My Researcher Story

Early in my career I found that many education researchers worried that children learning English in school had little access or opportunity to develop their bilingualism outside of school. However, in my experience as an immigrant child who learned English in school and whose parents learned English informally at their places of work, I had ample opportunity outside of school to practice language skills.

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Friends with similar families and backgrounds also had many opportunities to explore language through language brokering. Language brokering involves translating, explaining culture, decoding documents, and mediating tools like computers for others, primarily families. As a result, language brokers like myself excelled at communicating complex ideas in complex settings and cultivated skills that tend to be overlooked in scholarship.

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Driven to expand research on language brokering and language brokers, I pursued a doctoral degree in education. I narrowed my focus to children’s and young people’s language brokering in health contexts, such as translating medication instructions or at hospitals for doctors and families.

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Studying language brokering in health contexts naturally situated me as an interdisciplinary scholar. I regularly engage with education, human development, psychology, legal studies, and ethnic studies research. As a researcher and educator, I take an intersectional approach to examining and exploring how identity and institutional practices and histories collide in contemporary society.