Idalia Nuñez
Biographic Data
| ID | 123442 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Idalia Nuñez |
| GIVEN NAMES | Idalia |
| FAMILY NAME | Nuñez |
| SIGNATURE | NUÑEZ I |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1102-3609 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 35 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Exploring translanguaging pedagogy in an Asian American history classroom with a Chinese bilingual community teacher
This study examines a Chinese bilingual community teacher’s translanguaging pedagogy in an Asian American history classroom within a community-based Chinese heritage school. Drawing on four months of classroom observations, artifacts, and interviews collected as part of a larger critical ethnographic study, this article explores the teacher’s ideological shift and purposeful design of translanguaging pedagogy as she navigates the dual goals of he…
Borderlands Childhoods: An Exploration of Transfronterizx Children's Fotografías
Given mainstream narratives that depict the borderlands as a place of fear and violence, this study offers alternative visuals that highlight how transfronterizx children view their language and literacy practices in relation to their experiences in the Texas–Mexico borderlands. The study draws on borderlands biliteracies and critical childhood studies to analyze the children's fotografías and photo-elicitation interviews. The findings demonstrat…
Unlocking the transformative power of dynamic bilingualism: Co-constructing a translanguaging space with Chinese American children
Dreaming of Borderlands Biliteracies: A Framework for Recognizing the Critical Literacies of Racialized Bilinguals
In this theoretical paper, we aim to (re)imagine and (re)conceptualize biliteracy as an anti‐colonial endeavor to destabilize colonial projects that continue to permeate how language and literacy are conceptualized in schools. We build on previous scholarship that has theorized Spanish‐English biliteracy and extend this scholarship by centering the ways of knowing and being of racialized bilinguals from historically marginalized backgrounds as th…
Pairing Principles From Participatory Design Research and Design-Based Research to Center Latina/x Youth in an Afterschool Program
Participatory Design Research (PDR) aims to dismantle researcher-participant hierarchies through inclusion and elevation of participants' voices in the design, implementation, and analysis of educational interventions. PDR builds upon Design-Based Research (DBR) which investigates the effectiveness of educational interventions in authentic settings through iterative design and ongoing analysis. This paper describes how we drew from both PDR and D…
Yo! Chisme Is Good! Latina/x Girls’ Cultivando Confianza in an After-School Program
Background or Context: Middle-school Girls of Color experience complex systems of relationships, structures, and situations in and out of school spaces. Their experiences, however, are often at the margins or excluded from middle school curricula and after-school programming. In this article, we focus on how young women engage with chisme to liberate themselves from social and academic pressures placed upon them. Purpose and Research Questions: O…
Rising from the Margins: Critical Research on the Language and Literacy Practices of Transnational and/or Indigenous Latine/x Families
Learning from a community bilingual classroom: Toward a translanguaging literacies pedagogy with Chinese American bilinguals
Situated in the Midwest region of the United States, this study draws on translanguaging literacies to critically examine the discussions and sense-making that was taking place in a Mandarin-English bilingual community classroom between a Chinese bilingual teacher and three Chinese American bilingual students while engaging in discussions of language, culture, and history with children's literature. Our findings demonstrate that the teacher caref…
They are. Bilingual.”: Manifestations of bilanguaging love in a dual language bilingual classroom
Translanguaging, the fluid and dynamic language practices of bilinguals, reimagines language learning and offers the possibility of a more equitable academic experience for active bilingual students of Color, which was the impetus for our inquiry. This article presents the findings of an ethnographic study conducted in a second-grade dual-language classroom that focused on how bilanguaging love is manifested through the perspectives and approache…
Toward Border‐Crossing Biliteracies: Pláticas of Midwest Transnational Latinx Families Reading and (Re)writing the World
This article focuses on the experiences of transnational Latinx youth and families through historias shared by the mothers. Transnational communities such as those from Latinx immigrant backgrounds have acquired critical perspectives because of their experiences in and across borders that have become central to their understanding of how to navigate learning in the U.S. context. As such, learning about border‐crossing knowledge and literacies fro…
‘Siento que el inglés esta tumbando mi español’: A transfronteriza child’s embodied critical language awareness
