OCCRL Staff and Affiliates

Monica Gonzalez Ybarra

Assistant Professor of Curriculum & Instruction at the College of Education at Illinois

Dr. Gonzalez Ybarra’s schooling experiences, and those of her family, guided her to research the rich language, literacies, and knowledge of Chicanx/Latinx communities that often go unseen and/or erased in K-12 classrooms and beyond. She examines the powerful practices of teaching and learning that exist in community spaces and how Chicanx/Latinx bilingual youth, in particular, draw on their home, family, and community knowledge to navigate their sociopolitical worlds. Dr. Gonzalez Ybarra has been privileged to work with young people across various communities in Illinois, Utah, Colorado, and Texas. Her teaching and work with bilingual pre-service and in-service teachers seeks to create opportunities for transformative educational experiences both in and outside of the classroom. She is committed to working with educators, students, and community members to collectively re-imagine and build educational spaces and opportunities for youth and communities of color..

Education

• Ph.D., Curriculum & Instruction: Literacy Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder
  
• M.Ed., Education, Culture & Society, University of Utah
  
• B.A., Latina/Latino Studies & Spanish, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign