Dept. of Education
Mallory Woods is a PhD student in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education advised by Dr. Amy Kyratzis focusing on early childhood bilingual education. Before coming to UCSB, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish-English translation studies from Kent State University and worked as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at the Universidad Nacional de Chimborazo in Riobamba, Ecuador. Mallory’s research adopts an ethnographic approach to understand how teachers can support students’ multilingual development through the use of translanguaging in bilingual classrooms with students ages 3-5. Along with her advisor, her current project centers on the implementation of Mixteco lessons in a multilingual preschool classroom, focusing on heritage speakers and all students’ language learning and metalinguistic awareness. Mallory is a co-recipient of a 2025 Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund grant in which she and a mentor implemented a 40-hour certificate-granting teacher professional development program in central Ecuador focused on contemporary TESOL pedagogies, with support from the US Embassy and Consulate in Ecuador.