For many minoritized communities, sustaining or at least holding on to their home language and cultural identity has been a constant uphill battle. Nevertheless, Latina/o/x who speak Spanish, for example, have demonstrated to be linguistically and culturally resilient against hegemonic societal, institutional, political, and monolithic national ideologies. This article explores a single case study of a Latina transfronteriza child’s embodied crit…
Collective (Re)constructions of Linguistic Surveillance at Home: Transfronterizx Families as Cultural and Linguistic Guardians
In the current anti-immigrant context, Latinx families, children, and communities experience language as a highly contested and surveilled practice with consequential effects. In this study, I drew on the concept of literacies of surveillance and translanguaging to examine how language was embodied and rationalized in the context of three homes of Latinx, transfronterizx families. This critical multiple-case study led to three main findings: (1) …
Because We Have to Speak English at School”: Transfronterizx Children Translanguaging Identity to Cross the Academic Border
This is What My Kids See Every Day”: Bilingual Pre-service Teachers Embracing Funds of Knowledge through Border Thinking Pedagogy
The present qualitative case study examines how community-based lessons impacted the practices, perspectives, and internship placement experiences of 16 bilingual pre-service teachers. Grounded in the concepts of funds of knowledge and border thinking pedagogy, the findings revealed that bilingual pre-service teachers drew on local knowledge to create community-based lessons; these lessons supported student engagement and participation, and they …
Testimonios of Momentos: Reading and Trusting my Embodied Epistemology
In this essay, I explore the concept of embodied knowledge that stems from the Brown female body grounded in the critical scholarship by Chicana Feminist Theorists. I share three testimonios of momentos—moments in my life—where my embodied knowledge, through emotions, feelings, and senses guided my practices. Through this (re)membering, I illustrate how critical embodied knowledge is lived and passed down to our younger generations. Lastly, I dis…
Transfronterizo Children’s Literacies of Surveillance and the Cultural Production of Border Crossing Identities on the U.S.–Mexico Border
This article examines the cultural production of three transfronterizo children who daily, physically cross a U.S.–Mexico international bridge. Drawing on theories of identity, border inspections, literacy, and language, the findings reveal that transfronterizo children developed literacies of surveillance , or the acquired and produced language and literacy practices to move across the surveillance, inspectors, and border. Transfronterizo childr…
Sustaining Bilingual-Biliterate Identities: Latinx Preservice Teachers' Narrative Representations of Bilingualism and Biliteracy Across Time and Space
The present study is a narrative analysis of 14 self-created books by Latina/o/x bilingual preservice teachers to describe their biliteracy trajectories. Drawing on the concept of identity and bilingualism, this analysis explores how preservice teachers experienced language and literacy and how these experiences have shaped their bilingual-biliterate identities. The findings of this research study revealed that bilingual preservice teachers (a) n…
Who will be bilingual? A Critical Discourse Analysis of a Spanish-English Bilingual Pair
This article presents a basic interpretive qualitative study that examined how two students, a dominant Spanish speaker (Joel) and a dominant English speaker (Carter) used languages during their microinteractions in pair work in a dual language kindergarten classroom. The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between language choice and power. Data sources included field notes and video/audio recordings collected during a Spani…
Bilingual pre-service teachers’ initial experiences: Language ideologies in practice
To address the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse student population in our U.S. schools, teacher preparation programs need to prepare bilingual pre-service teachers to view and implement languages in supportive ways. This study demonstrates how a cohort of 16 bilingual pre-service teachers are beginning to think about language(s) and the impact it has on their practice within their internship experience. Findings reveal that when sup…
Wow, I get to choose now!” Bilingualism and biliteracy development from childhood to young adulthood
Much research has focused on the reasons and mechanisms for immigrant language loss. However, there is a scarcity of research about influences on language maintenance over time, and much of this work employs survey data. With the current study, we aim to contribute to this body of research with a qualitative study of a bilingual individual, Esperanza Sada (a self-selected pseudonym), and her language and literacy development, beginning in late el…
Transfronterizo Children’s Literacies of Surveillance and the Cultural Production of Border Crossing Identities on the U.S.–Mexico Border
