Research.

Dr. Coady’s scholarship aims to reduce inequalities and inequities surrounding meaningful access and opportunity for multilingual learners, particularly those in rural communities. She examines place and rurality in the context of quality bilingual education for MLs and their families. She is the recipient of more than $10 million in grant-funded awards from the US Department of Education (Project STELLAR and Project DELTA), the Ford Foundation, the W. T. Grant Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation.

Dr. Coady’s current research studies (2023-27) include:

• The first study to systematically examine rural Dual Language Immersion (rDLI) programs, multilingual learners, and rural community cultural wealth (funded by the Spencer Foundation with J. Koch). Read about our work here.

• A replication mixed-methods research study of the effects of escalated immigration enforcement on education

• Game-based learning and science literacy development for grade 5 multilingual learners (funded by the W. T. Grant Foundation with J. Nietfeld and R. Sperling)

• Teacher candidates’ beliefs on the use of Artificial Intelligence with multilingual learners

Publications.

Books.

• Coady, M. R. (2027). Teaching multilingual learners in rural schools: Four movements for educators. With contributions from C. Rubinstein. Series Editor P. Gorski. Routledge.

• Ariza, E. W., & Coady, M. R. (2026/27). Why TESOL? (6th Edition). Kendall Hunt.

• Coady, M. R., Golombek, P., & Marichal, N. (Eds). (2023). Educating multilingual students in rural schools: Illuminating diversity in rural communities in the United States.Brill.

• Zein, M., & Coady, M. R. (Eds.). (2022). Early language learning policies in the 21st century. Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-76251-3

• Coady, M. R. (2020). The Coral Way bilingual program. Multilingual Matters.

• Coady, M. R. (2019). Connecting school and the multilingual home: Theory and practice for rural educators. Multilingual Matters.

Select recent publications.

• Chorążewska, A., Klinytsky, I., & Coady, M. R. (2026). The standard of protection of language rights of beneficiaries of international protection in Europe: A new legal approach to harmonising integration. Przegląd Prawa Konstytucyjnego (Constitutional Law Review), 233-242. https://czasopisma.marszalek.com.pl/ppk/30/905/15329?lang=pl

• Dean Hughes, M., Coady, M. R., Roberson, J., Estrada, M., & Montesinos Jorro, R. (2026). “I bet I can do that”: Rural cultural wealth in a grow-your-own (GYO) teacher education program. Theory and Practice in Rural Education, 16(1), 92-113.

• Preston S. Lopez, M., Rosario-Pangket, W., & Coady, M. R. (2026). Convergence of teachers’ instruction practices and perspectives on translanguaging with English learners. Journal of Language Learning in Education, 14(1), 89-114. https://iafor.org/archives/journals/iafor-journal-of-education/10.22492.ije.14.1.pdf

• Carrillo Carrasquillo, M. H., Amaya, A., & Coady, M. R. (2025). When monolingual frameworks fail: Border thinking and linguistic identity in rural schools. In E. McHenry-Sorber & S. Hartman (Eds.). Critical Theory in Rural Education: Power, Place, and Justice. Series Editor: A. Azano. Routledge.

• Azano, A., Flowers, J., Coady, M. R., & Biddle, C. (2025). Trends influencing the future of rural education research in the United States. In H. Harmon & J. Johnson (Eds.) Handbook on Rural and Remote Education. Elgar.  

• Coady, M., & Román, D. (2024). Introduction to the special topics issue on rural multilingual education. The Rural Educator, 45(4), i-v. https://doi.org/10.55533/2643-9662.1542

• Coady, M. R., Lewis, B., & Mann, J. (2024). “Send me a picture and I'll tell you what it says”: Language as rural cultural wealth in rural multilingual family engagement. Journal of Education and Multilingualism, 1(2), 190-224. https://jempub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Coady_Et_Al_2024_Send_Me_A.pdf

• Coady, M. R., & Roberson, J. L. (2024). The shifting linguistic landscape on Ocracoke Island. In J. Reaser, W. Wolfram & C. Gaskill (Eds). Language and Life on Ocracoke: The Living History of the Brogue. UNC Press.

• Olszewska, A.,Coady, M. R.,& Yilmaz, T. (2024). Introduction to special topics issue: Refugee Background Students (RBSs). Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.1558/jmtp.28245

• Coady, M. R., Marichal, N. V., & Uysal, H. (2023). Trekking across some rough terrain: Rural teacher education for multilingual students. Peabody Journal of Education, 98(4), 364-379. DOI: 10.1080/0161956X.2023.2238502

• Coady, M. R., Marichal, N., Olszewska, O., & Ankeny, R., Long, A., Shafiei, H., & Chakraborty, R. (2023). “It’s like fuel”: Rural educator professional development for English learners. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 39(1). https://doi.org/10.26209/JRRE3901

• Golombek, P., Olszewska, A., & Coady, M. R. (2022). The humanizing power of counter-stories: Teachers’ understandings of emerging bilinguals in rural settings. Teaching and Teacher Education Journal, (113), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2022.103655

• Coady, M. R., Ankeny, R., & Ankeny, B. (2022). Language as a “right”: Unpacking Castañeda’s reach across federal, state, and district lines. E. García & O. Jiménez Castellanos (Eds.). Special issue on the 40th anniversary of Castañeda v. Pickard. Language Policy, 21, 305-329.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-021-09604-1

• Coady, M. R. (2020). A review of rural English learner education: Call for a focused national research agenda. Educational Researcher, 49(7), 524-532. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20931505

• Coady, M. R., Miller, D., Zeyjun, J., Heffington, D. V., Lopez, M. P. S., Olszewska, A., de Jong, E. J., Yilmaz, T., & Ankeny, R. (2020). Can effective teaching be observed?: Validation of an EL-modified Framework for Teaching observation protocol. TESOL Quarterly, 54(1), 173-200. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.544