Michele Back

Associate Professor, World Languages Education

Expertise: Teacher Education, Second Language Acquisition, Discourse Analysis, Identity, Spanish, Quechua varieties, Portuguese

Curriculum and Instruction (EDCI)

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Dr. Michele Back is an Associate Professor of World Languages Education at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, where she works with teacher candidates in ASL, French, Latin, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish Language Education. Dr. Back’s research interests include world language teacher advocacy, recruitment, and professionalization; decolonial language pedagogies; study abroad in teacher education; racialization and racialized discourse; translingual/transcultural identities; equitable and ethical uses of technology for education. She has published articles in the Modern Language Journal, Foreign Language Annals, TESOL Quarterly, and the Journal of Language and Education, in addition to authoring and co-editing several books (see Selected Publications, below).

Selected Publications

Guest edited journal issue

Back, M., Peña-Pincheira, R. & Silva, D. (Eds.). (2025). Critical reflections on colonial pedagogies: Lessons learned for language teacher education. Special issue of The Modern Language Journal, 109(3). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15404781/2025/109/3

Books

Back, M., & Zavala, V. (Eds.) (2018). Racialization and Language: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Perú. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351062541

Back, M. (2015). Transcultural Performance: Negotiating Globalized Indigenous Identities. Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137412430

Ehlers-Zavala, F., Back, M., & Ortega, Y. (Eds.). (In press). Decolonizing language teacher education: Voices from the Global North and Global South. Palgrave. Forthcoming Fall 2025.

Zavala, V & Back, M. (Eds.) (2017). Racismo y lenguaje [Racism and language]. Fondo Editorial PUCP. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/facpubworks/1/

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Back, M., Peña-Pincheira, R., and Silva, D. (2025). Introducing the special issue: Critical reflections on colonial pedagogies: Lessons learned for language teacher education. The Modern Language Journal, 109(3), 1-12; https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.13014.

Back, M. (2025). From problem to right: Imaginative speculation on translanguaging in the world language classroom. Modern Language Journal, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.13016

Back, M. & Dickey, A. (2025). “No nos pueden tratar como se les dé la gana:” Engaging Spanish heritage language learners through human rights education. Foreign Language Annals. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.70008.

Back, M. (2024). Interrogating racialized discourses in educator-focused study abroad: An Ecological approach. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 36(1), 202–228. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v36i1.771

Back, M. & Wagner, M. (2024). Bridging the artificial gap: TESOL frameworks for world language education and advocacy. SCOLT Dimensions, 59. Special issue: Focus on bridging language education fields. Available at https://www.scolt.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2_Dimensions-2024_chap2.pdf.

Back, M. (2023). Identity work and intercultural awareness through a cultural excavation curriculum: Preservice teachers studying abroad. The New Educator, 19(4), 368–387. https://doi.org/10.1080/1547688X.2023.2287666

Back, M. & Oulbeid, B. (2022). Examining instructional contexts and student beliefs in Arabic teacher recruitment. Second Language Research & Practice, 3(1), 62–80. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/69868

Back, M., Joseph, R., McCormick, A., & Picorelli, H. (2022). Homestay families as a resource for pre-service teachers studying abroad. Teaching and Teacher Education, 119, 103849. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2022.103849

Back, M., Zavala, V., and Franco, R.C. (2022). “Siempre adistanciados:” Ideology, equity, and access in Peruvian emergency distance education for Spanish as a second language. CALICO Journal 39(1), 79–102. https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.19665

Back, M., Gutierrez, A., Golembeski, K., Macko, T., Miller, S., & Pelletier, D (2021). “We were told that the content we delivered was not as important:” Disconnect and disparities in world language student teaching during COVID-19. System, 103, 102679, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2021.102679.

Back, M., Kaufman, D., & Moss, D.M. (2021). Enhancing orientation to cultural difference: The role of reentry work for teacher candidates studying abroad. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 35(2), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2021.1880999.