Lisa Dornan

After completing the introductory methods courses and several literacy courses, I decided to integrate my knowledge of language acquisition in early childhood into my secondary specialization. I have worked with multilingual populations in the field of education for 20 years in the United States and internationally. From my reflection on the type of research and work I believe is necessary in the field of education when working with diverse and marginalized populations, my secondary specialization became a combination of MME and general and special education for students from birth through middle childhood. I chose this overlap of the critical period in literacy and language acquisition in conjunction with general and special education as these factors are all related to how several multilingual learners are either misdiagnosed resulting in qualifying for special education services or conversely slip through the cracks and not receiving essential services. 

EDUC 882 was my first Multilingual/Multicultural Education course with Dr. Haley. I had previously taken a course for teachers working with ESOL students through my former employer, Fairfax County Public Schools. That foundational course provided me the opportunity to expand on my practical knowledge and integrate theoretical and research based concepts. There were several assignments for the course. I chose to upload two assignments, a conference and research proposal. These two documents were an expansion of a pilot study I completed for EDRS 812: Qualitative Methods in Educational Research.