Title of Dissertation: Teaching in a Materials' World: An Ethnographic Study of Graduate Teaching Assistants' Use of Texts for Teaching Culture in the Spanish Classroom

Dissertation Committee: Dr. Suzanne Panferov Reese (Chair), Dr. Beatrice Dupuy, Dr. Nick Ferdinandt

Dissertation Abstract: Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) play a pivotal role in U.S. university foreign language programs, particularly in lower-division courses. Despite this centrality, GTAs work within institutional structures with curricular and pedagogical constraints, including standardized syllabi and prescriptive assessments tied to a published textbook. While these structures aim for consistency, they often position GTAs as textbook implementers rather than curriculum thinkers. Textbooks themselves are not neutral; they carry ideological assumptions and frequently present language and culture as disconnected, complicating efforts to foster meaningful cultural learning. Yet, research has rarely examined how GTAs enact and adapt these materials in practice.

This ethnographic study explores how four GTAs teaching second-semester Spanish (102) at a large Hispanic-Serving Institution use texts for teaching culture. Specifically, it investigates what texts GTAs use, how they use them, and how they make sense of their practices. Data sources include video-recorded classroom observations, semi-structured and stimulated-recall interviews, field notes, and instructional artifacts. Guided by critical pedagogy, poststructuralist teacher identity perspectives, and multiliteracies approaches, the analysis of case studies highlights the complex interplay between institutional demands, GTAs’ knowledge, investment, and identity development in shaping textual practices.

Findings indicate that text use is a primary site where teacher identity is enacted and negotiated. GTAs engage in dynamic negotiations with texts, adapting, supplementing, and resisting textbook content to align with pedagogical goals, personal knowledge, and identity. All participants demonstrated a strong willingness to deviate from textbooks, regardless of prior experience, positioning themselves as risk-takers in an unfamiliar realm of adaptation. Their practices reflect a co-construction of cultural knowledge, blending official and unscripted materials to introduce new narratives and sociocultural perspectives interwoven with the “human experience.” These strategies fostered student engagement, teacher-student connection, and critical cultural inquiry while supporting GTAs’ identity development as educators. 

This study underscores the need for GTA training models that foster reflective, critical engagement with materials and recognize GTAs as active participants in curricular innovation. By centering GTAs’ experiences in the classroom, the research advocates for bottom-up approaches to teacher education that support teacher identity development and empower teachers to create culturally responsive learning environments.

Come join SLATSA for a social event with coffee, cookies, and other treats! All SLAT major and minor students, and SLAT faculty are welcome! 

The SLAT Interdisciplinary Roundtable is a student-run annual conference at the University of Arizona. The conference is open to scholars around the world, and the topics that are usually covered fall under the different Second Language Acquisition and Teaching areas of specialization (Instructional Dimensions of L2 Learning, Sociocultural Dimensions of L2 Learning, Cognitive Dimensions of L2 Learning, and Linguistic Dimensions of L2 Learning).

The Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Student Association (SLATSA) cordially invites you to attend the 25th SLAT Interdisciplinary Roundtable, held in person at the University of Arizona on Friday, February 13 and Saturday, February 14, 2025. Registration will be free.

 The theme for this year is “Language Education in a Changing World”, and the call for proposals is now live!

Within the last year, major shifts in national policy in the U.S. and countries around the world have immediately impacted the day-to-day operations of educational institutions and the lived experiences of students, teachers, and program administrators. 

In response, SLAT Roundtable 2026 invites graduate students, scholars, and educators to submit proposals for individual presentations, projects-in-progress, panels, posters, and workshops that explore how language education and applied linguistics are being (re)shaped by political, economic, technological, and social shifts, and how language education serves to counteract divisiveness in an ever more connected, yet polarized world. 

Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• Education, Language, and Society in a Changing World - Topics at the intersection of language education with pressing sociopolitical issues such as equity, migration, multilingualism, and globalization.
• Beyond the Classroom - Topics that explore the broader impacts of language education on learners’ personal, academic, and social development. May identify areas in which current approaches have not supported learners beyond the classroom or innovative approaches that move beyond traditional spaces and pedagogies.
• Beyond Boundaries - Topics that integrate perspectives from outside of SLA, such as public policy, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, sociolinguistics, education, digital humanities, and other fields to (re)shape our understanding of language and teaching.
• Humanizing Technology in Language Education - Topics that address the opportunities and challenges posed by AI, online learning, and digital tools, with attention to their ethical, relational, and affective dimensions, while reaffirming the centrality of human connection, collaboration, and care in language education.
• Critical Approaches to Language Education -  Topics that take a critical stance on any of the above themes by highlighting inclusive pedagogies, social justice, and work that challenges bias in educational contexts.

All proposals must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. We especially encourage contributions related to ongoing issues around the globe.

Submit your proposal here:

https://forms.gle/c9WtZHGoRGYJ4Wf99

Three of the featured speakers will be Dr. Lilian Gorman, Dr. Bryan Carter, and Dr. Jieun Ryu, alongside a diverse lineup of individual presentations, projects-in-progress, workshops and a poster session.

