Esperanza De La Vega, PhD, coordinates the award-winning Bilingual Teacher Pathway (BTP) program in the department of Curriculum and Instruction. She earned her PhD in language, literacy, and culture in education at UC Berkeley. Her four-year ethnographic dissertation study looked at Mexicana/Latina mothers’ perspectives on what it meant to be involved in their children’s educational process.
Prior to joining PSU, she taught in the United Arab Emirates at the country’s first university dedicated to the education of Emirati women. During her four years in the UAE, Dr. De La Vega conducted several small research projects. She looked at the English literacy development practices used in schools, as well as the strategies used for students’ English as a second language acquisition. She explored the cultural tradition of stories among Emirati elders and noted the wisdom that was being passed on to the next generation of Emirati women. Recently, Dr. De La Vega studied what it means to be involved in a child’s education from the perspective of Emirati parents.
Dr. De La Vega’s current research interests focus on the intersections of language, literacy, and culture in the educational process for linguistically and culturally diverse children and families. In 2012, she secured a $1.96 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquisition to prepare bilingual classroom assistants for a teaching license and an English as a second language endorsement. The five-year grant, called the Futures Project, will provide scholarships to BTP teacher candidates. Dr. De La Vega has partnered with Dr. Moti Hara in ongoing research into Oregon public schools that have successfully closed achievement gaps. Her other research interests include teacher candidates' conceptions of social justice, as well as developing dual language immersion teaching competencies.