Language and Literacy Education

Elba Barahona

Elba Barahona, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Teacher Education and Administration. She joined the faculty at the University of North Texas in the Fall of 2016. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in bilingual and English as a second language.

Barahona earned her B.A. in Economics from the Central University of Ecuador, an M.A. in Teaching and an M.B.A. from Louisiana Tech University. Her prior experience includes work as a bilingual teacher at the Dallas Independent School District.

Barahona’s research interest includes bilingual education, curriculum and assessment for English learners, and instructional strategies in classrooms and schools that serve culturally linguistically diverse students. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, with specialization in Bilingual/ESL Education, from Texas A&M University at College Station.

Brittany Frieson

Brittany Frieson, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Education and Administration at the University of North Texas, where she will begin in the fall of 2019. She earned her doctorate degree in 2019 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Language & Literacy. Her research focuses on African American Language speakers in dual-language Spanish/english bilingual programs and how multilingual students utilize minoritized languages as a form of resistance towards dichotomous languaging rules in the classroom. As an educator, her mission is to cultivate critically conscious educators who rewrite the narrative on how minoritized languages can be a language of power in the language arts classroom, as well as unveil how institutions of schooling often operate to reinforce historical linguistic oppression among Students of Color. At UNT, she teaches literacy and elementary education courses in the undergraduate program. Prior to her arrival at UNT, she was a teacher in North Carolina at both the elementary and middle school levels.

Jeannette Ginther

Dr. Jeannette Ginther is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Teacher Education and Administration. She earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership from Dallas Baptist University in 2017, her masters in Literacy Education from the State University of New York at Cortland in 2002, and her bachelors in Elementary Education from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 1999. Dr. Ginther happily began her career as a middle school English Language Arts and Social Studies teacher in New York. After a decade of classroom teaching in both New York and Texas, she served as a reading instructional specialist, student achievement specialist, professional learning coordinator, educational consultant, field supervisor for student teachers, and an adjunct instructor before joining the faculty at UNT in 2017. Dr. Ginther was the 2019 recipient of the UNT Student Government Association's 'Fessor Graham Award for Outstanding Service to Students, as well as the June 2019 UNT Teaching Excellence Spotlight Award. Dr. Ginther also enjoys her role as a Faculty Co-Advisor for Kappa Delta Pi, UNT's Education Honor Society.

Ricardo González-Carriedo

Ricardo González-Carriedo’s research interests include bilingual teacher preparation, the internationalization of teacher education programs, literacy development among second language learners, and the representation of Latino students in the media. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of León in Spain and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from Arizona State University. Prior to his service at UNT, he worked at the University of Paris, France, for two years and was a secondary teacher in North Carolina and Arizona for 11 years.

Angela Randall

Angela M. Randall earned her Ph.D. in Reading Education at Auburn University. Dr. Randall's research interests include teachers' and students' knowledge of current high-quality children's books and the influence of teachers' attitudes toward reading on their students' attitudes. She has a profound love for children's books and is enthusiastic about exposing her students to the wonderful children's books available. Her elementary teaching experience includes teaching in grades 1 through 3 in Virginia, Texas, and Belgium.