Aria Razfar
Biographic Data
| ID | 3638973 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Aria Razfar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Aria |
| FAMILY NAME | Razfar |
| SIGNATURE | RAZFAR A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Illinois Chicago |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5537-0653 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 33 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Literacy and Bilingualism
This entry examines the shifting definitions of literacy within bilingual education through the lens of language ideology, highlighting how dominant monolingual norms have historically shaped and constrained literacy practices. Moving beyond narrow and autonomous views of literacy as the ability to decode print, the discussion leverages new insights rooted in frameworks such as multiliteracies, biliteracy, critical literacy, and translanguaging t…
Math identity and Cultural Historical Activity Theory
The purpose of this exploratory study is to further investigate the cultural contexts under which pre-service teachers develop their mathematics identities. We reviewed pre-service teachers’ mathematics autobiographies that include a description of their math abilities, their perceptions of what it means to be a good student of mathematics and the impact of parental/caregiver and teacher relationships on the development of their mathematics ident…
Literacy as Bearing Witness
Special Call Issue “Critical Religious Literacy”
Reading Linguistically Diverse Print, Visual, and Digital Texts Across Physical and Virtual Worlds
Science of Literacies
Critical Religious Literacy
Critically Engaging “the Other”
Understanding Affect and Culture Within Pedagogical and Assessment Practices in Language and Literacy Education
Developing health literacy events
Objective: In response to the question ‘how can teachers develop health literacy events that leverage students’ cultural and linguistic resources’, this study highlights how two teachers developed a culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum that sought to promote health literacy. Design: The study details findings from a larger partnership between an urban university and a bilingual urban school in the USA. Researchers and teachers cond…
Administrating Language
Urban schools are becoming increasingly linguistically diverse. However, principals are not adequately prepared to address linguistic variation, and in particular, issues related to African American Language (AAL). This study explores the language ideological voices of urban school administrators. Focus group sessions were conducted with 15 administrators of predominantly African American schools about the function of AAL in their students’ lives…
Categorization in Literacy Contexts
Centering Student Voice in Literacy Research
Algorithm of love
Centering Learners
Global, International, and Transnational Perspectives on Literacy
Community, Collaboration, and the Co-Construction of Learning
Identity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Repositioning English Learners' Funds of Knowledge for Scientific Practices
For more than 3 decades, education researchers have called on teachers to use funds of knowledge (FoK) as a way of creating more culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining pedagogies. This is particularly important in the domains of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, specifically mathematics and science. FoK research in this area has addressed how teachers have made connections to STEM, planned curriculum, an…
Process the Trump
Multilingual Mathematics
Drawing on Cultural Historical Activity Theory, language socialization, and the notion of third space, this article examines how bilingual, Latina/o students (Latina/o English learners) use sophisticated linguistic, cultural, and mathematical tools to solve community-based problems. This article examines the inherent tensions in using multiple linguistic tools to engage in a mathematically rich activity called Recipes. Rather than view these tens…
Dewey and Vygotsky
Since the dawn of sociocultural theory in the US and Western European academic contexts around the late seventies, many scholars have attempted to bridge the gap and make connections between Vygotskian-inspired theories of human development and learning and the US and Western European cognitive traditions. I am including both sociocultural theory (SCT) and cultural historical activity theory (CHAT). Prior to this period, US and Western European p…
Language ideologies in English learner classrooms
This paper draws on fieldwork conducted over the course of one academic year in two urban high-school English learner (EL) classrooms located in the south-western part of the United States. As part of a larger interest in how language ideologies mediate classroom discourse practices, this paper analyses the role of awareness in language ideological (LI) inquiry, its methodological implications, as well as pedagogy in second language learning. Cla…
Vamos a Jugar Counters! Learning Mathematics Through Funds of Knowledge, Play, and the Third Space
Drawing on Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), funds of knowledge, and third space, this article presents a model for practitioners and researchers to think about how Latina/o, bilingual children develop explicit mathematics strategies through multilingual and multigenerational interactions. Using data collected through fieldwork in an urban afterschool club, this article illustrates how nonschool activities that draw on children's funds …
