Home Department: Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies (TLS)
SLAT Areas of Specialization: Instructional Dimensions of L2 Learning, Sociocultural Dimensions of L2 Learning
Dr. Leah Durán is an assistant professor in the department of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies at the University of Arizona. Prior to her doctoral work, she taught second grade in bilingual (Spanish/English) and ESL classrooms in Texas. Her scholarship focuses on the intersection of literacy, bilingualism and young children. Specifically, her work examines 1) emergent biliteracy; 2) the design of curricular and instructional approaches which draw on children's linguistic and cultural practices as assets; and 3) the ways that beliefs about language influence the educational experiences of bilingual students. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on research methods, children’s literature, literacy methods and language learning. Her undergraduate teaching is part of the CREATE early childhood education program, based in school and community sites in the Tucson area. Dr. Durán has authored and co-authored numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals related to literacy, bilingualism and early childhood education, such as the Journal of Literacy Research, the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy and the International Multilingual Research Journal. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, an Ed.M. from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Brown University.