Nelson Flores

Professional Biography

Nelson Flores is an associate professor in educational linguistics and affiliated faculty with the Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies. He is also the Director of the Ph.D. program in educational linguistics, the faculty advisor for the Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, the chair of the Penn Faculty Senate Committee on Faculty Development, Diversity and Equity and co-chair of the Penn GSE Subcommittee on Faculty and Student Diversity.

Dr. Flores has collaborated on several research projects focused on the education of racialized bilingual 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. He also oversaw the Philadelphia Bilingual Education Project that studied the history of bilingual education in Philadelphia while supporting the district in its expansion of dual language education through the providing of teacher professional development and program support. Most recently, he was a research associate with The Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning (C-SAIL), where he studied 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 2022 AERA Early Career Award, 2020 Graduate Center of the City University of New York Graduate of the Last Decade, the 2019 James Alatis Prize for Research on Language Planning and Policy in Educational Contexts, 2017 AERA Bilingual Education SIG Early Career Award, and a 2017 Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship.

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

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

Dr. Flores’s blog

Educational Linguistics, Ed.D.

Principal Certification

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, M.S.Ed.

Language, Globalization, and Intercultural Studies, M.S.Ed.

Educational Linguistics, Ph.D.

School Leadership, M.S.Ed.

Research Interests and Current Projects

Dr. Flores examines the historical and contemporary manifestation of raciolinguistic ideologies that frame the language practices of racialized communities as inherently deficient and in need of remediation. He does this through undertaking raciolinguistic genealogies which situate the emergence of these raciolinguistic ideologies within European colonialism and traces the durability of these colonial logics across time and into the present. He has used this genealogical approach to reveal the ways that these colonial logics have historically and continue to inform US language education policy and practice as well as the ideological assumptions that have historically and continue to shape the field of educational linguistics.

Dr. Flores is currently focused on situating contemporary classification and reclassification processes for students officially classified as English Learners within broader colonial histories that continue to frame many racialized bilingual students as lacking proficiency in any language. He is also focused on how foundational concepts of the field of educational linguistics are complicit in producing these harmful policies and practices. He is currently working on a book project that brings all these elements together tentatively titled Becoming the System: A Raciolinguistic Genealogy of Bilingual Education in the Post-Civil Rights Era, which uses bilingual education as a point of entry for analyzing the reconfiguration of race in the post-Civil Rights era in ways that worked to maintain the white supremacist status quo.

Selected Publications

Becoming the System: A Raciolinguistic Genealogy of Bilingual Education in the Post-Civil Rights Era

Nelson Flores

Oxford University Press

July, 2024

Bilingualism for All?: Raciolinguistic Perspectives on Dual Language Education in the United States

Nelson Flores

Multilingual Matters

December, 2020

The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society

Nelson Flores

Oxford University Press

December, 2016

Flores, N. (2024). Becoming the system: A raciolinguistic genealogy of bilingual education in the post-civil rights era. Oxford University Press.

Flores, N., & McAuliffe, L. (2022). “In other schools you can plan it that way”: A raciolinguistic perspective on dual language education. International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism, 25, 1349–1362. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1760200

Flores, N., Phuong, J., & Venegas, K. (2020). “Technically an EL”: The production of raciolinguistic categories in a dual language school. TESOL Quarterly, 54, 629–651. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.577

Flores, N. (2020). From academic language to language architecture: Challenging raciolinguistic ideologies in research and practice. Theory into Practice, 59, 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2019.1665411

Flores, N., Tseng, A., & Subtirelu, N. (Eds.) (2020). Bilingualism for all? Raciolinguistic perspectives on dual language education in the United States. Multilingual Matters.

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. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-017-9433-7

Rosa, J., & Flores, N. (2017). Unsettling race and language: Toward a raciolinguistic perspective. Language in Society, 46, 621–647. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404517000562

Flores, N. (2016). A tale of two visions: Hegemonic whiteness and bilingual education. Educational Policy, 30, 13–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904815616482

Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review, 85, 149–171. https://doi.org/10.17763/0017-8055.85.2.149

Related News

All News

Nelson Flores examines bilingual education in new book

News | December 17, 2024

Topics

Nelson Flores’ Becoming the System examines how bilingual education has historically framed Latinx students through a deficit lens, urging new narratives that empower students to define their own identities.

Penn GSE faculty and students to share expertise at AERA 2024 in Philly

News | April 07, 2024
Topics
Gerald Campano will also be honored with a lifetime achievement award for his professional achievements and mentorship work.
Faculty and students head to Chicago for AERA Annual Meeting

News | April 10, 2023

Nearly 100 Penn GSE-affiliated presenters are attending the leading international conference on education research, April 13-16.
Penn GSE faculty, students in San Diego for leading international conference on education research

April 21, 2022

Eighty-seven Penn GSE faculty, staff and students are presenting at AERA 22, the world’s largest gathering of education researchers. The conference runs through April 26 in San Diego, CA.
Race on campus: What does ‘Latinx’ mean?

In the Media | The Chronicle of Higher Education March 16, 2021

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

In the Media | Diverse: Issues in Higher Education October 06, 2020
Topics
- Language, Literacy & Culture,
- 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?”