Narrating Beliefs
This article explores how we can better understand the language ideologies of teachers working with second language learners through narrative analysis. This analysis draws on ethnographic data collected in an urban high school with a predominant Latina/o population and nearly a quarter designated as English learners. This analysis illustrates how emergent narratives and language ideologies provide a valuable framework and method for better under…
Narrating Beliefs
This article explores how we can better understand the language ideologies of teachers working with second language learners through narrative analysis. This analysis draws on ethnographic data collected in an urban high school with a predominant Latina/o population and nearly a quarter designated as English learners. This analysis illustrates how emergent narratives and language ideologies provide a valuable framework and method for better under…
Course‐Taking Patterns of Latino ESL Students
In most Western countries where English is the medium of instruction, there is a substantial gap in student success between immigrant English as a second language (ESL) students and non‐ESL students. In the United States, this situation has been observed in particular with Latino ESL students. This article describes a longitudinal study of two cohorts of Latino ESL students and compares the success of students who mainstreamed into college‐level …
Repositioning English Learners' Funds of Knowledge for Scientific Practices
For more than 3 decades, education researchers have called on teachers to use funds of knowledge (FoK) as a way of creating more culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining pedagogies. This is particularly important in the domains of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, specifically mathematics and science. FoK research in this area has addressed how teachers have made connections to STEM, planned curriculum, an…
Administrating Language
Urban schools are becoming increasingly linguistically diverse. However, principals are not adequately prepared to address linguistic variation, and in particular, issues related to African American Language (AAL). This study explores the language ideological voices of urban school administrators. Focus group sessions were conducted with 15 administrators of predominantly African American schools about the function of AAL in their students’ lives…
Vamos a Jugar Counters! Learning Mathematics Through Funds of Knowledge, Play, and the Third Space
Drawing on Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), funds of knowledge, and third space, this article presents a model for practitioners and researchers to think about how Latina/o, bilingual children develop explicit mathematics strategies through multilingual and multigenerational interactions. Using data collected through fieldwork in an urban afterschool club, this article illustrates how nonschool activities that draw on children's funds …
Language Ideologies in English Language Learner Contexts
The concept of ideologies and language ideologies that drives this study is one rooted in the social practice of people. This qualitative study seeks to develop an understanding of how teachers' language ideologies mediate their instructional practices with English language learners (ELLs). Given that success in higher education highly depends on the ability to participate in academic discourse, structuralist and reductive literacy practices, med…
Language Ideologies in English Language Learner Contexts
The concept of ideologies and language ideologies that drives this study is one rooted in the social practice of people. This qualitative study seeks to develop an understanding of how teachers' language ideologies mediate their instructional practices with English language learners (ELLs). Given that success in higher education highly depends on the ability to participate in academic discourse, structuralist and reductive literacy practices, med…
Ideological Challenges in Classroom Discourse
Using a sociocritical approach to the study of language and literacy and discourse analysis, this article examines student initiated challenges in a sheltered English course with two types of English learners: native+, ESL students; and, recently, arriving ESL students. The analysis draws on 19 hours of video-recorded observations of teacher-student interaction in predominantly whole class literacy activities. Through an in depth analysis of the …
Developmental Context(s)
This paper argues for an expanded notion of context and the mediational tools that frame language learning. More specifically, we argue for a more explicit understanding of language ideologies as a key mediating tool and object in learning and development. Language ideologies bring coherence to the interaction of macro-historical processes, micro-discursive practices, and the emerging context(s) of development. The article begins with a framing o…
Re-Mediating Second Language Acquisition
This article provides a cultural-historical (CHAT) analysis of the practices used by an effective teacher of Latino/a children previously classified as "underachieving" and "beginning/novice" English Language Learners. Although the teacher would not describe her practices in strict CHAT, or sociocultural theory (SCT) terms, our analysis shows that teaching practices in this classroom are better understood using a SCT model rather than more preval…
Developing Metadiscourse
Course‐Taking Patterns of Latino ESL Students
