Nelson Flores

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Associate Professor

Educational Linguistics Division

Contact

nflores@upenn.edu

(215) 898-7913

Media Inquiries:
Contact Penn GSE Communications.

Education

Ph.D. (Urban Education) The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 2012
M.A. (Teaching English as a Second Language) Lehman College, 2007
B.A. (Political Science & Education) Swarthmore College, 2003

Areas of Expertise

Bilingual education
Language education policy
Latinx education
Race and racialization
Raciolinguistic ideologies

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.

School Leadership M.S.Ed.

More Information

Dr. Flores’s blog

Bio Nav

Biography

Nelson Flores studies how language and race intersect in bilingual education policies and practices in ways that are harmful to bilingual students of color. This includes historical work that traces the origins of these policies and practices as well as contemporary work that documents the ways that these policies and practices are enacted in classrooms. He also works with bilingual teachers, administrators, and policymakers on reconceptualizing bilingual education policies and practices in ways that recognize and build on the linguistic dexterity of bilingual students of color. His work has been featured by NPR, Education Week, and the LA Times.

Professional Biography

Nelson Flores began his career as an ESL teacher in Philadelphia and New York City public schools. Many of his students were categorized as “Long Term English Learners” who had been officially designated as English Learners for seven or more years. The disconnect between the deficit perspectives typically used to describe these students and the fluid bilingualism he observed them engaged in on a daily basis led him to pursue a Ph.D. in Urban Education from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Dr. Flores has collaborated on several research projects focused on the education of language-minoritized students in U.S. schools, including a study of students officially categorized as “Long Term English Learners” and a study of successful high schools serving large numbers of Latinx students. He also served as project director for the CUNY–New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals, a New York State Education Department initiative seeking to improve the educational outcomes of emergent bilingual students through an intensive seminar series for school leaders, combined with onsite support by CUNY faculty. His most recent collaboration has been with The Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning (C-SAIL), where he is studying the historical development of and contemporary implementation of standards-based reform for students officially classified as English Learners.

Dr. Flores was the recipient of the 2017 AERA Bilingual Education SIG Early Career Award, a 2017 Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the 2019 James Atlas Prize for Research on Language Planning and Policy in Educational Contexts. He is also on several editorial boards including The International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, and Multilingua.

Research Interests and Current Projects

Dr. Flores examines the intersection of language, race, and the political economy in shaping U.S. educational policies and practices. He analyzes the historical origins of raciolinguistic ideologies that have framed the language practices of racialized communities as inherently deficient and in need of remediation. He also analyzes the ways that these raciolinguistic ideologies continue to be reproduced within contemporary bilingual education policies and practices.

Dr. Flores is currently working on a book project tentatively titled Becoming the System: A Raciolinguistic Genealogy of Bilingual Education in the Post-Civil Rights Era. This book has four major objectives: (1) to situate the institutionalization of bilingual education within broader political struggles emerging in the late 1960s related to community control of schools and other institutions, (2) to examine the ways that the professionalization of bilingual education divorced it from these broader political struggles, (3) to trace the ways that institutionalizing bilingual education was both a precursor to contemporary neoliberal education reforms and has been shaped by the growing hegemony of neoliberalism in education, and (4) to conceptualize an alternative framing of bilingual education that re-centers political struggles against White supremacy.

Dr. Flores is also the principal investigator of a longitudinal study of students in a dual language charter school in a predominately low-income Latinx area of Philadelphia. This project seeks to challenge deficit perspectives by documenting the complex linguistic practices these students engage in on a daily basis as part of their lived experience residing in a long-standing bilingual community and attending a bilingual school. The major objective of this project is to use insights from an analysis of these metalinguistic conversations to develop tools for bilingual teachers to more effectively build on their rich linguistic practices that their students bring into the classroom.

Publications

Featured Books

The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society

Selected Publications

Flores, N., & Chaparro, S. (2018). What counts as language education policy? Developing a materialist anti-racist approach to language activism. Language Policy, 17, 365–384.

Flores, N., Lewis, M., & Phuong, J. (2018). Raciolinguistic chronotopes and the education of Latinx students: Resistance and anxiety in a bilingual school. Language and Communication, 62, 15–25.

Rosa, J., & Flores, N. (2017). Unsettling race and language: Toward a raciolinguistic perspective. Language in Society, 46, 621–647.

Flores, N., & García, O. (2017). A critical review of bilingual education in the United States: From basements and pride to boutiques and profit. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 37, 14–29.

García, O., Flores, N. & Spotti, M. (2016). (Eds). Oxford Handbook of Language and Society. New York: Oxford University Press.

Flores, N. (2016). A tale of two visions: Hegemonic whiteness and bilingual education. Educational Policy, 30, 13–38.

Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review, 85, 149–171.

News & Media

Penn GSE News

Leveling the playing field in dual-language programs

Penn GSE's Nelson Flores advocates for dismantling hierarchies between racialized and elite bilingualism in schools.

January 25, 2019

How monolingual teachers can support bilingual students

Speaking on WHYY's Radio Times, Nelson Flores said that all educators can place value on language diversity in their classrooms.

November 1, 2018

Flores: Segregation, not language background, likely explains proficiency gap for Spanish-speaking English learners

Nelson Flores told WHYY’s Newsworks there is more to English-proficiency test scores than cultural heritage.

August 11, 2017

Flores: Philadelphia once a national leader in bilingual education

Nelson Flores explains to The Notebook how federal policies challenged the city’s robust bilingual programs.

January 4, 2017

In the Media

Race on campus: What does ‘Latinx’ mean?

Nelson Flores said that instead of debating whether or not an institution should use the word “Latinx,” people should try to understand why the word is used.

The Chronicle of Higher Education | March 16, 2021

A question of identity: Examining use of the term ‘Latinx’

Nelson Flores said shifts in language often start with a small group of marginalized people, rather than with majority rule. “I think the relevant question for me isn’t whether people should be using the term. It’s how people who use the term Latinx are trying to differentiate themselves from people who use the term Hispanic and people who use the term Latino,” he said. “Why do they feel like those terms don’t really reflect the political identities they’re trying to articulate through the term Latinx?”

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education | October 6, 2020

A Chalkbeat roundtable: What New York City is still learning from its teacher strikes of 1968

Nelson Flores writes about the professionalization of bilingual education and the unrealistic assumption that schools can alone reverse the effects of poverty and segregation.

Chalkbeat | October 18, 2018

Harness potential of low-income students by valuing what they already know

Nelson Flores discusses the importance of learning about and valuing the linguistic diversity and rich linguistic practices of students from low-income backgrounds.

Houston Chronicle | June 7, 2018

Philly's Spanish-speaking students lag in English language achievement

Nelson Flores discusses how isolated, high poverty schools and neighborhoods are contributing to the gap in English language reading and writing proficiency among Latino students.

NewsWorks | August 11, 2017

Playing the Spanish Card

In this podcast, Nelson Flores says Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine's fluency in Spanish appeals more to white liberals than Latino voters.

Slate | August 8, 2016

The New Bilingualism

Nelson Flores says bilingual education, once opposed in America's recent past, is "now... framed as something that's good for all children—something that can help people get jobs as part of the global economy."

The Atlantic | August 4, 2016

More States and Districts Embrace Biliteracy

“We don’t have data to determine whether the seal of biliteracy is something that people actually take seriously,” says Nelson Flores.

Education Week | October 6, 2015

Why Bilingual Kids Have an Edge Over the Rest of Us

Nelson Flores on the way bilingual 1st-graders understand language.

National Journal | July 15, 2015

Awards & Honors

Nelson Flores has been awarded a $50,000 Spencer Conference Grant to bring together researchers and practitioners to develop a research and policy agenda that works to counteract anti-Blackness in language education. The co-PIs on the project are Dr. Uju Anya from Penn State and Dr. Tia Madkins from University of Texas-Austin.

Posted on November 12, 2019

Nelson Flores, with Sofia Chaparro of the University of Colorado Denver, was awarded the James E. Alatis Prize for Research on Language Policy and Planning in Educational Contexts for the paper, "What counts as language education policy? Developing a materialist anti-racist approach to language activism." The Alatis Prize is awarded annually by TIRF — The International Research Foundation for English Language Education in recognition of an outstanding publication in the field.

Posted on December 5, 2018

Nelson Flores has received a $70,000 grant from the National Academy of Education for the project, “Radical Neoliberalism: Bilingual Education in the School District of Philadelphia.” The project examines efforts of Latino community activists to institutionalize bilingual education in the 1970s, and the vision of contemporary bilingual education activists as they open bilingual charter schools.

Posted on August 31, 2017

Nelson Flores is the winner of the 2017 AERA Early Career Award in Bilingual Education Research. The award recognizes an individual in the early stages of his or her career whose work stands out for its excellence in moving the field forward. The selection committee also considered each candidate’s potential for continued prominence in bilingual education, and recognized Dr. Flores's potential to add new knowledge to the field. The award will be presented at the 2017 AERA BER SIG business meeting in San Antonio.

Posted on February 17, 2017

Journal Editorial Boards

Annual Review of Applied Linguistics

Editorial Board

Critical Multilingualism Studies

Editorial Board Member

International Journal of the Sociology of Language

Editorial Board Member

Language in Society

Editorial Board Member

Language Policy

Editorial Board Member