Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.—A Mississippi State faculty member is collaborating through a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to advance inclusive learning environments for Latino multilingual (LML) students with a focus on science, technology, engineering environments and mathematics.
Lourdes Cardozo-Gaibisso, an assistant professor in MSU’s English department starting in 2021, said the five-year project focuses on creating spaces for LML students to engage with scholarly research experiences using translation features — the practice of maximizing communication using more than one language within a classroom lesson.
“We know that creating and using inclusive learning environments to support culturally and linguistically diverse students is crucial,” said Cardozo-Gaibisso, noting the lack of current research on the topic. “We think this study is important because it addresses ‘how’ questions from a multitude of perspectives—deep learning theories, immersive learning environments, machine learning, educational linguistics, and translinguistics.”
The project—SISTEMAS: Stimulating Inclusive Science Through Engaging Multilingual and Authentic Scenarios—is supported by a Science Education Partnership Award and is located at the University of Georgia. Cardozo-Gaibisso is a co-investigator in collaboration with UGA faculty member Georgia Wood Hodges, an expert in inclusive learning environments, along with UGA researchers Allan Cohen and Xiaoming Zhai.
Cardozo-Gaibisso earned her Ph.D. in language and literacy education from UGA in 2018, her master’s degree in education with an emphasis in research in teaching and learning processes from Universidad ORT Uruguay in 2013, and her bachelor’s degree in English language teaching from the Instituto de Professor Artigas, also in Uruguay, in 2010.
Cardozo-Gaibisso served from 2018-2019 as an educational consultant for the World Bank Regional Program for the Development of the Teaching Profession in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2020, she was Curriculum Development Specialist in Teacher Policy for the International Institute for Educational Planning, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (IIEP-UNESCO).
Part of the College of Arts and Sciences, more information about the English Department is available at www.english.msstate.edu.
MSU is Mississippi’s flagship university, available online at www.msstate.edu.
