María Cioè-Peña
Biographic Data
| ID | 1584151 |
|---|---|
| NAME | María Cioè-Peña |
| GIVEN NAMES | María |
| FAMILY NAME | Cioè-Peña |
| SIGNATURE | CIOÈ-PEÑA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pennsylvania |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7713-5198 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 63 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Ableism, gentrification, and the exclusion of multilingual learners with disabilities from bilingual education programs
Students with Special Education Needs in Bilingual and Multilingual Education
Students who have special education needs are educated in a variety of settings across the world, but are also often excluded from educational spaces, including within bilingual and multilingual education. In the United States, there are an estimated one million linguistically diverse students with special education needs (i.e., classified as needing both special education and English learner [EL] services). Although these students have both iden…
Weathering the Storm
To protect against gendered racism, U.S. Black girls and women are socialized to be strong. This study explored the manifestations of the "Strong Black Woman" schema over time in the coping strategies of six Black women who survived Hurricane Katrina. Participants were all Black mothers, enrolled at a local community college, and ages 23-31 at the time of the first interview. All were interviewed three times between 2006 and 2018. Using narrative…
Writing, Rioting, and Righting Como Negra
In this autoethnography, María Cioè-Peña recounts her experiences of Black erasure in bilingual education in US schools, where the focus is on language and an imagined mixed-race collective, centering culture to circumvent race and treating language as connective yet racially neutral. But languages and how language users are perceived are not race-neutral constructs. Black erasure in bilingual education upholds anti-Blackness and model minority n…
DisCrit mothering
In this special issue, a collective of mother-scholar-activists focus on exploring the possibilities for an intersectional critical stance for motherhood. Building on and extending the field of Critical Race Parenting (ParentCrit), we propose a global DisCrit Mothering approach. We draw from Disability Critical Race Theory in Education (DisCrit) and Revolutionary Mothering, to forward DisCrit Mothering as politicized action (as opposed to biologi…
Solidarity on the screen and six feet apart? DisCrit mothering amid multiple social crises
In justice movements, solidarity means showing up for the humanity of others. This paper explores DisCrit mothering as a form of solidarity with children and families dehumanized by ableism and racism. As three motherscholars, who occupy varying spaces of privilege/marginalization in the academy, we reflect on our attempts to support our communities through DisCrit mothering, especially amid a global pandemic, uprisings for racial justice, and on…
Individualized Language Plans
In the United States, individualized language plans (ILPs) have gained traction across K–12 schools. Much like the Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) used in special education, ILPs outline individualized goals, accommodations, and services for multilingual learners for their language development; however, unlike IEPs, ILPs are developed at the local level with no federal oversight or guidance. While scholars have recently called for the im…
The expansive language access framework
While language education programs were created with an equity stance in mind—with the goals of increasing access and facilitating academic success for ethnically and linguistically marginalized students—the larger educational context has compromised access for multiply marginalized students. Recognizing a need for more complex understandings of language access, scholars have turned to intersectionality; however, intersectional theory is often app…
Mending the intersectional gap
TrUDL is a pedagogical approach that considers the intersections of translanguaging and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to support the needs of students in any classroom, but especially emergent multilinguals labeled as disabled (EMLADs). In this article, we offer tools to help educators ensure their lessons support the full communicative repertoire and learning strengths, needs, and preferences of their EMLADs. Educators must self-assess to …
Moving towards justice and equity
Adapting Participatory Rank Methodology
Within educational research, qualitative data offers unique opportunities to contextualize findings that arise from large-scale quantitative data collection processes. Still, to date, most educational research is based on researchers’ determination of what is important, not the participants’. Participatory Rank Methodology (PRM) is a mixed-methods, public health methodology applied during crises to generate rich, contextualized data that can be c…
The master's tools will never dismantle the master's school
Racialized students are overrepresented in special- and English-learner education programs in the United States. Researchers have pointed to implicit bias in evaluation tools and evaluators as a cause resulting in calls for more culturally competent/relevant practices/assessments. However, this paper argues that racial overrepresentation is reflective of larger settler colonial frameworks embedded in linguistic standards that continue to drive ed…
Computers Secured, Connection Still Needed
When the COVID-19 pandemic triggered shelter-in-place orders and school closures, many turned to remote schooling as a means for delivering vital instruction while observing public health guidelines. However, the swift shift to remote schooling highlighted an area of significant educational inequity across the United States, especially in urban districts and immigrant households: technology access. Centering the experiences of Spanish-speaking im…
Performing the good (im)migrant
This paper analyzes how language is framed as a route to full inclusion, particularly for unaccompanied asylum-seeking students labelled as disabled. It is based on a qualitative study carried out in the Italian city of Rome, which, although cosmopolitan, is often characterised by nationalistic political landscapes. The manuscript reveals how institutional biases (re: race, ability, and migration) about unaccompanied forced migrant youth, often m…
TrUDL, A Path to Full Inclusion
Nationally, there is a rise in students who are dually classified as emergent bilinguals and students with disabilities. While conversations around disproportionality and the over‐representation of emergent bilinguals in special education are important, that discourse does not address the needs of students currently classified. Overwhelmingly, educators continue to approach linguistic and disability needs as the amalgamation of two separate entit…
From Pedagogies to Research
For decades, educational research has focused on centering the experiences of children of color. From this research arose culturally relevant pedagogies (CRPs) and culturally sustaining pedagogies (CSPs). However, as countless teachers focus on developing more inclusive classroom practices, the cultural needs of parents continue to be ignored. One reason for this is that, while being manifestations of funds of knowledge, CRP and CSP are rooted in…
After the Phone Call
The narratives of immigrant Latinx mothers are often excluded from discourses on motherhood. This study centers on a shared experience with Child Protective Services (CPS) for two such mothers. One mother had CPS called on her family, the other was the teacher who made the call. This paper analyses their experiences in relation to disability, documentation status, power, and privilege. Connections are also made to the societal constructions of mo…
Raciolinguistics and the Education of Emergent Bilinguals Labeled as Disabled
Planning Inclusion
Inclusive education is promoted as an educational setting that brings together students with disabilities alongside non-disabled peers. As the rise in inclusive education continues, many recognize the Salamanca Statement of 1994 as an influencer. This paper discusses how the vision of inclusion grounded in “the need to work towards ‘schools for all’” remains unfulfilled through a lack of intersectionality. Centering the experiences of Spanish-spe…
Bilingualism for students with disabilities, deficit or advantage
While access to bilingual education programs is on the rise, Emergent Bilingual Learners Labeled as Dis/abled (EBLADs) continue to experience English-mostly educational placements. Analysis of interviews with ten Latinx mothers of EBLADs revealed that educators recommended their children be placed in English-only instructional programs to avoid linguistic confusion. The mothers first resisted, but subsequently internalized, educators’ deficit-per…
The intersectional gap
At the onset of nearly every American civil rights movement there are two pivotal messages: the first is the group’s claims of exclusion from the life that the privileged lead and the second is a demand to be included. In all cases the first step in creating sustainable change has been the recognition that society was functioning on a multi-tiered system that grants access to some but not to all. Currently there is a civil rights movement taking …
The intersectional gap
At the onset of nearly every American civil rights movement there are two pivotal messages: the first is the group’s claims of exclusion from the life that the privileged lead and the second is a demand to be included. In all cases the first step in creating sustainable change has been the recognition that society was functioning on a multi-tiered system that grants access to some but not to all. Currently there is a civil rights movement taking …
Bilingualism for students with disabilities, deficit or advantage
While access to bilingual education programs is on the rise, Emergent Bilingual Learners Labeled as Dis/abled (EBLADs) continue to experience English-mostly educational placements. Analysis of interviews with ten Latinx mothers of EBLADs revealed that educators recommended their children be placed in English-only instructional programs to avoid linguistic confusion. The mothers first resisted, but subsequently internalized, educators’ deficit-per…
Raciolinguistics and the Education of Emergent Bilinguals Labeled as Disabled
Performing the good (im)migrant
This paper analyzes how language is framed as a route to full inclusion, particularly for unaccompanied asylum-seeking students labelled as disabled. It is based on a qualitative study carried out in the Italian city of Rome, which, although cosmopolitan, is often characterised by nationalistic political landscapes. The manuscript reveals how institutional biases (re: race, ability, and migration) about unaccompanied forced migrant youth, often m…
TrUDL, A Path to Full Inclusion
Nationally, there is a rise in students who are dually classified as emergent bilinguals and students with disabilities. While conversations around disproportionality and the over‐representation of emergent bilinguals in special education are important, that discourse does not address the needs of students currently classified. Overwhelmingly, educators continue to approach linguistic and disability needs as the amalgamation of two separate entit…
Individualized Language Plans
