Current and Recent Research Projects

The Multilingual Learning Research Center (MLRC) is an interdisciplinary research center with the mission to advance educational outcomes for multilingual learners through innovative and socially just research and research-practitioner partnerships.

Our Focus

The MLRC focuses on inquiry related to the teaching and learning of multilingual learners through descriptive and hypothesis–testing studies that have an impact on teaching practice, teacher quality, and policy, in both local and global contexts. The center is home to a research–practice partnership with schools around the world that collaborate on research for educational change and equity.

Education on the Move for Children and Youth on the Move

Principal Investigator: Carrie Parker

2026-2027

MLRC, in partnership with the Educational Research and Action Platform (Plataforma de Investigación y Acción Educativa S.A. — PIASE), has received a one-year Vision Grant from the Spencer Foundation to plan “Education on the Move for Children and Youth on the Move.”

This initiative aims to reimagine how education systems can support children and youth on the move across Central America and Mexico. These young people experience migration, displacement or return migration while dealing with significant barriers to accessing consistent, high-quality education. The project will center the voices and experiences of children and youth on the move and their families, engaging them in envisioning what meaningful and equitable education should look like in their lives.

Led by principal investigators Caroline E. Parker (MLRC), Maria Josefina Vijil, and Sonia Morin (PIASE), the effort brings together regional and international partners, including researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and community-based organizations. Together, they will design a research agenda and identify key components of a cross-border, collaborative educational model.

The long-term vision is to develop an educational system that can move with learners, supporting continuous, inclusive learning across national borders and contexts, while advancing educational justice for children and youth navigating migration.

Toward Simulation-Based Measures of Co-Planning for Student Success

Principal Investigator: Courtney Bell

Co-Investigators: Mariana Castro, Jon Nordmeyer, & Jaelyn Nelson

2026

This study examines how language specialists co-plan with grade-level teachers in mixed-reality simulations. The goal of the study is to understand language specialists’ experiences co-planning and use feedback to support professional learning of important co-planning skills. The study also explores teachers’ emotional experiences and perceptions as they engage in co-planning with a simulated colleague. The study is a collaboration between the MLRC and the Wisconsin Center for Education Research SimLab.

Blurring the Language Boundaries: AI Support for Translanguaging in Classrooms

Principal Investigator: Shamya Karumbaiah

Co-Investigators: Mariana Castro, Diego Román

2025-2027

This Spencer Foundation funded project will study how well generative AI can help teachers understand and support translanguaging in classrooms. First, we will adapt large language models to work in both Spanish and English. Next, we’ll create a classroom tool that helps identify student ideas shared in any language or form, such as in group talks, writing, or assessments. We’ll test this tool in two Wisconsin middle school science classes with bilingual programs, collecting data like audio, writing, and tool logs. We’ll analyze this data to see how helpful these AI models are for supporting multilingual students.

Transforming Educator and Cooperating Host (TEACH) Partnerships: Enhancing Cooperating Teacher and Preservice Teacher Collaboration Through Mixed-Reality Simulations

Principal Investigator: Mariana Castro

2025-2026

This project will partner with local cooperating teachers to design and pilot mixed-reality simulation to improve cooperating teachers’ mentoring of preservice teachers. Over the course of a semester, participating cooperating teachers will engage in two simulations to practice giving feedback to their preservice teachers. The project is a collaboration between the MLRC, the Mary T. Keller Teacher Education Center, and the Wisconsin Center for Education Research Simulation Lab.

Examining Research Activities within the Multilingual Learning Research Center School Network

Principal Investigator: Esther Bettney Heidt

2024-2029

This study examines the engagement of international school educators in research activities within the MLRC School Network. The network is a global research-practice partnership (RPP) that supports research in and with international schools to improve outcomes for multilingual learners. Although RPPs are gaining attention for their potential to bridge the gap between educational research and practice (Coburn et al., 2021), further research is needed to explore the opportunities, challenges, and impacts of teachers’ participation in RPPs. Additionally, this study contributes to the field by studying a global RPP, where most previous RPP research has concentrated on U.S. or other nationally bound RPP contexts.

Preparing Science Teachers Through Mixed-Reality Simulations to Enhance the Access and Engagement of Multilingual Learners in Science Argumentation

Principal Investigator: Mariana Castro

2023-2026

This National Science Foundation-funded study uses mixed methods to examine the validity, reliability, and effectiveness of a tool used in mixed-reality simulation in the training of pre-service and in-service science teachers who serve multilingual learners. The tool integrates language and translanguaging practices into the teaching practice of scientific argumentation.

NSF Grant Number 2321205

Strategic Preservice Teacher and Teacher Educator Learning: Mixed-Reality Simulations for Eliciting Student Thinking

Principal Investigator: Mariana Castro

2023-2024

In collaboration with UW-Madison secondary science teaching faculty, MLRC researchers developed and piloted an initial set of simulation tasks for eliciting student thinking. The resulting simulation packet included participant materials, training for mixed-reality actors, and an avatar profile of a multilingual learner. The simulation was successful in allowing teachers to practice the task of eliciting student thinking and identified areas for growth in their instructional practices. For example, participating pre-service teachers generally had a difficult time eliciting student thinking without offering directive feedback or guiding questions. They also had difficulty adjusting language to provide linguistic access to students with intermediate levels of language proficiency. The mixed-reality simulation provided pre-service teacher participants with rich experiences and artifacts (i.e., the recorded and transcribed simulation) for reflection and self-assessment.