I started the Ph.D. in Education and Human Development program in January of 2023. My previous experience with research was action research while pursuing my graduate certificate in International Education at George Mason University. I have experience creating and leading professional developments for parents of early childhood students on emergent literacy. This experience turned into an action research project and my findings were published in the school’s research journal. When I applied to the doctoral in education program at GMU, I was primarily interested in interactive read-alouds with early childhood students as well as vocabulary development. Throughout my coursework, my goals have broadened to include other areas of research. I am still interested in working with early childhood students, now I am interested in working on research with multilingual learners as well as teacher preparation and professional development in the areas of literacy and language. My coursework at GMU has strengthened my interest in these areas.

              The first course I took at GMU was EDRD 830: Theory, Research, & Practice in Literacy: Birth through Middle Childhood. During this course, I learned about theories regarding early literacy and language development. I learned about the Simple View of Reading theorized by Gough and Tummer (1986) and how it is relevant to the history of literacy research as well as the current trends in literacy, including the Science of Reading. For my final project, I expanded on my previous research on interactive read-alouds by writing a literature review about the history of interactive read-alouds in preschool settings, starting with the early work of Whitehurst et al. (1988) and Dickinson & Smith (1994), which focused on dialogic reading. I moved into how the research has changed with more current studies, including the importance and type of teacher talk during read-alouds (Barnes et al., 2019: Cabell et al., 2019; Cohen et al., 2012; Hindman et al., 2021; Mol et al, 2009; Pilinger & Vardy, 2022; Wasik & Hindman, 2014; Zucker et al., 2010). Through my literature review, I learned about historical research as well as more current theories including types of teacher talk, like contextualized versus decontextualized talk. I learned that the majority of research with early childhood students and interactive read-alouds has been primarily conducted with monolingual, Head Start students. This reflection helped me identify that more research needs to be conducted with multilingual learners in a variety of settings and socio-economic backgrounds. I am especially interested in this area of research as I primarily work with multilingual learners.

              During the summer of 2023, I took EDRS 810: Problems and Methods in Education Research. EDRS 810 was my first introduction to research methods and learning about quantitative and qualitative research methods. This course also introduced me to the concept of positionality. Secules and colleagues (2021) identified three facets of establishing positionality: acknowledging practice, establishing transparency of self attributes, and contextualizing methodology. I wrote my own positionality statement regarding my background as a person, educator, and researcher. I also reflected on the type of research methods I was interested in for future research. From the research I have read in my field, it is important to use a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. For my final project, I designed a research proposal focused on teacher questioning strategies during shared readings and the impact it has on student responses. This was an expansion on the knowledge I gained from my literature review I wrote for EDRD 830 that focused on the impact of teacher talk during interactive read-alouds. The research design I proposed focused on using a mixed methods design that incorporated aspects of quantitative and qualitative methods.

             Fall of 2023, I took EDUC 800: Ways of Knowing. In this course, I learned about the history of Education Research as a social science. One of the key points of EDUC 800 was discovering my epistemology as a constructivist as both an educator and researcher. I was influenced by the works of John Dewey (Court, 2020). I realized that both my teaching and research methodology is built on the concept that knowledge is socially constructed and in community with others. I also learned about more current theories including Critical Race Theory, Latinx Critical Race Theory and Dis/ability critical race studies (Annamma et al. 2012; Bernal, 2002). Learning about these theories related to my interest in work in diversity, equity, and inclusion. For my final project I wrote a paper and created a presentation about a different epistemology from constructivism. From my interest in mixed methods from EDRS 810 as well as my interest in DEI work, I decided to explore an epistemology that was related to Critical Race Theory from a quantitative approach. I selected to learn about Quantitative Critical Race Theory, specifically related to my research interests with multilingual learners and their overrepresentation in special education and remedial courses (August et al., 2005; Kim, 2017). In my Ways of Knowing project, I synthesized my research topics and learning from EDRD 830 and EDRS 810 to explore new concepts and areas of research.