In the United States, individualized language plans (ILPs) have gained traction across K–12 schools. Much like the Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) used in special education, ILPs outline individualized goals, accommodations, and services for multilingual learners for their language development; however, unlike IEPs, ILPs are developed at the local level with no federal oversight or guidance. While scholars have recently called for the im…
Computers Secured, Connection Still Needed
When the COVID-19 pandemic triggered shelter-in-place orders and school closures, many turned to remote schooling as a means for delivering vital instruction while observing public health guidelines. However, the swift shift to remote schooling highlighted an area of significant educational inequity across the United States, especially in urban districts and immigrant households: technology access. Centering the experiences of Spanish-speaking im…
Mending the intersectional gap
TrUDL is a pedagogical approach that considers the intersections of translanguaging and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to support the needs of students in any classroom, but especially emergent multilinguals labeled as disabled (EMLADs). In this article, we offer tools to help educators ensure their lessons support the full communicative repertoire and learning strengths, needs, and preferences of their EMLADs. Educators must self-assess to …
The expansive language access framework
While language education programs were created with an equity stance in mind—with the goals of increasing access and facilitating academic success for ethnically and linguistically marginalized students—the larger educational context has compromised access for multiply marginalized students. Recognizing a need for more complex understandings of language access, scholars have turned to intersectionality; however, intersectional theory is often app…
After the Phone Call
The narratives of immigrant Latinx mothers are often excluded from discourses on motherhood. This study centers on a shared experience with Child Protective Services (CPS) for two such mothers. One mother had CPS called on her family, the other was the teacher who made the call. This paper analyses their experiences in relation to disability, documentation status, power, and privilege. Connections are also made to the societal constructions of mo…
The intersectional gap
At the onset of nearly every American civil rights movement there are two pivotal messages: the first is the group’s claims of exclusion from the life that the privileged lead and the second is a demand to be included. In all cases the first step in creating sustainable change has been the recognition that society was functioning on a multi-tiered system that grants access to some but not to all. Currently there is a civil rights movement taking …
Planning Inclusion
Inclusive education is promoted as an educational setting that brings together students with disabilities alongside non-disabled peers. As the rise in inclusive education continues, many recognize the Salamanca Statement of 1994 as an influencer. This paper discusses how the vision of inclusion grounded in “the need to work towards ‘schools for all’” remains unfulfilled through a lack of intersectionality. Centering the experiences of Spanish-spe…
Bilingualism for students with disabilities, deficit or advantage
While access to bilingual education programs is on the rise, Emergent Bilingual Learners Labeled as Dis/abled (EBLADs) continue to experience English-mostly educational placements. Analysis of interviews with ten Latinx mothers of EBLADs revealed that educators recommended their children be placed in English-only instructional programs to avoid linguistic confusion. The mothers first resisted, but subsequently internalized, educators’ deficit-per…
From Pedagogies to Research
For decades, educational research has focused on centering the experiences of children of color. From this research arose culturally relevant pedagogies (CRPs) and culturally sustaining pedagogies (CSPs). However, as countless teachers focus on developing more inclusive classroom practices, the cultural needs of parents continue to be ignored. One reason for this is that, while being manifestations of funds of knowledge, CRP and CSP are rooted in…
After the Phone Call
The narratives of immigrant Latinx mothers are often excluded from discourses on motherhood. This study centers on a shared experience with Child Protective Services (CPS) for two such mothers. One mother had CPS called on her family, the other was the teacher who made the call. This paper analyses their experiences in relation to disability, documentation status, power, and privilege. Connections are also made to the societal constructions of mo…
Raciolinguistics and the Education of Emergent Bilinguals Labeled as Disabled
The master's tools will never dismantle the master's school
Racialized students are overrepresented in special- and English-learner education programs in the United States. Researchers have pointed to implicit bias in evaluation tools and evaluators as a cause resulting in calls for more culturally competent/relevant practices/assessments. However, this paper argues that racial overrepresentation is reflective of larger settler colonial frameworks embedded in linguistic standards that continue to drive ed…
Computers Secured, Connection Still Needed
When the COVID-19 pandemic triggered shelter-in-place orders and school closures, many turned to remote schooling as a means for delivering vital instruction while observing public health guidelines. However, the swift shift to remote schooling highlighted an area of significant educational inequity across the United States, especially in urban districts and immigrant households: technology access. Centering the experiences of Spanish-speaking im…
Performing the good (im)migrant
