• Build community and the exchange of information regarding issues related to the education of multilingual learners such as bilingual education programs and implementation, language policies, community engagement, and bilingual teacher preparation, instructional practices, intersectionality, and equity.
• Provide a variety of formats for examining current perspectives, theories, trends, and topics related to bilingual education, such as presentations. webinars, formal and informal meetings, the BER SIG newsletters, and publications.
• Encourage qualitative and quantitative, basic, applied, and policy research in the area of bilingual education, broadly defined.
• Promote innovative methods and inclusive research in bilingual education and provide a forum for innovative approaches in this field of inquiry.
To accomplish these goals we have an executive committee that meets regularly, several working groups and award committees. We also strive to gain insight on topic of interests from SIG members through annual surveys, business meetings, newsletters, and announcements. We are continually working to find ways to build a sense of community and belonging in our SIG to support members at all stages in their careers as well as learn from one another for the purpose of improving the lives of teachers, students, and families.
As a member of the SIG, you automatically receive updates, announcements and important information regarding publication opportunities, conferences, job postings and other opportunities relevant to our scholarship. SIG members and mentoring efforts. We collaborate with the Latinx Research Issues SIG and the Second Language Research SIG to throw the best party (Pachanga!) at our annual meeting each year! Together we also address timely challenges, opportunities and possibilities and strive to truly work as a powerful scholarly collective to improve the education of bilingual students and their teachers.
Please consider being a part of the Bilingual Education Research SIG!
To join, please visit: http://www.aera.net/Membership/Join-or-Renew and be sure to join the Bilingual Education Research SIG with your membership to AERA.
If you are already a member of AERA, you may add a membership to the Bilingual Education Research SIG at any time by logging onto the online portal and updating your membership.
If you are a doctoral student, you may have the opportunity to join AERA and our SIG at a reduced rate. Please visit: http://www.aera.net/Membership/AERA-Doctoral-Student-Cohort-Program
Dear Members of the BER SIG, We write to you, the members of our SIG, to clearly and unequivocally share our solidarity with the Black community as it grapples with yet another series of experiences with police brutality in the United States. We also recognize the pain and anguish with which Black people, including Black immigrants, Afro-Asians and Afro-Latinxs, and allies take to the streets demanding an end to violence at the hands of the state, whose practices reflect the White supremacist ideologies and systems that undergird this nation. As a collective of people from minoritized communities, we must take this opportunity to center Black lives in recognition that our experiences stem from systems rooted in anti-blackness, which aim to uphold ideals of inherent difference and individual deficit through the promotion of the model minority myth. As such, we must be unambiguous and fervent in our commitment to Black Lives Matter and the pursuit of racial justice. The systems that continue to deny our Black brothers and sisters their humanity is the same one that denies the humanity of other marginalized people including but not limited to undocumented, dis/abled and transgender people. It is for this reason that we must also recognize that as minoritized people our own oppression is also rooted in antiblackness, regardless of whether we/you identify as Black or not. In other words, the racialization of BIPOC are produced within a foundation of anti-Blackness; we can trace these deficit perspectives to the Moynihan report (itself a product of a long history of anti-Blackness). As such, the only way to get to the root of the challenges confronting any community of color is to dismantle anti-Black (and settler colonial logics). Still, it is not enough to say that we stand in solidarity with the Black community. We must also commit to vehemently exposing and rejecting antiblackness within education, and particularly within bilingual education. As Flores so clearly states, “In a society that was founded on anti-Blackness and continues to perpetuate anti-Blackness through its institutions, bilingual education is by default anti-Black regardless of how inclusive it prides itself on being. [...] The only way to ensure that bilingual education is a tool for social change is to ensure that it is situated within a broader project that seeks to dismantle anti-Blackness. Anything less than this is tantamount to treating Black lives as if they don’t matter.” In recognition that we did not start this work, we have included the BLM “what we believe” statement. We do this to acknowledge the labor that the Black community has taken on - from the very moment they were first brought to this country in 1619 - to bring freedom to us all. We recognize that we cannot all take up this struggle in the same way, so we ask that you join us in this commitment however you can. We have provided some suggestions for action here (with hyperlinks to additional resources): GENERAL SUPPORTS/EFFORTS A. have conversations with your colleagues, students, family and friends about the need to center Black lives B. donate to one of the following organizations: Black Lives Matter, Color Of Change, The Antiracist Research & Policy Center, The Equal Justice Initiative, The American Civil Liberties Union, The Black Immigrant Collective C. support those who are protesting by contributing to bail funds D. support Black bookstores and businesses E. demand that your local school district remove the police from their school buildings F. seek out antiracism training for yourself or your loved ones G. participate in the activities listed in Movement for Black Lives’s Week of Action H. decolonize your syllabus, support Black research and scholarship, follow Black Scholars on Twitter, cite Black women and BIPOC, and I. pay Black scholars, teachers, and community organizers for their emotional and intellectual labor. They may include their Venmo or Cash App on Twitter. BILINGUAL EDUCATION SPECIFIC EFFORTS A. incorporating Black people into bilingual ed curricula B. acknowledging and centering the experiences of Afro-Latinxs C. welcoming and affirming Black language practices in the classroom Only you know which path and which actions best suit you and your positionality, but we earnestly implore that you join us in acknowledging that “what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood” (Audre Lorde). In Solidarity, María Cioè-Peña (Parliamentarian) Maria Coady (Chair) Zenaida Aguirre-Muñoz (Program Chair/Chair-elect) Verónica Eileen Valdez (Past-chair/Nominations Comm. Chair) David Martinez (Secretary/Treasurer) Alexandra (Ale) Babino (Previous Secretary/Treasurer) Mary Esther Huerta (Previous Parliamentarian) Patricia Martínez-Álvarez (Previous Past Chair/Nominations Comm. Chair)
Black Lives Matter, “What We Believe”: Retrieved from https://blacklivesmatter.com/
Black Lives Matter began as a call to action in response to state-sanctioned violence and anti- Black racism. Our intention from the very beginning was to connect Black people from all over the world who have a shared desire for justice to act together in their communities. The impetus for that commitment was, and still is, the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted on us by the state.
Enraged by the death of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent acquittal of his killer, George Zimmerman, and inspired by the 31-day takeover of the Florida State Capitol by POWER U and the Dream Defenders, we took to the streets. A year later, we set out together on the Black Lives Matter Freedom Ride to Ferguson, in search of justice for Mike Brown and all of those who have been torn apart by state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism. Forever changed, we returned home and began building the infrastructure for the Black Lives Matter Global Network, which, even in its infancy, has become a political home for many.
Ferguson helped to catalyze a movement to which we’ve all helped give life. Organizers who call this network home have ousted anti-Black politicians, won critical legislation to benefit Black lives, and changed the terms of the debate on Blackness around the world. Through movement and relationship building, we have also helped catalyze other movements and shifted culture with an eye toward the dangerous impacts of anti-Blackness.
These are the results of our collective efforts.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network is as powerful as it is because of our membership, our partners, our supporters, our staff, and you. Our continued commitment to liberation for all Black people means we are continuing the work of our ancestors and fighting for our collective freedom because it is our duty.
Every day, we recommit to healing ourselves and each other, and to co-creating alongside comrades, allies, and family a culture where each person feels seen, heard, and supported.
Say their names: