Deb Palmer

  • Professor
  • EQUITY
  • BILINGUALISM & BILITERACY

I am a Professor in the program in Equity, Bilingualism and Biliteracy in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. I was a two-way dual language bilingual teacher in Redwood City, CA prior to entering the Ph.D. program at UC Berkeley in Language, Literacy and Culture in Education in 1999. I conduct qualitative research using ethnographic and discourse analytic methods in culturally and linguistically diverse settings. My interests include bilingual education policy and politics; critical additive bilingual education; teacher preparation for linguistically and culturally diverse teaching contexts; language, power and identity; and bilingual teacher leadership/agency. I led study abroad programs for education students at the University of Texas at Austin to Cuernavaca, Mexico in 2007, and to Antigua, Guatemala in 2013 and 2015. My 2018 book, “Bilingual Teacher Leadership for Social Change” published by Multilingual Matters, explores and defines teacher agency, activism and leadership for bilingual educators, based on the experiences of master bilingual teachers in Proyecto Maestría, a National Professional Development Project that I directed in Austin Texas from 2007 to 2013. Among other projects, I am currently leading a team of colleagues on a book for Lexington Books tentatively titled, "Gentrification and bilingual education: A Texas TWBE school across seven years.” With another team of colleagues, I am editing a volume under contract with Routledge titled "Activating Critical Consciousness in Dual Language Bilingual Education (From Policy to Pedagogy)."

Soy Profesora del programa de Equidad, Bilingüismo y Bi-literacidad​ en la Facultad de Educación de la Universidad de Colorado Boulder. Anteriormente fui maestra de educación bilingüe de lenguaje dual en California, ahora llevo a cabo investigaciones cualitativas usando métodos de etnografía y análisis de discurso en contextos de diversidad lingüística. Mis intereses incluyen la educación bilingüe, el lenguaje dual, y la política y pedagogía de la enseñanza de estudiantes emergentes bilingües en escuelas públicas; la preparación de docentes para escuelas diversas; el lenguaje, el poder y la identidad; disposición y liderazgo de docentes bilingües.