About My Research

Dr. Brooks’ main research interests center on the everyday educational practices that impact the academic trajectories of bilingual adolescents in US schools. She is interested in these seemingly mundane educational practices because they are rarely examined, yet they play important roles in students' lives. In her most recent article in TESOL Quarterly (2022), she used an intersectional anti-adultism conceptual lens to investigate how 20 high school youths understood the relationship between two routine EL practices—English language proficiency (ELP) testing and EL-related course placement—and their institutional EL classification. This study found that most participants did not use ELP testing or EL-related course placement to recognize their labeling. That is, even though youths took ELP tests and/or were placed in EL-related course placement, most did not realize they were identified as ELs. Youths’ interpretations of the meaning of these two practices were related to how they understood themselves and their schooling experiences. As such, the findings highlight the necessity to create structures for multidirectional and intergenerational communication between youth and adults that challenge institutionalized adultism within EL policy. The interconnection of her research interests across the past decade is the careful analysis of the seemingly mundane, which she contends is fundamental for more just research, policy, and practice.

Links to published research are included below. If you would like a copy of any publication, please email Dr. Brooks. You can also see if the publications are available on my academia.edu or ResearchGate page. 

Publications (Chronological Order of Publication)

• Poza, L.E. & Brooks, M.D. (2024) A special case of bias: Racialized bilinguals, testing, and the allocation of opportunity. In A.K. Kibler, A. Walqui, G.C. Bunch, & C.J Faltis (Eds.). Equity in multilingual schools and communities: Celebrating the contributions of Guadalupe Valdés (pp. 206-218). Multilingual Matters.

• Brooks, M. D. (2023). What does ESL mean to her? An analysis of women of color recounting their attempts to exit EL instructional services. AERA Open. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/233285842311958

• Bertrand, M., Brooks, M. D., & Domínguez, A. D. (2023).Challenging Adultism: Centering Youth as Educational Decision Makers. Urban Education,58(10), 2570-2597.

• Brooks, M. D. (2022). What does it mean? EL‐identified adolescents’ interpretations of testing and course placement. TESOL Quarterly, 56(4), 1218-1241.

• Learned, J. E., Frankel, K. K., & Brooks, M. D. (2022). Disrupting Secondary Reading Intervention: A Review of Qualitative Research and a Call to Action. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 65(6), 507-517.

• Brooks, M. D., Frankel, K. K., & Learned, J. E. (2022). Placement matters: Is your reading intervention effective?. Phi Delta Kappan, 103(6), 41-45.

• Brooks, M. D. (2022). Cultivating a Multilingual Classroom Community. Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction (pp.22-40). Guilford.

• Brooks, M. D., & Smagorinsky, P. (2021). Long-Term English Learners. Research questions in language education and applied linguistics: A reference guide (pp. 231-236). Springer.

• Frankel, K. K., Deanna Brooks, M., & Learned, J. E. (2021). A meta-synthesis of qualitative research on reading intervention classes in secondary schools. Teachers College Record, 123(8), 31-58.

• Brooks, M. D. (2020). Transforming literacy education for long-term English learners: Recognizing brilliance in the undervalued. New York, NY: Routledge.

• Brooks, M.D. & Alvarado, A.M. (2019). Arlene’s actionist work: A case study of writing and activism. In V. Kinloch, T. Burkhard, & C. Penn (Eds.), Race, justice, and activism in literacy instruction. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

• Brooks, M.D. (2019). A mother’s advocacy: Lessons for educators of long-term EL students. In H.A. Linville & J.C. Whiting (Eds.), Advocacy in English language teaching and learning (pp. 175-189). New York, NY: Routledge.

• Brooks, M. D. (2019). Authentic choice: A plan for independent reading in a restrictive instructional setting. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 62(5), 574–577. doi:10.1002/jaal.936

• Brooks, M.D. & Rodela, K.C. (2018). Why am I in reading intervention? A dual-analysis of entry and exit criteria. The High School Journal, 102 (1), 72-93.

• Brooks, M.D. & Frankel, K.K. (2018). Oral reading: Practices and purposes in secondary classrooms. English Teaching: Practice and Critque, 17 (4), 328-341.

• Brooks, M.D. (2018). Untapped possibilities: Intersectionality theory and literacy research. In D. Alvermann, N. Unrau, & M. Sailors (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of literacy (7thed., pp. 435-445) New York, NY: Routledge.

• Brooks, M.D. & Frankel, K.K. (2018). Why the struggling reader label is harmful (and what educators can do about it)[Department Column]. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 62(1), 111-114.

• Brooks, M.D. (2018). Is this class still relevant? Teaching about race in literacy teacher education [Perspectives on Practice]. Language Arts, 95(6), 402-406.

• Brooks, M.D. (2018). Pushing past myths: Designing instruction for long-term English learners. TESOL Quarterly, 52(1), 221-233. doi: 10.1002/tesq.435

• Brooks, M.D. (2017). Other: Multiraciality, community, and cross-racial research [Special Issue]. Journal of Literacy Research, 49(4),544-558. doi: 10.11777/1086296X177733489

• Brooks, M.D. (2017). “She doesn't have the basic understanding of a language”: Using spelling research to challenge deficit conceptualizations of adolescent bilinguals. Journal of Literacy Research, 49(3), 342-370. doi: 10.1177/1086296X17714016

• Brooks, M.D. (2017). How and when did you learn your languages? Bilingual students' linguistic experiences and literacy instruction. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 60(4), 383-393. doi: 10.1002/jaal.573

• Brooks, M.D. (2016). “Tell me what you are thinking”: An investigation of five Latina LTELs constructing meaning with academic texts. Linguistics and Education, 35, 1-14.

• Brooks, M. D. (2016). Notes and talk: an examination of a long-term English learner reading-to-learn in a high school biology classroom. Language and Education,30(3), 235-251.

• Frankel, K., Jaeger, E., Brooks, M.D., & Randel, M. (2015). Struggling readers?: Using theory to complicate understandings of what it means to be literate in school. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice 64(1), 307-322.

• Brooks, M.D. (2015). "It's like a script.": Long-term English learners' experiences with and ideas about academic reading. Research in the Teaching of English, 49(4), 383-406.

• Valdés, G., Poza, L., & Brooks, M.D. (2015). Language acquisition in bilingual and multilingual education. In W.E. Wright, S. Boun, & O. Garcia (Eds.), Handbook of Bilingual and Multilingual Education (pp. 56-74). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

• Poza, L., Brooks, M. D., & Valdés, G. (2014). Entre Familia: Immigrant Parents’ Strategies for Involvement in Children’s Schooling. School Community Journal, 24(1), 119-148.

• Valdés, G., Poza, L., & Brooks, M.D. (2014). Educating students who do not speak the societal language: The social construction of language learner categories. Profession. Retrieved from http://profession.commons.mla.org/2014/10/09/educating-students-who- do-not-speak-the-societal-language/

• Brooks, M.D. (2011). The Global Phenomenon of Bi/Multilingualism (Book Review). Linguistics and Education, 22, 294-295.

Selected Research-Related Grants and Awards

• Mid-Career Award, AERA’s Second Language Research SIG (2024)

• Postdoctoral Fellow, National Academic of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship (2018)

• Fellow, STAR Mentorship Program, Literacy Research Association (2015-2017)

• Graduate Dissertation Fellow, Research Institute of Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University (2012-2013)

• Fellow, Cultivating New Voices among Scholars of Color , National Council of Teachers of English (2010-2012)

• Fellow, G. Richard Tucker Fellowship, Center for Applied Linguistics (2010)