 

As a lead researcher, I have collaborated with colleagues to study the preparation of bilingual teachers for the inclusion of critical literacy in their one-on-one field work with 2nd graders (See Batista-Morales, Salmerón, DeJulio, 2019), as well within the Student Teaching experience in a 4th grade classroom (See Batista-Morales & Rojas Williams, under review). 

 

Most recently, my work has examined the ways two cohorts of pre-service teachers, in central Texas and Puerto Rico, were prepared to center anti-colonial methodologies and critical literacies in their literacy teaching. Collaborative sessions through the Zoom platform allowed me to capture how the pre-service teachers’ socio-historical and contemporary contexts influenced their growth as decolonial critical literacy teachers, as well as the critical discourses that emerged from the collaboration and the deliberate crossing of borders in teacher preparation.