This paper analyzes how language is framed as a route to full inclusion, particularly for unaccompanied asylum-seeking students labelled as disabled. It is based on a qualitative study carried out in the Italian city of Rome, which, although cosmopolitan, is often characterised by nationalistic political landscapes. The manuscript reveals how institutional biases (re: race, ability, and migration) about unaccompanied forced migrant youth, often m…
TrUDL, A Path to Full Inclusion
Nationally, there is a rise in students who are dually classified as emergent bilinguals and students with disabilities. While conversations around disproportionality and the over‐representation of emergent bilinguals in special education are important, that discourse does not address the needs of students currently classified. Overwhelmingly, educators continue to approach linguistic and disability needs as the amalgamation of two separate entit…
Adapting Participatory Rank Methodology
Within educational research, qualitative data offers unique opportunities to contextualize findings that arise from large-scale quantitative data collection processes. Still, to date, most educational research is based on researchers’ determination of what is important, not the participants’. Participatory Rank Methodology (PRM) is a mixed-methods, public health methodology applied during crises to generate rich, contextualized data that can be c…
Writing, Rioting, and Righting Como Negra
In this autoethnography, María Cioè-Peña recounts her experiences of Black erasure in bilingual education in US schools, where the focus is on language and an imagined mixed-race collective, centering culture to circumvent race and treating language as connective yet racially neutral. But languages and how language users are perceived are not race-neutral constructs. Black erasure in bilingual education upholds anti-Blackness and model minority n…
DisCrit mothering
In this special issue, a collective of mother-scholar-activists focus on exploring the possibilities for an intersectional critical stance for motherhood. Building on and extending the field of Critical Race Parenting (ParentCrit), we propose a global DisCrit Mothering approach. We draw from Disability Critical Race Theory in Education (DisCrit) and Revolutionary Mothering, to forward DisCrit Mothering as politicized action (as opposed to biologi…
Solidarity on the screen and six feet apart? DisCrit mothering amid multiple social crises
In justice movements, solidarity means showing up for the humanity of others. This paper explores DisCrit mothering as a form of solidarity with children and families dehumanized by ableism and racism. As three motherscholars, who occupy varying spaces of privilege/marginalization in the academy, we reflect on our attempts to support our communities through DisCrit mothering, especially amid a global pandemic, uprisings for racial justice, and on…
Individualized Language Plans
In the United States, individualized language plans (ILPs) have gained traction across K–12 schools. Much like the Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) used in special education, ILPs outline individualized goals, accommodations, and services for multilingual learners for their language development; however, unlike IEPs, ILPs are developed at the local level with no federal oversight or guidance. While scholars have recently called for the im…
The expansive language access framework
While language education programs were created with an equity stance in mind—with the goals of increasing access and facilitating academic success for ethnically and linguistically marginalized students—the larger educational context has compromised access for multiply marginalized students. Recognizing a need for more complex understandings of language access, scholars have turned to intersectionality; however, intersectional theory is often app…
Mending the intersectional gap
TrUDL is a pedagogical approach that considers the intersections of translanguaging and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to support the needs of students in any classroom, but especially emergent multilinguals labeled as disabled (EMLADs). In this article, we offer tools to help educators ensure their lessons support the full communicative repertoire and learning strengths, needs, and preferences of their EMLADs. Educators must self-assess to …
Moving towards justice and equity
Students with Special Education Needs in Bilingual and Multilingual Education
Students who have special education needs are educated in a variety of settings across the world, but are also often excluded from educational spaces, including within bilingual and multilingual education. In the United States, there are an estimated one million linguistically diverse students with special education needs (i.e., classified as needing both special education and English learner [EL] services). Although these students have both iden…
Weathering the Storm
To protect against gendered racism, U.S. Black girls and women are socialized to be strong. This study explored the manifestations of the "Strong Black Woman" schema over time in the coping strategies of six Black women who survived Hurricane Katrina. Participants were all Black mothers, enrolled at a local community college, and ages 23-31 at the time of the first interview. All were interviewed three times between 2006 and 2018. Using narrative…
Ableism, gentrification, and the exclusion of multilingual learners with disabilities from bilingual education programs
Sociology (16 works) · Political science (13 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (12 works) · Pedagogy (12 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Gender Studies (10 works) · Linguistics (8 works) · Gender Studies (7 works) · Bilingual education (6 works) · Disability Education and Employment (5 works)