María Cioè-Peña

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Assistant Professor

Educational Linguistics Division

Contact

cioepena@upenn.edu

(215) 898-7957

Media Inquiries:
Contact Penn GSE Communications.

Education

Ph.D. (Urban Education) The Graduate Center – City University of New York, 2018
M.S.Ed., (Teaching Urban Children with Disabilities (1-6)) Long Island University, 2007
B.A. (English) State University of New York – Cortland, 2004

Areas of Expertise

Dis/ability Critical Race Studies (DisCrit)
Bilingual special education
Special education
Bilingual education
Sociolinguistics
Latinx/immigrant issues

Programs

Educational Linguistics Ph.D.

Educational Linguistics Ed.D.

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) M.S.Ed.

Intercultural Communication M.S.Ed.

More Information

María Cioè-Peña’s personal professional website
María Cioè-Peña’s CV

Bio Nav

Biography

Professional Biography

María Cioè-Peña is a bilingual/biliterate education researcher and educator who examines the intersections of disability, language, school–parent partnerships, and education policy. Taking a sociolinguistic approach and stance, she pushes and reimagines the boundaries of inclusive spaces for minoritized children. Stemming from her experiences as a former bilingual special education teacher, Dr. Cioè-Peña’s research focuses on bilingual children with dis/abilities, their families, and their ability to access multilingual and inclusive learning spaces within public schools. Her interests are deeply rooted in political economy, raciolinguistic perspectives and critical dis/ability awareness within schools and families.

Dr. Cioè-Peña’s scholarship has won awards from major organizations in the field of bilingual education; first-place winner for Outstanding Dissertation by the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) in 2019, and third place winner for Outstanding Dissertation by AERA's Bilingual Education Research SIG in 2020. In 2022, her article “Wanting to Leave; Needing to Stay: Issues for undocumented mothers of children with disabilities” received the Inaugural Outstanding Publication Award from the Council For Exceptional Children's Division for Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Learners. She was also awarded the Early Career Award by AERA's Bilingual Education Research SIG in 2022. Prior to arriving at Penn GSE, María was an assistant professor and a Community-Engaged Teaching Fellow at Montclair State University. Her book, (M)othering Labeled Children: Bilingualism and Disability in the Lives of Latinx Mothers, was released May 2021 by Multilingual Matters.

Research Interests and Current Projects

Research Interests
Dr. Cioè-Peña’s line of inquiry explores the educational experiences of the children and families who live at the intersection of disability and multilingualism. Her current research focus examines the exclusion of bilingual Latinx children with disabilities from the inclusion and bilingual education movements within public education.

Current Projects

From Mother to Teacher: The Experiences of Spanish-speaking Mothers of English Language Learners with Disabilities During COVID-19-related Remote Schooling (Principal Investigator)

Using a qualitative design centering Spanish-speaking immigrant mothers of emergent bilinguals with disabilities in NYC, this study aims to uncover how the shift to remote schooling has exacerbated the racialized experiences and educational inequities that arise in placing emergent bilinguals with disabilities in traditional monolingual-English settings, limited access to technology, and school–home disconnects. The results can inform policymakers and school districts around the country on changes needed to effectively support these children and families.

Gentrification of Bilingual Education in NYC (Co-PI with Kate Menken (PI) at Queens College - CUNY & the Graduate Center- CUNY and Ivana Espinet (Co-PI), Kingsborough Community College – CUNY)

Using quantitative data, this study looks at the shifts in bilingual education programing in NYC schools. The aim of this study is to explore if program development is growing in the languages of the community or in prestigious languages. This study is also interested in exploring who has access to bilingual education programs versus transitional bilingual and English as a new language programs.

Publications

Featured

(M)othering Labeled Children: Bilingualism and Disability in the Lives of Latinx Mothers

Selected Publications

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

Cioè-Peña, M. (2022). The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s school: Interrogating settler colonial logics in language education. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics.

Cioè-Peña, M. (2022). Computers secured, connection still needed: Understanding how technology distributions during COVID-19-related remote schooling impacted Spanish-speaking mothers of emergent bilinguals with dis/abilities. Journal of Latinos & Education.