In most Western countries where English is the medium of instruction, there is a substantial gap in student success between immigrant English as a second language (ESL) students and non‐ESL students. In the United States, this situation has been observed in particular with Latino ESL students. This article describes a longitudinal study of two cohorts of Latino ESL students and compares the success of students who mainstreamed into college‐level …
Language ideologies in English learner classrooms
This paper draws on fieldwork conducted over the course of one academic year in two urban high-school English learner (EL) classrooms located in the south-western part of the United States. As part of a larger interest in how language ideologies mediate classroom discourse practices, this paper analyses the role of awareness in language ideological (LI) inquiry, its methodological implications, as well as pedagogy in second language learning. Cla…
Vamos a Jugar Counters! Learning Mathematics Through Funds of Knowledge, Play, and the Third Space
Drawing on Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), funds of knowledge, and third space, this article presents a model for practitioners and researchers to think about how Latina/o, bilingual children develop explicit mathematics strategies through multilingual and multigenerational interactions. Using data collected through fieldwork in an urban afterschool club, this article illustrates how nonschool activities that draw on children's funds …
Narrating Beliefs
This article explores how we can better understand the language ideologies of teachers working with second language learners through narrative analysis. This analysis draws on ethnographic data collected in an urban high school with a predominant Latina/o population and nearly a quarter designated as English learners. This analysis illustrates how emergent narratives and language ideologies provide a valuable framework and method for better under…
Multilingual Mathematics
Drawing on Cultural Historical Activity Theory, language socialization, and the notion of third space, this article examines how bilingual, Latina/o students (Latina/o English learners) use sophisticated linguistic, cultural, and mathematical tools to solve community-based problems. This article examines the inherent tensions in using multiple linguistic tools to engage in a mathematically rich activity called Recipes. Rather than view these tens…
Dewey and Vygotsky
Since the dawn of sociocultural theory in the US and Western European academic contexts around the late seventies, many scholars have attempted to bridge the gap and make connections between Vygotskian-inspired theories of human development and learning and the US and Western European cognitive traditions. I am including both sociocultural theory (SCT) and cultural historical activity theory (CHAT). Prior to this period, US and Western European p…
Process the Trump
Repositioning English Learners' Funds of Knowledge for Scientific Practices
For more than 3 decades, education researchers have called on teachers to use funds of knowledge (FoK) as a way of creating more culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining pedagogies. This is particularly important in the domains of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, specifically mathematics and science. FoK research in this area has addressed how teachers have made connections to STEM, planned curriculum, an…
Community, Collaboration, and the Co-Construction of Learning
Identity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Centering Learners
Global, International, and Transnational Perspectives on Literacy
Categorization in Literacy Contexts
Centering Student Voice in Literacy Research
Algorithm of love
Critically Engaging “the Other”
Understanding Affect and Culture Within Pedagogical and Assessment Practices in Language and Literacy Education
Developing health literacy events
Objective: In response to the question ‘how can teachers develop health literacy events that leverage students’ cultural and linguistic resources’, this study highlights how two teachers developed a culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum that sought to promote health literacy. Design: The study details findings from a larger partnership between an urban university and a bilingual urban school in the USA. Researchers and teachers cond…
Administrating Language
Urban schools are becoming increasingly linguistically diverse. However, principals are not adequately prepared to address linguistic variation, and in particular, issues related to African American Language (AAL). This study explores the language ideological voices of urban school administrators. Focus group sessions were conducted with 15 administrators of predominantly African American schools about the function of AAL in their students’ lives…
Math identity and Cultural Historical Activity Theory
The purpose of this exploratory study is to further investigate the cultural contexts under which pre-service teachers develop their mathematics identities. We reviewed pre-service teachers’ mathematics autobiographies that include a description of their math abilities, their perceptions of what it means to be a good student of mathematics and the impact of parental/caregiver and teacher relationships on the development of their mathematics ident…
Sociology (29 works) · Pedagogy (26 works) · Psychology (26 works) · Mathematics education (21 works) · Literacy (15 works) · Linguistics (13 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (8 works) · Ideology (7 works)