Nelson Flores

Nelson Flores is a professor of educational linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. He is affiliated with the Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies and the Department of Linguistics. Flores serves as director of the Ph.D. program in Educational Linguistics, faculty advisor for the Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, and chair of the Penn Faculty Senate Committee on Faculty and the Academic Mission. His academic career began as an ESL teacher in Philadelphia and New York City public schools, where he worked with students categorized as long-term English learners. Observing the contrast between deficit perspectives and the bilingualism of his students influenced Flores to pursue a Ph.D. in Urban Education from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Flores uses archival, policy, and community-based research methods to analyze how language and race have been constructed over time in the United States and how these constructions shape current educational debates. He is recognized for developing a raciolinguistic perspective, which explores the relationship between language ideologies and histories of colonialism. His research aims to denaturalize raciolinguistic ideologies in language education by providing both historical and contemporary analyses of how education policies and practices reinforce these ideologies. Flores focuses on how dominant language ideologies contribute to the racialization of language-minoritized communities and works to develop alternative approaches to language education that challenge these patterns.

Flores is the author of the book "Becoming the System: A Raciolinguistic Genealogy of Bilingual Education in the Post–Civil Rights Era," which examines the ideologies underlying the Bilingual Education Act and the institutionalization of bilingual education in the United States. He is also the editor of "The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society" and "Bilingualism for All? Raciolinguistic Perspectives on Dual Language Education in the United States." His research has been published in journals including Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Linguistics and Education, TESOL Quarterly, and Harvard Educational Review.

Flores has received national recognition for his contributions to education research, including the AERA Early Career Award, the CUNY Graduate Center Graduate of the Last Decade Award, the James Alatis Prize, the AERA Bilingual Education SIG Early Career Award, and a Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. He has collaborated on research projects focused on the education of racialized bilingual students in U.S. schools, including studies of students categorized as long-term English learners and high schools serving large numbers of Latinx students. Flores has served on the American Educational Research Association Minority Fellowship Program Selection Committee, supporting the development of scholars from underrepresented backgrounds in education research. Through his scholarship, public writing, and speaking, Flores addresses deficit-based narratives in education and advocates for equitable, racially conscious approaches to language policy and practice.