Noted Speaker: Jose Lalas
Jose Lalas, a Professor of Literacy and Teacher Education for 22 years, serves as the Director of Center for Educational Justice at the University of Redlands. He directs the university’s annual summer conference on leadership for educational justice and coordinates its bi-monthly symposia on current topics related to educational justice in K-16 settings. His current qualitative research is on cultural capital, social class, funds of knowledge, language, and student engagement in selected educational settings in the Philippines and 2 school sites in southern California. He has been an Associate Dean and Director of Teacher Education program for the University of Redlands' School of Education. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Reading/Language Arts with an emphasis in Bilingual Education and Language Acquisition. As a former professor from California State University, Dominguez Hills, he advised and mentored graduate students as Project Director and Principal Investigator of Title VII Educational Personnel Training Grant from U.S. Department of Education that graduated over 200 teachers with a master's degrees in multicultural education from 1991 - 1997. He coordinated the huge CLAD/BCLAD Multiple Subject credential program at CSU Dominguez Hills for over 5 years and taught methods courses in reading/language arts and social studies at CSUDH for 14 years.
Before teaching at the university level, Jose taught in elementary and junior high schools. He has published several research articles on English language learners, multicultural literature, and critical literacy issues and co-authored two books on practicing educational justice in the classroom. His current research agenda includes social justice in the classroom, urban student voices as vehicles for critical pedagogy, infusing critical literacy with multicultural literature, and making adaptations for English language learners. Currently, he serves in the Corona-Norco Unified School District as an elected school board member for almost 17 years with personal commitment to educational justice in policy governance.
Research interests: Qualitative and quantitative research on the following topics: teaching and leading for educational justice in k – 12 urban and semi-urban school settings; critical race theory and its implications in examining the achievement gap; critical literacy; cultural capital, social class, funds of knowledge and student engagement; poverty and student engagement; multicultural literature; public intellectuals and critical pedagogy; writing and reading as critical discourse tools; English language learners.
Current publications: Social Justice Lenses and Authentic Student Voices: Enhancing Leadership for Educational Justice; Adaptation Pedagogy for English Language Learners: What, Why, and How?; Teaching for Social Justice in Multicultural Urban Schools: Conceptualization and Implication; Instructional adaptation as an equity solution for the English learners and special needs students; Learning and Teaching Framework for Social Justice; Training School Leaders Who Will Promote Educational Justice: What, Why, and How?
