This month we published Equity in Multilingual Schools and Communities edited by Amanda K. Kibler, Aída Walqui, George C. Bunch and Christian J. Faltis. In this post the editors explain how the book came together.
Professor Guadalupe Valdés is well known across the fields of education, bilingualism, applied linguistics, and world languages, among others, where her research, teaching, and mentoring have made enormous impacts. Her recent retirement – after nearly five decades of groundbreaking work – provided a unique opportunity for some of her many students and colleagues to pay tribute to the ways she has influenced their thinking and their lives.
We (Amanda, Aída, George, and Chris) all learned from Professor Valdés as doctoral students at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and in the years since. Although none of us were in graduate school together, our paths have crossed many times in the past, and we enjoyed this first opportunity to all work together as a team of “intergenerational” scholars connected by Guadalupe and her influence.
Separate conversations over time coalesced into a tentative plan for this volume. As we reviewed other such festschrifts and reflected on Professor Valdés’ work, we realized how important it would be to emphasize the ways in which her scholarship challenged boundaries and expectations, reflecting the interrelated ecologies in which Latino and other multilingual students live, learn, and develop. Such complexities defy expectations for a neat and orderly table of contents for any volume, but we have done our best to highlight key areas of Professor Valdés’ work while also highlighting the many connections among them.
Although the volume includes more than 25 chapters from almost 50 contributors, we also acknowledge that it leaves many stories untold, and we hope this tribute sparks new and ongoing conversations about bilingualism, teaching and learning, and equity for multilingual students.
Although Guadalupe was hesitant for us to take time away from our own scholarship to undertake this project, she eventually agreed, under one condition: that contributors use this opportunity to “look forward” to their own work rather than to only look back at hers. We are particularly excited about the ways in which the chapters in the volume both heed and resist this call, sharing new insights and findings while also celebrating and offering tributes to the ways in which Professor Valdés’ tremendous work has made these innovations possible.
For more information about this book please see our website.
If you found this interesting, you might also like Overcoming the Gentrification of Dual Language, Bilingual and Immersion Education edited by M. Garrett Delavan, Juan A. Freire and Kate Menken.