Deb Palmer
Professor • Chair of the Education Minor and Education Studies
Equity, Bilingualism & Biliteracy • BUENO Center
debpalmer@colorado.edu

Miramontes Baca Education Building, Room 300G
University of Colorado Boulder
249 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309

I am a Professor in the program in Equity, Bilingualism and Biliteracy in the School of Education, a faculty associate with the BUENO Center for Multicultural Education, and affiliate faculty in the Department of Ethnic Studies and the Culture, Language and Social Practice (CLASP) Program.Formerly a dual language bilingual teacher in Redwood City, California and bilingual teacher educator at the University of Texas at Austin, I conduct qualitative research using ethnographic and discourse analytic methods in culturally and linguistically diverse schools and classrooms. My interests include bilingual education policy and politics; dual language bilingual education; teacher preparation for linguistically and culturally diverse teaching contexts; and issues of language, power and identity in schools. 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. I have two recent books (2023), both co-edited with colleagues: “Critical Consciousness in Dual Language Bilingual Education: Case Studies on Policy and Practice” (Routledge) and “Gentrification and Bilingual Education: A Texas TWBE School Across Seven Years” (Lexington). My 2018 book (Multilingual Matters) related to bilingual teacher education was titled Teacher Leadership for Social Change in Bilingual/Bicultural Education.

Soy Profesora del programa de Equidad, Bilingüismo y Bi-literacidad​ en la Facultad de Educación; facultad asociada con el Centro BUENO de Education Multicultural, y afiliada con el departamento de Estudios Etnias y el programa de cultura, lenguaje y práctica social (CLASP por sus cifras en inglés). Anteriormente maestra de educación bilingüe de lenguaje dual en California y profesora de docencia bilingüe en Texas, 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; y asuntos del lenguaje, el poder y la identidad.  

Ph.D. (2004) Education in Language, Literacy and Culture, University of California, Berkeley, CA

M.A. (2000) Education in Language, Literacy and Culture, University of California, Berkeley, CA

Bilingual/Cross-cultural Language in Academic Development Supplement (BCLAD) (1996) 

California Multiple Subject K-12 Teaching Credential (1992) Mills College, Oakland CA. (renewed to 2023)

B.A. (1991) Anthropology with Humanities Honors, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Full CV

BOOKS

Dorner, L., Palmer, D., Cervantes-Soon, C., Crawford, E. & *Heiman, D. (2023) Critical Consciousness in Dual Language Bilingual Education: Case Studies on Policy and Practice. Routledge.

Palmer, D. & *García-Mateus, S. (2023) Gentrification and bilingual education: A Texas TWBE school across seven years. Lexington Books.

Henderson, K. & Palmer, D. (2020) Dual language bilingual education: Teacher cases and perspectives on large-scale implementation. Multilingual Matters.

Palmer, D. (2018) Teacher leadership for social change in bilingual/bicultural education. Multilingual Matters.

SELECTED JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS

*Harvey-Torres, R., Palmer, D. & *Degollado, E.D. (2022) Three worlds pitfall? A transfronteriza Latina bilingual teacher navigating home, school, and university divides. Teaching and Teacher Education. 116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2022.103767

*Hurie, A. & Palmer, D. (2022) Selling English-Medium Schooling in Multilingual Communities: A Typology of Choice Schools’ Marketing Strategies on the Near South Side of Milwaukee. Education Policy Analysis Archives. 30, (28). https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.30.6359 

*García-Mateus, S., *Henderson, K, *Téllez-Arsté, M. & Palmer, D. (2021) An experienced bilingual Latina teacher and pre-K Latinx students in the borderlands: Translanguaging as humanizing pedagogy. In: M. Sánchez & O. García, Eds. Transformative translanguaging espacios in bilingual education: U.S. Latinx bilingual children rompiendo fronteras, (pp.156-179) Multilingual Matters.

Palmer, D. (2019) “You’re not a Spanish speaker!/We are all bilingual” The purple kids on being and becoming bilingual in a dual language kindergarten classroom. In: Faltis, C. & MacSwan, J. Eds. Code-Switching in the Classroom:  A Multilingual Perspective on Language and Language Practices. Routledge, pp.247-267.

Palmer, D., Cervantes-Soon, C., Dorner, L., & *Heiman, D. (2019) Bilingualism, Biliteracy, Biculturalism… and Critical Consciousness for All: Proposing a Fourth Fundamental Principle for Two-Way Dual Language Education. Theory Into Practice, 58(2), 121-133. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2019.1569376.

*Henderson, K. & Palmer, D. (2019) “I wonder why they don’t do the two-way”: Disrupting the one-way/two-way dichotomy, re-envisioning the possibilities of dual language bilingual education. NABE Journal of Research and Practice, 9(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/26390043.2019.1589292.

Cervantes-Soon, C., Dorner, L., Palmer, D., Heiman, D., Schwerdtfeger, R., & Choi, J. (2017) Combating inequalities in two-way language immersion programs: Toward critical consciousness in bilingual education spaces. Review of Research in Education.

Palmer, D., Zuñiga, C. & Henderson, K. (2015) A dual language revolution in the United States? From compensatory to enrichment bilingual education in Texas. In: Wright, W., Boun, S., & Garcia, O. (Eds.) Handbook of Bilingual and Multilingual Education, Wiley-Blackwell.

Palmer, D.K. & Martínez, R.A. (2013) Teacher agency in bilingual spaces:  A fresh look at preparing teachers to educate Latino/a bilingual children. Review of Research in Education, 37(1), 269-297.

Palmer, D. (2010). Race, power, and equity in a multiethnic urban elementary school with a dual immersion “strand” program. Anthropology in Education Quarterly, 41(1), 94-114.

Palmer, D. (2009). Middle-class English speakers in a two-way immersion bilingual classroom: “Everybody should be listening to Jonathan right now…” TESOL Quarterly, 43(2), 177-202.

MEDIA/TALKS, MAGAZINE ARTICLES, AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS 

Caldas, B., Rubio, B., Heiman, D., Palmer, D. & Martínez, M. (2021) Cultivating bilingual education leaders: Tensions, successes and lessons learned at graduate school level. Webinar, B-MEIS, TESOL International, February 10, 2021. https://youtu.be/shFEzKJ59d8

Palmer, D. & McGrath, A. (2021) Language, Leadership and BIPOC Students. Podcast, Center for Leadership’s Leadership Frontiers Podcast Series, University of Colorado Boulder, https://www.colorado.edu/lead/news-events/leadership-frontiers-podcast.

Henderson, K.I., Ortega, E. & Palmer, D. (2021). “I’m kind of a rebel here”: Documenting the greatest challenges of bilingual teachers during a pandemic. Multilingual Educator, Spring 2021, (pp.86-88). https://www.gocabe.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/ME_2021-FINAL.pdf 

Palmer, D. (2021) Teaching for equity in two-way dual language education: The hidden curriculum behind what we teach and how we teach. Multilingual Educator, Spring 2021, (pp.107-110)  https://www.gocabe.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/ME_2021-FINAL.pdf 

Heiman, D., Cervantes-Soon, C., Dorner, L. & Palmer, D. (November 8, 2020) Critical consciousness at the core: Ensuring equity for transnational emerging bilinguals in US language education programs. Webinar, Center for Transnational & Multilingual Education, Georgia State University, November 8, 2020.  https://tinyurl.com/y4x2wsyl 

Wagstaffe, J.P. & Palmer, D. (2019). Do middle-class native English-speaking children dominate bilingual programs in America?. OASIS Summary of Palmer, D. (2009) in TESOL Quarterly. https://oasis-database.org/concern/summaries/qb98mf49p?locale=en 

*Fine, C., Palmer, D., & *Strong, K.A. (2019) The impact of language ideologies in schools. Educational Leadership, Dec/Jan, 77(4), 58-65. https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/the-impact-of-language-ideologies-in-schools 

Caminos de Bilingüismo: Co-designing and Co-conducting Research on High School Bilingual Pathways with Students (August 2023-May 2024)

Thirteen New Vista High School (NVHS) students and CU Boulder and graduate students are co-designing and co-conducting a study with CU Boulder faculty and graduate students that explores the biliteracy pathways students, families, community members, educators and administrators want to create at NVHS and in Boulder Valley School District (BVSD).  This youth-driven participatory action research (YPAR) project will investigate the research question that NVHS students have designed: What kinds of unique secondary biliteracy programs could BVSD create to best help emerging bilingual students across the district? 

This project aims to support BVSD’s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education department and NVHS to become innovators in the area of high school biliteracy pathways by centering student voices and engaging students as experts and co-constructors of knowledge. The NVHS student researchers are learning research skills, learning about bilingual education, spending time on the CU Boulder campus and developing their own biliteracy. They will develop meaningful recommendations about how and why NVHS and BVSD can expand biliteracy pathways based on their research.  These findings and recommendations will be shared bilingually to different communities of parents, school leaders, and district leaders in Spring 2024.  NVHS student researchers are able to earn both Community Experience credit towards graduation and concurrent enrollment college credits in youth research through CU Boulder continuing education.

We are funded through a Community Impact Grant and with the generous support of WISE. 

Developing Critical Consciousness through Dialogue with our Neighbors:  University Hill Elementary and CU Boulder SOE Partnership for Equity

The purpose of the School of Education/University Hill Elementary partnership is to support equitable educational engagements by developing and nurturing spaces for critical inquiry and dialogue that center the needs, identities, and experiences of racially and linguistically marginalized students. A collaborative project with Dr. Andrea Dyrness (EFPP) and Dr. Enrique Sepúlveda (Ethnic Studies) and the leadership at UHE, this project involves UHE students and teachers, and CU Boulder undergraduate and graduate students. 

At the heart of the partnership is a unique cultural mentoring program that brings together underrepresented students at CU who are Education and Ethnic Studies majors with predominantly Latinx 5th graders at Uni Hill. Through a weekly after-school program led by the CU Boulder students, we aim to: 1) build community among Uni Hill students and underrepresented students at CU and promote a sense of belonging to CU and the Boulder community, 2) To reflect on and strengthen cultural identity, and 3) To explore issues of common concern in our communities and cultural resources for education, or community cultural wealth (Yosso 2005). It is our hope that through this new community, both groups of students will see their identities and experiences as resources for their education, and Uni Hill students will begin to see higher education as not only possible but meaningful for them and their communities, while CU students will see community engagement as a way to enhance their own educational experience. Additionally, through research partnerships with fifth grade teachers and professional development for the entire faculty of Uni Hill, we aim to support teachers to leverage their students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds as resources for teaching and learning in dual language bilingual classrooms.

This project began with an SOE-Partnership SEED Grant in 2019. 

Building Raciolinguistic Justice in Midwestern Dual Language Programs, 1/2022-12/2022:

Funded by a Spencer Foundation Conference Grant, this project is a collaboration with a team of researchers and practitioners in dual language bilingual education across six midwestern states with the primary purpose to develop raciolinguistic justice in Midwestern DLBE programs. Central to this work is the development of critical consciousness (Palmer, et al., 2019). Therefore we are planning a series of virtual convenings co-led by practitioners, which will inform an in-person conference with data analysis and conversations co-facilitated by researchers and interactive workshops that link research to practice. Three objectives support our primary purpose: (1) document and more deeply understand issues of raciolinguistic equity and critical consciousness in DLBE; (2) design new research-practice partnerships and agendas; and (3) foster an anti-racist community of practice and Midwestern DLBE network.

Recent Courses Taught:

Undergraduate/Master’s:
2625/5625 Methods of Teaching English as a Second Language
4425 Introduction to Bilingual/Multicultural Education
5605 Research Issues in Bilingual Education
5615 Second Language Acquisition
5425 Introduction to Bilingual/Multicultural Education

Doctoral: 
8730 Advanced Qualitative Methods: Critical Discourse Analysis
8014 Seminar on Democracy, Diversity and Justice in Education: Latinos in Education