Advocating for Multilingual Learners
A Guide for Educators
- Diane Staehr Fenner - SupportEd
- Sydney C. Snyder - SupportEd
Foreword by Julie Sugarman
Equip yourself with the tools to champion equitable education for every multilingual learner
Multilingual learners (MLs) are our fastest-growing student population, yet they often lack a voice in their own education. Without intentional advocacy, systemic barriers stand in the way of their potential. Navigating these challenges can feel overwhelming, but this approachable guide can help build a shared sense of responsibility across your entire school or district. Diane Staehr Fenner and Sydney C. Snyder explore how to foster effective instruction, fair assessments, and robust family partnerships, among other topics.
This essential resource provides:
- A five-step advocacy framework to confidently identify and address the pressing issues facing your MLs
- The ML Advocacy Audit and hands-on activities to guide collaborative professional learning
- Real-world stories from educators successfully advocating for their students
- Updated research and brand-new chapters on newcomer students, professional learning, and equitable programming
By actively disrupting inequities, you create a welcoming community where every child belongs. Discover how to advocate effectively so your students receive the joyful, empowering education they deserve.
"Staehr Fenner and Snyder have provided a blueprint for future and current advocates across the field of multilingual learning, teaching, and leadership. By increasing knowledge, awareness, and application of advocacy efforts, readers will be better positioned to champion for the linguistically diverse communities they serve. This book is a much-needed call for action!"
"This book is exactly what educators need right now: a clear-eyed, actionable, and refreshingly human look at what it means to advocate for multilingual learners. Fenner and Snyder don’t just present strategies—they model the mindset and courage the work demands. As an administrator responsible for supporting more than 5,700 English learners, I am grateful for the way this work marries research, lived experience, and practical tools without ever losing its sense of hope. It’s a masterclass in how to lead systems that honor and elevate multilingual students and their families."
"This second edition “Advocacy for Multilingual Learners” is especially needed at this time. The book shares practical , actionable, and impactful ways educators can advocate for excellent, equitable education for MLs within their sphere of influence."
"Advocacy has always been integral to and ingrained in multilingual education. In this 2nd edition, Staehr Fenner and Snyder artfully illustrate how advocacy for multilingual learners extends across major facets of schooling- curriculum, instruction and assessment - and interest groups, fostering newcomer, family and community partnerships. We come away with a clear vision of how ongoing advocacy enables us to build and maintain a positive mindset and convince others of multilingual strengths. Outreach, articulated through the book’s vignettes, personal reflections and resources, all points to the increasingly essential role and responsibility of educators in supporting our students and how it is more important than ever to collectively continue our advocacy efforts on behalf of multilingual learners."
Kudos to Diane Staehr Fenner and Sydney Snyder for continuing to lead in the field of TESOL! Their second edition of a critical resource, Advocating for Multilingual Learners, could not have come at a better time. It provides readers with a clear focus on how all educators can ensure that multilingual learners receive equitable and just educational opportunities. In line with the authors’ previous publications, this book offers much-needed practical tools that make their recommendations actionable!
Time and time again, Staehr-Fenner and Snyder share the who, what, why, and how of effective program design and instruction for MLs. This update to their classic books lights the path for those wanting to journey with and along side their MLs and colleagues.
The first edition of this book brought advocacy for multilingual learners to the attention of English language teachers everywhere. This second edition is timely and expands our understanding of advocacy to include all educators who work with multilingual learners. Staehr Fenner and Snyder skillfully make this case in this clear and engaging edition, and provide detailed guidance on how to advocate for multilingual learners, no matter your role in the school building.
The second edition of Advocating for Multilingual Learners is an essential, empowering guide for anyone committed to advancing equity for multilingual learners and their families. Staehr Fenner and Snyder masterfully blend research, practical tools, and real-world examples to illuminate what effective advocacy looks like in today’s diverse classrooms. This updated edition equips educators with both the clarity and confidence needed to disrupt inequities and champion meaningful change. It is a must-read for all who believe in the brilliance and potential of multilingual learners.
Diane Staehr Fenner has done it again. This time, she and co-author Sydney Snyder bring us a current, eloquently written, urgently needed guide on advocacy for our ML’s. Whether you are an administrator, an educator, a teacher preparation professor, or someone who works with ML’s, and you want to create the best possible conditions for their success in and out of the classroom, this is an essential tome. We can do this. We must do this. Staehr Fenner and Snyder give us the tools, research, and encouragement to make it happen.
Advocating for Multilingual Learners is more important than ever. Use this updated essential guide to deepen your advocacy and asset-based work for ML equity and excellence in your schools.