Professional Development Series

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Fall 2023

Professional Development (PD) Series 1: Foundations of Bilingual Education

This seminar introduces participants to the foundational goals, cultural dynamics, and pedagogical principles that underlie effective bilingual education within dual-language classrooms. Includes presentations that critically examine how to rethink and reimagine community-based languaging as the core of linguistically and culturally inclusive teaching and learning practices. The participants will be empowered and prepared to dismantle monoglossic, monolingual, euro-centric, and white gaze ideologies. The participants will be empowered and prepared to dismantle monoglossic, monolingual, euro-centric, and white gaze ideologies.

Keynote Speaker: Fred Uy

Dr. Fred Uy serves both as a Director in the Department of Educator and Leadership Programs and as Co-Director for the Center for the Advancement of Instruction in Quantitative Reasoning. Before joining the Office of the Chancellor, Dr. Uy was a Professor of Mathematics Education at Cal State LA and a K-12 mathematics teacher. He has contributed to many CSU initiatives as a trainer for secondary school teachers' mathematics preparation. He authored numerous articles in journals and chapters in books and was a P.I. for various grants. He has also served as a consultant for school districts and publishers and conducted numerous professional development trainings locally, nationally, and internationally on topics like assessments, mathematics learning, arts integration, and bilingual education.

Topics:

What does it mean to be an Asian American teacher today? Why do we need more Asian language teachers? What do the different identities mean to you or to the teachers?
What systems of support are available or needed to support Asian language teachers?
How can we work across our ethnic identities to develop a sense of a holistic Asian American community?

Scholar remarks: Sukyung Lee (CSUDH, Korean), Hanh Tran (Cal State Fullerton, Vietnamese), and Alicia Yu (Cal Poly Pomona, Mandarin)

Topics:

What does it mean to you to be an Asian American teacher today? (language specific)
How do you see your work impacting students of various ethnic backgrounds (Vietnamese, Hmong, Khmer, Korean, Mandarin)?
What support do you need to be an effective teacher?

Professional Development Series 1 Slides

Summer 2024

Professional Development (PD) Series 2: Community Engagement

This seminar, “Community Engagement to Enhance Language Instructions,” underscores the importance of leveraging historical, cultural, and community resources to enrich instruction in dual language classrooms. Participants are asked to research organizations (local, national, international, and online) that support Asian language and cultural education and present their findings to peers. This seminar encourages participants to form community partnerships that sustain language learning and foster a sense of belonging and membership.

Topics:

Understanding Community Needs
Identifying Resources and Overcoming Challenges
Strategies for Involving the Community in the Educational Process

Professional Development Series 2 Slides

Keynote Speaker: Eunice Ho

Eunice Ho,何思愉 (she/her/她) is a Ethnic Studies practitioner and practices humanizing, healing-centered, praxis-driven, and place-based critical pedagogy. As a daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, her mother tongues were Taiwanese Hokkien and Mandarin. She hopes to embody the lineages of her great-grandfather who fought Japanese occupation; and her elders and extended family who are teachers and artists. She is a former Ethnic Studies high school and middle school teacher who taught in both Los Angeles and Orange County; was trained by mentors and peers at the UCLA Teacher Education Program where she earned her M.Ed with an emphasis in Ethnic Studies; and traces her journey back to her time as a prison abolition student organizer at UCSD where she earned her BA in Ethnic Studies. She currently works as a teacher educator in various spaces and works in relationship alongside other community organizers to protect Ethnic Studies as it gets
institutionalized. She cares deeply about transformative justice, nonviolent communication (NVC), and abolitionist praxis. Presentation here.

Fall 2024

Professional Development (PD) Series 3: Asset and Resource Based Instruction

The Professional Development 3 seminar encourages participants to use personal narratives and digital storytelling to integrate their own, as well as their (future) students’ “funds of knowledge” into their teaching practices. By drawing on personal, cultural, and professional experiences, participants learn to use personal experiences as resources for the classroom - creating an inclusive classroom environment that respects and amplifies diverse backgrounds while enhancing classroom engagement and learning outcomes.

Topics:

What is Asset-based instruction?
What are the Principles of Asset-based Instruction?
- Recognizing Student Strengths
- Empowering Student Voice
- Building on Prior Knowledge
- Cultural Responsiveness
- Encourages Collaborative Learning
What is Asset-based instruction's impact on student learning?
- These methods allow educators to tap into students' unique experiences, cultural backgrounds, and voices, making learning more relevant, engaging, and meaningful for the entire class.

Professional Development Series 3 Slides

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Soon Young Jang

Dr. Soon Young Jang is an Associate Professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She obtained a Ph.D. in Language and Literacies Education from the University of Toronto, Canada. Her research interests include children’s bilingualism and biliteracy, heritage language learning, translanguaging, and language policy and practice. The relationships between language, identity, and power in our society are at the core of her research inquiry. Additionally, Dr. Jang is the Principal Investigator of the ACTT (All Children Thrive through Translanguaging) project which advocates for culturally and linguistically diverse children and families through multiple communities of practice (university-based and student-centered, teacher-based, family-based, and online-based). This project is funded by the Dr. Seuss Foundation. The presentation slides are found here.

Spring 2025

Professional Development (PD) Series 4: Culturally and Linguistically-Responsive Pedagogy

The Professional Development 4 seminar explores language-based instructional strategies with a focus on learner-centered pedagogy. Participants are asked to address one of three target goals: 1) Increasing oral language production, 2) Early Biliteracy Development, or 3) Partner language integration in other subject areas, and develop a lesson plan that will meet target goals. This seminar equips participants with strategies to honor their students' individual learning needs and create culturally and linguistically responsive lesson plans that foster an inclusive environment.

Topics:

What does culturally and linguistically-responsive pedagogy look like in practice?
What strategies can teachers use to engage diverse student populations through responsive instruction?

Professional Development Series 4 Slides

Professional Development Series 4 Virtual Recording

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Elisabeth Chan

Dr. Elisabeth Chan has nearly 20 years of experience as an English language educator. She has advocated for, presented, researched, and published on social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion in TESOL, where she draws upon her lived experiences as a second/fourth-generation Chinese American from the U.S. She served on TESOL International Association’s board of directors from 2022-2025. Currently, she is a co-editor for a 2026 TESOL Journal special issue on critical race praxis in English language teacher education. The presentation slides are found here.