Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Laura Schall-Leckrone teaches in and leads the graduate Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and Bilingual Education (TESOL/BE) programs at Lesley. Prior to completing her doctorate, she worked for seventeen years as a bilingual teacher, Spanish teacher, and K-12 curriculum director in city and suburban public schools. Her scholarship and collaborative work in teacher education and educational linguistics seek to bridge knowledge production in K-12 schools and higher education to improve learning opportunities for multilingual learners.

Her research includes a focus on equipping history teachers to teach critical literacies; practitioner research in TESOL and bilingual teacher preparation; and a linguistic ethnography of a K-6 multilingual school in a gateway community.

Along with recent graduates of the masters’ in TESOL and Bilingual Education program, Laura recently received a President’s Innovation Challenge grant to support the creation of a Bilingual Educator Leadership Network (BELN). Read more about the BELN collaborative

Laura also was one of the speakers at the annual 2021 June Fox Lecture focused on Inquiry in Educational Equity with colleagues Grace Enriquez and Nettrice Gaskins. Read more about this event.

Meg is a faculty member in the graduate TESOL and Bilingual Education programs at Lesley. Her teaching and research focus on equipping teachers to create equitable learning environments for multilingual students, particularly in early childhood and elementary settings. Her research examines various aspects of Dual Language schools, including the roles of race and culture in Dual Language programs, the use of multilingual texts, and specific strategies to support Spanish-English biliteracy development.

In her teaching, Meg emphasizes the importance of multilingual, interactive approaches to literacy teaching in both English-medium classrooms and bilingual classrooms. Meg teaches courses in first and second language acquisition, early language and literacy development, sheltered English instruction, culturally responsive pedagogy, family and community engagement, and qualitative research methods.

Meg is a past president and board member of the Multistate Association for Bilingual Education, Northeast (MABE) and serves on the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's English Learner and Bilingual Advisory Council.

Maria de Lourdes B. Serpa, now professor emerita, spent her time at Lesley as a bilingual professor committed to high quality teacher education and equity in educational practice for all students. She is a doctoral senior advisor and has designed Master's programs and doctoral specializations in Bilingual-ESL Special Education. Dr. Serpa served as the director and co-director of two major 5-year teacher education projects funded by the US Department of Education, and Assessing ELLs with Disabilities Institute funded by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education. She also co-directs the UDL-Teaching Portuguese Worldwide Project and is the co-founder of the Portuguese World Language Institute. She maintains international collaborations with University of the Azores, Universidade Aberta, University of Madeira, and CAST.org. Responsible for implementing UDL in Portuguese.

Education

BS, Boston State College and Magisterie Primario, Azores, Portugal
M.Ed., University of Massachusetts, Boston
EdD, Boston University