Gabriela Iturralde Espejo

Gabriela Iturralde Espejo (she/her/ella) is a PhD candidate in Equity, Bilingualism, and Biliteracy in the School of Education. Gaby is a passionate bilingual Montessori educator who views education as a holistic, lifelong process. She has experience working at all levels, from kindergarten to adult coaching. Her first experience in bilingual education was in a Mayan-Spanish school in Guatemala. Her research interests include Dual Language Montessori education, biliteracy development and bilingual trajectories, and culturally responsive assessments. Gaby is committed to decolonial research approaches, such as Community-Based Participatory Research, drawing from Chicana feminist epistemologies, Borderlands theories, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies, and Humanizing Pedagogies. As part of the CLASP Graduate Certificate Program, Gaby is deepening her understanding of the dynamics of culture, language, and social practice in the education system. She is dedicated to advocating for high-quality multilingual and multicultural education for Emergent Bilingual learners.