This article examines the cultural production of three transfronterizo children who daily, physically cross a U.S.–Mexico international bridge. Drawing on theories of identity, border inspections, literacy, and language, the findings reveal that transfronterizo children developed literacies of surveillance , or the acquired and produced language and literacy practices to move across the surveillance, inspectors, and border. Transfronterizo childr…
This is What My Kids See Every Day”: Bilingual Pre-service Teachers Embracing Funds of Knowledge through Border Thinking Pedagogy
The present qualitative case study examines how community-based lessons impacted the practices, perspectives, and internship placement experiences of 16 bilingual pre-service teachers. Grounded in the concepts of funds of knowledge and border thinking pedagogy, the findings revealed that bilingual pre-service teachers drew on local knowledge to create community-based lessons; these lessons supported student engagement and participation, and they …
Toward Border‐Crossing Biliteracies: Pláticas of Midwest Transnational Latinx Families Reading and (Re)writing the World
This article focuses on the experiences of transnational Latinx youth and families through historias shared by the mothers. Transnational communities such as those from Latinx immigrant backgrounds have acquired critical perspectives because of their experiences in and across borders that have become central to their understanding of how to navigate learning in the U.S. context. As such, learning about border‐crossing knowledge and literacies fro…
Bilingual pre-service teachers’ initial experiences: Language ideologies in practice
To address the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse student population in our U.S. schools, teacher preparation programs need to prepare bilingual pre-service teachers to view and implement languages in supportive ways. This study demonstrates how a cohort of 16 bilingual pre-service teachers are beginning to think about language(s) and the impact it has on their practice within their internship experience. Findings reveal that when sup…
Sustaining Bilingual-Biliterate Identities: Latinx Preservice Teachers' Narrative Representations of Bilingualism and Biliteracy Across Time and Space
The present study is a narrative analysis of 14 self-created books by Latina/o/x bilingual preservice teachers to describe their biliteracy trajectories. Drawing on the concept of identity and bilingualism, this analysis explores how preservice teachers experienced language and literacy and how these experiences have shaped their bilingual-biliterate identities. The findings of this research study revealed that bilingual preservice teachers (a) n…
They are. Bilingual.”: Manifestations of bilanguaging love in a dual language bilingual classroom
Translanguaging, the fluid and dynamic language practices of bilinguals, reimagines language learning and offers the possibility of a more equitable academic experience for active bilingual students of Color, which was the impetus for our inquiry. This article presents the findings of an ethnographic study conducted in a second-grade dual-language classroom that focused on how bilanguaging love is manifested through the perspectives and approache…
Dreaming of Borderlands Biliteracies: A Framework for Recognizing the Critical Literacies of Racialized Bilinguals
In this theoretical paper, we aim to (re)imagine and (re)conceptualize biliteracy as an anti‐colonial endeavor to destabilize colonial projects that continue to permeate how language and literacy are conceptualized in schools. We build on previous scholarship that has theorized Spanish‐English biliteracy and extend this scholarship by centering the ways of knowing and being of racialized bilinguals from historically marginalized backgrounds as th…
Rising from the Margins: Critical Research on the Language and Literacy Practices of Transnational and/or Indigenous Latine/x Families
Learning from a community bilingual classroom: Toward a translanguaging literacies pedagogy with Chinese American bilinguals
Situated in the Midwest region of the United States, this study draws on translanguaging literacies to critically examine the discussions and sense-making that was taking place in a Mandarin-English bilingual community classroom between a Chinese bilingual teacher and three Chinese American bilingual students while engaging in discussions of language, culture, and history with children's literature. Our findings demonstrate that the teacher caref…
Testimonios of Momentos: Reading and Trusting my Embodied Epistemology
In this essay, I explore the concept of embodied knowledge that stems from the Brown female body grounded in the critical scholarship by Chicana Feminist Theorists. I share three testimonios of momentos—moments in my life—where my embodied knowledge, through emotions, feelings, and senses guided my practices. Through this (re)membering, I illustrate how critical embodied knowledge is lived and passed down to our younger generations. Lastly, I dis…
Wow, I get to choose now!” Bilingualism and biliteracy development from childhood to young adulthood
