Marialuisa Di Stefano

Marialuisa Di Stefano

She/Her/Ella/Lei
Associate Professor
Program Coordinator, English Second Language

Location

Furcolo Hall

813 N Pleasant St
Amherst, MA 01003
United States

N154

Marialuisa Di Stefano is an Associate Professor at the College of Education. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship from the Department of Engineering Education at Utah State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, with emphasis on bilingual education and cultural studies from Utah State University. Di Stefano is a first-gen multilingual and multicultural educator, researcher, and advocate for historically minoritized groups in bilingual and dual language education. Her research focuses on enhancing STEAM identities, disciplinary biliteracy and content knowledge development in bilingual and dual language settings under an equity and social justice lens. She works with educators, leaders, and researchers on the development of linguistically and culturally sustaining praxis, transformative apprenticeship, and ethical mentorship in integrated STEAM and bilingual and dual language settings. Di Stefano is the director of the Western Massachusetts Bilingual Hub at UMass Amherst and is serving as the English Language Learners/Bilingual Education Advisory Council (2024-2027) chair at the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). 

Academia

Education

  • Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Utah State University, 2018
  • Ph.D., Utah State University, 2017
  • M.A., Washington State University, 2012
  • M.A., University of Messina, Italy, 2006
  • B.A., University of Messina, Italy, 2004

Research

  • STEAM Education in Bilingual and Dual Language Education 
  • Disciplinary biliteracies development in STEM
  • Biliteracy development in PK-6
  • Transnational Civic Education
  • ESL education and emergent bilinguals 

Publications

  • Di Stefano, M., Irizarry Ramos, E., Cuevas Rivera, R., Esquinca, A., Villanueva Alarcón, I., Lopez-Tifa, Y., (2024). La integración de las ciencias y la ingeniería en aulas bilingües de doble inmersión. Bilingual Review. Revista Bilingüe 36 (1) https://bilingualreviewjournal.org/index.php/br/article/view/506
  • Di Stefano, M., Esquinca, A., Villanueva Alarcón, I., (Eds.) (2023). Integrando STEAM: A Guide for Elementary Bilingual and Dual Language Programs. El Monte, CA: Velázquez Press. (Abstract)
  • Di Stefano, M., Villanueva Alarcón, I., McEneaney, E., Marte Zorrilla, E., Esquinca., A. (2022). Exploring bilingual and dual language teachers’ perspectives on asset-based professional development in science and engineering. Bilingual Research Journal. DOI: 10.1080/15235882.2022.2118195 (Abstract) 
  • Di Stefano, M., Villanueva, I., Esquinca, A. (2022). Reconceptualizing bilingual/dual-language teacher education to promote disciplinary biliteracies in STEM. In C.R. Aquino-Sterling, M. Gort, & B.B. Flores (Eds.), Innovating Curricular & Pedagogical Designs in Bilingual Teacher Education: Bridging the Distance with School Contexts. Information Age Publishing (Book contents)
  • Esquinca, A., Di Stefano, M., & Villanueva Alarcón, I. (2022). Creating equitable access to engineering learning for English learners in Bilingual and Dual-Language Education (Work in Progress). American Society of Engineering Education. (Paper)
  • Di Stefano, M., Almazán-Vázquez, A., Yepes-Amaya, W., & Britton, E. R. (2021). “Tu lucha es mi lucha”: Teaching Spanish through an equity and social justice lens. Foreign Language Annals, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12578  (Abstract)
  • Di Stefano, M., Almazán‐Vázquez, A., & Yepes, W. (In press). Dismantling gender stereotypes in the Spanish class: Three transnational testimonios. In K. F. Davidson, S. M. Johnson, & L. J. Randolph Jr. (Eds.), How we take action: Social justice in K‐16 language classrooms.
  • Villanueva, I., Di Stefano, M., Gelles, L., Youmans, K., Hunt, A. (2020). Development and Assessment of a Vignette Survey Instrument to Identify Responses due to Hidden Curriculum among Engineering Students and Faculty. International Journal of Engineering Education, 36 (5), 1549-1569. (Abstract)
  • Di Stefano, M., & Uribe, N. (2020). Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz en la clase de doble inmersión. [Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in the dual language immersion class]. Contextos. Estudios de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, 45. Special Issue. Edición especial: Aproximaciones a la Enseñanza de las Humanidades y de los Estudios Culturales a través del Teatro. Santiago de Chile, Chile: Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación. (Open Access Article)
  • Villanueva, I., Di Stefano, M., Gelles, L., Vicioso, P., & Benson, S. (2019).  A race re-imagined, intersectional approach to academic mentoring: Exploring the perspectives and responses of womxn in science and engineering research. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 59, 1-17. Special Issue: Race-Reimagining Psychology Research: Investigating Constructs through the Lens of Race & Culture. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2019.101786 (Open Access Article)
  • Gelles, L., Villanueva, I., & Di Stefano, M. (2019). “Mentoring is ethical, right?”: Women graduate students & faculty in science & engineering speak out. International Journal of Gender, Science, & Technology, Special Issue in Gender & Intersectionality in Engineering, 11(1), 108-133; (Open Access Article)  
  • Di Stefano, M. & Camicia, S. (2018). Transnational Civic Education and Emergent Bilinguals in a Dual Language Setting. Education Sciences, 8(3), 128. doi.org/10.3390/educsci8030128 (Open Access Article)
  • Di Stefano, M., Litster, K., & MacDonald B. L. (2017). Mathematics intervention supporting Allen, a Latino EL: A case study. Education Sciences, 7(2), 57. doi:10.3390/educsci7020057 (Open Access Article)