TAMUC Professor Co-Authors Innovative Literacy and Bilingual Education Book

A&M-Commerce Assistant Professor Alexandra Babino, Ph.D., recently published a new book, “Radicalizing Literacies and Languaging: A Framework toward Dismantling the Mono-Mainstream Assumption.” Babino co-authored the book with Dr. Mary Amanda Stewart, associate professor of literacy at Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas.

Alexandra Babino, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Alexandra Babino, Ph.D.

Babino, who serves as an assistant professor and co-coordinator of the Supervision, Curriculum and Instruction doctoral program at A&M-Commerce, said she and Stewart wrote the book they wish they'd had as graduate students.

“As both teachers and researchers, we've noticed a pattern,” Babino said. “People either have a deep knowledge of literacy and a nascent understanding of bilingual/ESL education, or they have deep knowledge of bilingual/ESL education with a nascent knowledge of literacy.”

The authors argue that students from kindergarten through college, and their communities, desperately need educators with a robust understanding of literacy and bilingual/ESL education. Babino said the book traces the roots of literacy and language research, using four testimonial examples to display a combined literacy and language lens. The authors say it reveals a lot about multilingual students, a demographic that is grossly obscured in many school systems.

Dr. Juan Araujo, assistant dean of the College of Education and Human Services at A&M-Commerce, said Babino and Stewart present ground-breaking, practice-based theories and testimonials that stretch the bilingual education field.

“Dr. Babino is world-class; we're lucky to have her as faculty in the college,” Araujo said.

Read more about the book at the publisher's website. Learn more about the bilingual/ESL and Supervision, Curriculum and Instruction programs at A&M-Commerce.