Much research has focused on the reasons and mechanisms for immigrant language loss. However, there is a scarcity of research about influences on language maintenance over time, and much of this work employs survey data. With the current study, we aim to contribute to this body of research with a qualitative study of a bilingual individual, Esperanza Sada (a self-selected pseudonym), and her language and literacy development, beginning in late el…
Wow, I get to choose now!” Bilingualism and biliteracy development from childhood to young adulthood
Much research has focused on the reasons and mechanisms for immigrant language loss. However, there is a scarcity of research about influences on language maintenance over time, and much of this work employs survey data. With the current study, we aim to contribute to this body of research with a qualitative study of a bilingual individual, Esperanza Sada (a self-selected pseudonym), and her language and literacy development, beginning in late el…
Who will be bilingual? A Critical Discourse Analysis of a Spanish-English Bilingual Pair
This article presents a basic interpretive qualitative study that examined how two students, a dominant Spanish speaker (Joel) and a dominant English speaker (Carter) used languages during their microinteractions in pair work in a dual language kindergarten classroom. The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between language choice and power. Data sources included field notes and video/audio recordings collected during a Spani…
Bilingual pre-service teachers’ initial experiences: Language ideologies in practice
To address the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse student population in our U.S. schools, teacher preparation programs need to prepare bilingual pre-service teachers to view and implement languages in supportive ways. This study demonstrates how a cohort of 16 bilingual pre-service teachers are beginning to think about language(s) and the impact it has on their practice within their internship experience. Findings reveal that when sup…
Collective (Re)constructions of Linguistic Surveillance at Home: Transfronterizx Families as Cultural and Linguistic Guardians
In the current anti-immigrant context, Latinx families, children, and communities experience language as a highly contested and surveilled practice with consequential effects. In this study, I drew on the concept of literacies of surveillance and translanguaging to examine how language was embodied and rationalized in the context of three homes of Latinx, transfronterizx families. This critical multiple-case study led to three main findings: (1) …
Because We Have to Speak English at School”: Transfronterizx Children Translanguaging Identity to Cross the Academic Border
This is What My Kids See Every Day”: Bilingual Pre-service Teachers Embracing Funds of Knowledge through Border Thinking Pedagogy
The present qualitative case study examines how community-based lessons impacted the practices, perspectives, and internship placement experiences of 16 bilingual pre-service teachers. Grounded in the concepts of funds of knowledge and border thinking pedagogy, the findings revealed that bilingual pre-service teachers drew on local knowledge to create community-based lessons; these lessons supported student engagement and participation, and they …
Testimonios of Momentos: Reading and Trusting my Embodied Epistemology
In this essay, I explore the concept of embodied knowledge that stems from the Brown female body grounded in the critical scholarship by Chicana Feminist Theorists. I share three testimonios of momentos—moments in my life—where my embodied knowledge, through emotions, feelings, and senses guided my practices. Through this (re)membering, I illustrate how critical embodied knowledge is lived and passed down to our younger generations. Lastly, I dis…
Transfronterizo Children’s Literacies of Surveillance and the Cultural Production of Border Crossing Identities on the U.S.–Mexico Border
This article examines the cultural production of three transfronterizo children who daily, physically cross a U.S.–Mexico international bridge. Drawing on theories of identity, border inspections, literacy, and language, the findings reveal that transfronterizo children developed literacies of surveillance , or the acquired and produced language and literacy practices to move across the surveillance, inspectors, and border. Transfronterizo childr…
Sustaining Bilingual-Biliterate Identities: Latinx Preservice Teachers' Narrative Representations of Bilingualism and Biliteracy Across Time and Space
The present study is a narrative analysis of 14 self-created books by Latina/o/x bilingual preservice teachers to describe their biliteracy trajectories. Drawing on the concept of identity and bilingualism, this analysis explores how preservice teachers experienced language and literacy and how these experiences have shaped their bilingual-biliterate identities. The findings of this research study revealed that bilingual preservice teachers (a) n…
‘Siento que el inglés esta tumbando mi español’: A transfronteriza child’s embodied critical language awareness
For many minoritized communities, sustaining or at least holding on to their home language and cultural identity has been a constant uphill battle. Nevertheless, Latina/o/x who speak Spanish, for example, have demonstrated to be linguistically and culturally resilient against hegemonic societal, institutional, political, and monolithic national ideologies. This article explores a single case study of a Latina transfronteriza child’s embodied crit…