          Fall 2023 I entered the world of young adult literacy. In EDRD 831: Theory, Research, and Practice in Literacy: Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood I learned about the theories behind language and literacy instruction for adolescence and young adult learners. While I do not have experience working with young adults, I continued my work with multilingual learners and vocabulary development. My final assignment was a literature review on the vocabulary development of adolescent multilingual learners. It was interesting to learn how vocabulary development changes from early childhood through middle childhood and into adolescence and young adulthood. I learned that historical and current research on vocabulary development for adolescent ELL students supports a balanced and robust approach to teaching academic vocabulary (Ajayi, 2015; Calderon et al, 2011; Carlo et al, 2004; Greene, 2015). One similarity between early childhood and adolescence multilingual learners is the importance of using students’ funds of knowledge, including using their first language as a resource (August et al., 2005; Carlo et al., 2004; Kelley & Kohnert, 2012). EDRD 831 expanded on my previous knowledge on working with multilingual learners and vocabulary development.

          In the spring, I took EDRD 832: Research Methodologies and Trends in Literacy and learned about current topics in literacy research and methods. I continued to focus on supporting my interests in using mixed methods and qualitative research methods as well as working with early childhood multilingual learners’ literacy. My final assignment was an annotated bibliography and I chose to focus on early childhood students, teacher language, and its impact on students’ expressive language. From my annotated bibliography I found that there needed to be more research with multilingual learners’ expressive language development. EDRD 832 continued to support my interest in early childhood literacy, expressive language and vocabulary, as well as teacher language.

          In fall 2024 I took EDRS 811: Quantitative Methods in Educational Research. This course was a challenge for me as I was not confident in using statistics or running statistical analysis. I struggled on homework assignments and quizzes. I eventually joined a study group of my peers which helped me better understand statistical analysis and using R Studio as well as interpreting statistical analysis results. One key takeaway for me was learning how to apply statistics to my research interest in working with early childhood multilingual learners’ language and literacy instruction. One of the assignments for EDRS 811 was to find an article in my field that applied statistics to my area of research and critique it using what I had learned about statistics throughout the course. I chose the article “Supportive Language Strategies for Preschool Dual Language Learners: Associations with Early Language Outcomes” from the journal Early Childhood Research Quarterly (Fumero, et. al, 2024). The researchers focused on the impact of teacher language strategies on language acquisition for dual language learners. Fumero and colleagues (2024) used various statistical analyses including one-way between subjects ANOVA, mixed model ANOVA, and a series of multiple linear regression models. Although I struggled, I persevered and learned how I could apply statistics to my areas of research.

         In Fall 2024 I also took EDRS 812: Qualitative Methods in Educational Research. In EDRS 812 I revisited and reflected on my previous positionality from ERDS 810 and expanded on it as I learned more about the qualitative research process. I dove into the qualitative research process through reflective journaling, building and revising a conceptual framework, data collection, data analysis, and a final research report as well as reflection on the research process. For ERDS 812 I conducted a preliminary qualitative research study. The focus of my study was ESOL teachers’ perceptions of their multilingual students’ lived experiences and their language acquisition journey. I conducted interviews with two ESOL teachers at a Fairfax County Public School and used archival data on student demographics in FCPS as a secondary data source. I also learned about qualitative research theories, including the Bioecological Model by Bronfenbrenner (2006). In Bronfenbrenner’s model, individual, contextual, environmental, and macro factors interact and influence an individuals’ development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; Cassells & Evans, 2020; Hayes, N., O’Toole & Halpenny, 2023).  I found this model to be an excellent match to my research related to multilingual learners and factors that relate to their language acquisition journey. Throughout EDRS 812, I enjoyed each aspect of the research process as well as the importance of reflection and working in dialogic engagement with my peers. I found it to be a natural fit with my research interests and I have therefore chosen to pursue the certification in qualitative research methods. I look forward to learning more about the qualitative research process in future courses.

            Throughout the first two and a half years of my Ph.D studies, I have learned about historical and current trends in language and literacy research as well as the basics of conducting quantitative and qualitative research. I learned about the history of educational research as well as more current research theories. As a result of what I have learned, I refined my own research interests in working with language and literacy development in early childhood multilingual learners.