The conference will be held at the University of Arizona, Tucson main campus. The conference schedule and room locations of the conference will be posted here closer to the days of the event.

If you have any questions, please contact both Nena Choi (nechoi0202@arizona.edu) and Caroline Scheuer Neves (carolinesn@arizona.edu). 

 Thank you for your participation. We look forward to seeing you in Tucson in February!

The SLAT Interdisciplinary Roundtable is a student-run annual conference at the University of Arizona. The conference is open to scholars around the world, and the topics that are usually covered fall under the different Second Language Acquisition and Teaching areas of specialization (Instructional Dimensions of L2 Learning, Sociocultural Dimensions of L2 Learning, Cognitive Dimensions of L2 Learning, and Linguistic Dimensions of L2 Learning).

The Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Student Association (SLATSA) cordially invites you to attend the 25th SLAT Interdisciplinary Roundtable, held in person at the University of Arizona on Friday, February 13 and Saturday, February 14, 2025. Registration will be free. 

 The theme for this year is “Language Education in a Changing World”, and the call for proposals is now live!

Within the last year, major shifts in national policy in the U.S. and countries around the world have immediately impacted the day-to-day operations of educational institutions and the lived experiences of students, teachers, and program administrators. 

In response, SLAT Roundtable 2026 invites graduate students, scholars, and educators to submit proposals for individual presentations, projects-in-progress, panels, posters, and workshops that explore how language education and applied linguistics are being (re)shaped by political, economic, technological, and social shifts, and how language education serves to counteract divisiveness in an ever more connected, yet polarized world. 

Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• Education, Language, and Society in a Changing World - Topics at the intersection of language education with pressing sociopolitical issues such as equity, migration, multilingualism, and globalization.
• Beyond the Classroom - Topics that explore the broader impacts of language education on learners’ personal, academic, and social development. May identify areas in which current approaches have not supported learners beyond the classroom or innovative approaches that move beyond traditional spaces and pedagogies.
• Beyond Boundaries - Topics that integrate perspectives from outside of SLA, such as public policy, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, sociolinguistics, education, digital humanities, and other fields to (re)shape our understanding of language and teaching.
• Humanizing Technology in Language Education - Topics that address the opportunities and challenges posed by AI, online learning, and digital tools, with attention to their ethical, relational, and affective dimensions, while reaffirming the centrality of human connection, collaboration, and care in language education.
• Critical Approaches to Language Education -  Topics that take a critical stance on any of the above themes by highlighting inclusive pedagogies, social justice, and work that challenges bias in educational contexts.

All proposals must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. We especially encourage contributions related to ongoing issues around the globe.

Submit your proposal here:

https://forms.gle/c9WtZHGoRGYJ4Wf99

Three of our featured speakers will be Dr. Lilian Gorman, Dr. Bryan Carter, and Dr. Jieun Ryu, alongside a diverse lineup of individual presentations, projects-in-progress, workshops and a poster session.

The conference will be held at the University of Arizona, Tucson main campus. The conference schedule and room locations of the conference will be posted here closer to the days of the event.

If you have any questions, please contact both Nena Choi (nechoi0202@arizona.edu) and Caroline Scheuer Neves (carolinesn@arizona.edu). 

 Thank you for your participation. We look forward to seeing you in Tucson in February!

Dr. Shelley Staples will be facilitating the workshop this year, which is open to all SLAT major and minor students (even those who have attended similar iterations in the past). This workshop will be held in-person, with the room location announced in mid-April.

Within this workshop, Dr. Staples will help demystify the publishing (and preparing for publishing) processes and how to translate publications into presentations, with potential topics about:

• What types of materials to submit for publication
• how to prepare publication drafts for presenting at conferences
• how to find topics for dissertation ideas
• how to turn ideas into conference papers and publications
• how to turn dissertation ideas into job talks
• giving talks at relevant conferences

Dr. Staples is SLAT Faculty and Professor of English Applied Linguistics, with several publications and presentations over the course of her career. 

This event is for SLAT majors and SLAT minors at the University of Arizona.

Do you want to know more about the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process at the University of Arizona? Do you need a refresher on what is needed for IRB applications and research/data collection with human subjects? Join us on Friday, March 27th, from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm for Institutional Review Board (IRB) 101, given by Joanna Schrader, one of the IRB Managers in the Human Subjects Protection Program (HSPP) Office at the University of Arizona.

Come learn about how to work legally and ethically with human participants in language studies. What training do you need? What guidelines and restrictions are there? Are some people more protected than others? How do you submit your project for review and approval?

All these questions will be answered, and more!

First year students will go through the results of this year's Qualifying Review, and have the opportunity to ask questions and get information to prepare for years 2 - 5 in SLAT. Stay on for the second hour, when there will be a presentation by an IRB representative about how to begin an IRB proposal.

Presenters: Dr. Ana Carvalho (SLAT Chair), Dr. Chris Tardy (SLAT Grad Advisor), Debbie Shon Buhler (SLAT Program Coordinator)