They are. Bilingual.”: Manifestations of bilanguaging love in a dual language bilingual classroom
Translanguaging, the fluid and dynamic language practices of bilinguals, reimagines language learning and offers the possibility of a more equitable academic experience for active bilingual students of Color, which was the impetus for our inquiry. This article presents the findings of an ethnographic study conducted in a second-grade dual-language classroom that focused on how bilanguaging love is manifested through the perspectives and approache…
Toward Border‐Crossing Biliteracies: Pláticas of Midwest Transnational Latinx Families Reading and (Re)writing the World
This article focuses on the experiences of transnational Latinx youth and families through historias shared by the mothers. Transnational communities such as those from Latinx immigrant backgrounds have acquired critical perspectives because of their experiences in and across borders that have become central to their understanding of how to navigate learning in the U.S. context. As such, learning about border‐crossing knowledge and literacies fro…
Yo! Chisme Is Good! Latina/x Girls’ Cultivando Confianza in an After-School Program
Background or Context: Middle-school Girls of Color experience complex systems of relationships, structures, and situations in and out of school spaces. Their experiences, however, are often at the margins or excluded from middle school curricula and after-school programming. In this article, we focus on how young women engage with chisme to liberate themselves from social and academic pressures placed upon them. Purpose and Research Questions: O…
Rising from the Margins: Critical Research on the Language and Literacy Practices of Transnational and/or Indigenous Latine/x Families
Learning from a community bilingual classroom: Toward a translanguaging literacies pedagogy with Chinese American bilinguals
Situated in the Midwest region of the United States, this study draws on translanguaging literacies to critically examine the discussions and sense-making that was taking place in a Mandarin-English bilingual community classroom between a Chinese bilingual teacher and three Chinese American bilingual students while engaging in discussions of language, culture, and history with children's literature. Our findings demonstrate that the teacher caref…
Unlocking the transformative power of dynamic bilingualism: Co-constructing a translanguaging space with Chinese American children
Dreaming of Borderlands Biliteracies: A Framework for Recognizing the Critical Literacies of Racialized Bilinguals
In this theoretical paper, we aim to (re)imagine and (re)conceptualize biliteracy as an anti‐colonial endeavor to destabilize colonial projects that continue to permeate how language and literacy are conceptualized in schools. We build on previous scholarship that has theorized Spanish‐English biliteracy and extend this scholarship by centering the ways of knowing and being of racialized bilinguals from historically marginalized backgrounds as th…
Pairing Principles From Participatory Design Research and Design-Based Research to Center Latina/x Youth in an Afterschool Program
Participatory Design Research (PDR) aims to dismantle researcher-participant hierarchies through inclusion and elevation of participants' voices in the design, implementation, and analysis of educational interventions. PDR builds upon Design-Based Research (DBR) which investigates the effectiveness of educational interventions in authentic settings through iterative design and ongoing analysis. This paper describes how we drew from both PDR and D…
Exploring translanguaging pedagogy in an Asian American history classroom with a Chinese bilingual community teacher
This study examines a Chinese bilingual community teacher’s translanguaging pedagogy in an Asian American history classroom within a community-based Chinese heritage school. Drawing on four months of classroom observations, artifacts, and interviews collected as part of a larger critical ethnographic study, this article explores the teacher’s ideological shift and purposeful design of translanguaging pedagogy as she navigates the dual goals of he…
Borderlands Childhoods: An Exploration of Transfronterizx Children's Fotografías
Given mainstream narratives that depict the borderlands as a place of fear and violence, this study offers alternative visuals that highlight how transfronterizx children view their language and literacy practices in relation to their experiences in the Texas–Mexico borderlands. The study draws on borderlands biliteracies and critical childhood studies to analyze the children's fotografías and photo-elicitation interviews. The findings demonstrat…
Multilingual Education and Policy (17 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Pedagogy (14 works) · Psychology (14 works) · Linguistics (12 works) · Second Language Learning and Teaching (11 works) · Neuroscience of multilingualism (10 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Bilingual education (7 works)