Cioè-Peña, M. (2021). From culturally sustaining pedagogies to culturally sustaining research: Engaging with culturally and linguistically diverse families of students with dis/abilities. Teachers College Record.

Cioè-Peña, M. (2021, Online First). Remote schooling supports for linguistically diverse parents of emergent bilinguals labeled as having disabilities. Intervention in School and Clinic. https://doi.org/10.1177/10534512211051074

Cioè-Peña, M. (2021, Online First). TrUDL: The intersectional possibilities of translanguaging and universal design for learning. TESOL Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3074

Cioè-Peña, M. (May 14, 2021, Online First). After the phone call: Culture, disability and the construction of a “bad” mother. Journal of Latinos and Education. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003003670-23

Cioè-Peña, M. (2021). Wanting to leave; needing to stay: Issues for undocumented mothers of children with disabilities. Multiple Voices - Disability, Race and Language Intersections in Special Education, 20(2), 6–23.

Cioè-Peña, M. (2020). Planning inclusion: The need to formalize parental participation in individual education plans (and meetings). The Educational Forum, 84(4), 377–390. doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2020.1812970

Cioè-Peña, M. (2020). Bilingualism for students with disabilities, deficit or advantage?: Perspectives of Latinx mothers. Bilingual Research Journal. doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2020.1799884

Cioè-Peña, M. (2020). Raciolinguistics and the education of Emergent Bilinguals Labeled as Disabled. Urban Review. doi.org/10.1007/s11256-020-00581-z

Cioè-Peña, M. (2017). Disability, bilingualism and what it means to be normal. Journal of Bilingual Education Research & Instruction, 19(1).

Cioè-Peña, M. (2017). Who is excluded from inclusion? Points of union and division in bilingual and special education. Theory, Research, and Action in Urban Education: Special Issue on #BlackLivesMatter, 5(1).

Cioè-Peña, M. (2017). The intersectional gap: How bilingual students in the United States are excluded from inclusion. International Journal of Inclusive Education. doi.org/ 10.1080/13603116.2017.1296032

Chapters in Edited Volumes

Phuong, J., & Cioè-Peña, M. (2022). Perfect or mocha: Language policing and pathologization. In S. Annamma, B. Ferri, & D. Connor (Eds), DisCrit expanded: Inquiries, reverberations & ruptures.

Cioè-Peña, M. (Accepted). Teach in the mornings, cry in the evenings: The impact of COVID-19 remote schooling on the mothers of emergent bilinguals with disabilities. In W. Veck, M. Proyer, F. Dovigo, & E. Seitinger (Eds.), Education in an altered world: Pandemic, crises and young people vulnerable to educational exclusion. Bloomsbury.

Cioè-Peña, M., & Linares, R. (2021). “What we experience is what we value: Latinx Emergent Bilinguals Labeled as Disabled” in O. García & M. Sanchez (Eds.), Transformative translanguaging espacios: Latinx students and their teachers rompiendo fronteras sin miedo. Multilingual Matters.

Cioè-Peña, M. (2021). Teaching as oppression; teaching as liberation. In D. J. Connor & B. A.. Ferri (Eds.), How Teaching Shapes our Thinking About Dis/abilities: Stories from The Field. Peter Lang.

Woodley, H., Cioè-Peña, M., Hesson, S., & Solorza, C. (2020). Different places, different issues: Teacher education reimagined through the CUNY- NYSIEB experience. In The CUNY-NYSIEB Team (Eds.), Translanguaging and transformative teaching for emergent bilingual students: Lessons from the CUNY-NYSIEB project. Routledge.

Cioè-Peña, M. (2020). Dual language and the erasure of emergent bilinguals labeled as disabled. In N. Flores, A. Tseng, & N. C. Subtirelu (Eds.), Bilingualism for all? Raciolinguistic perspectives on dual language education. Multilingual Matters.

Cioè-Peña, M., & Castro, L. (2019). Bad mother. In P. Lalvani (Ed.), Constructing the (M)other: Narratives of disability, motherhood, and the politics of normal. Peter Lang.

Collins, B., & Cioè-Peña, M. (2016). Translanguaging in the content area to understand complex texts. In O. Garcia & T. Klein (Eds.), Translanguaging with multilingual students. Routledge.

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