Center for Multilingual-learner Education, Research, and Innovative Teaching (MERIT)

MERIT grounds all of its work on research-based practice and strives through collaborative research-practice partnerships to examine the impacts of its professional learning and outreach activities.

Among MERIT’s current active research is an NSF-funded exploratory research project conducted in collaboration with our district partners in Gwinnett County Public Schools: Broadening Participation among Multilingual Learners through High School Teachers’ Professional Learning Experiences in the Instructional Conversation Pedagogy.

This three-year project aims to increase multilingual students’ engagement in scientific and engineering practices through developing and testing a model of professional learning for high school teachers in which they learn how to embed the Instructional Conversation pedagogy within standards-aligned scientific and engineering practices. Under this model, high school science teachers will collaborate with high school English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teachers to co-develop linguistically sustaining instructional materials that provide students with intentionally scaffolded opportunities to use scientific dialogue as they collaborate to explain natural phenomena or design solutions through engineering.

MERIT offers a variety of professional learning opportunities for educators throughout the academic school year and summer. Our professional learning facilitators work with district partners from Georgia, across the country, and internationally to meet our shared goals of supporting the teaching and learning of multilingual learners.

Much of our work is grounded in the Instructional Conversation (IC) Pedagogy – a research-based model for collaborative, conversation-based, culturally responsive, small-group instruction - which is ideal for teachers concerned with how to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners. The IC Pedagogy focuses on developing students’ cognitive and language skills by increasing the rate and intensity of their interactions with peers and teachers. The MERIT Team’s model for implementing the IC Pedagogy, the Arch System for Collaborative, Conversation-Based Instruction, provides students with the tools and structures necessary to actively and productively collaborate and engage with the content. We also offer a variety of additional professional learning opportunities focused on the practical application of current research regarding cognitive, linguistic, and cultural supports that positively impact the language and concept development of multilingual learners in the classroom. Learn more about our Professional Learning for educators!

All of MERIT’s work is grounded in the relationships we cultivate with our institutional, district, and community partners. Through these reciprocal relationships, we strive to create integrated initiatives that meet the needs identified by those stakeholders. Among our current outreach initiatives is our project: Latinx Stories and Voices at UGA.

This oral history project is dedicated to lifting and celebrating the stories, identities, and voices of those in our community that identify as Hispanic, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Latine, Mexican-American, Chicano, etc.

Through interviews, we aim to deepen our understanding of how education influences and shapes the “Latinx” experience in the U.S. South. This initiative is not just about recording histories; it’s about recognizing and valuing the diverse experiences and perspectives that contribute to our collective understanding of education and identity.