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College of Education and Human Development - George Mason University
Contact Information

Send email to Dr. Ramos

Phone: (703) 993-6213
Fax: (703) 993-9380
Email: kramos8 (@gmu.edu)

George Mason University
Fairfax Campus
Thompson Hall 2604
4400 University Dr.
MS IE8
Fairfax, VA 22030

Profile

Dr. Ramos is an Associate Professor in the College of Education and Human Development, School of Education. She is a Univeristy Teacher for the graduate degrees and certificates in Teaching Culturally, Linguistically Diverse and Exceptional Learners (TCLDEL). Dr. Ramos has served as Academic Program Co-Coordinator and Academic Program Coordinator for TCLDEL.

Currently, Dr. Ramos is a Co-PI on several research projects, including a National Professional Development project funded by the U.S. Department of Education and Office of English Language Acquisition  (OELA) titled Advancing Content-Integrated Education for English Learners with a STEM Focus (ACE-STEM) and a Spencer Foundation funded project titled Transmodalising with Technology in  Science (TTS). She is also Co-PI on a project funded by the Longview Foundation titled Teaching for Anti-Racism and Global Competence (see Research Interests section). 

Dr. Ramos is an experienced educator who has been working closely with culturally and linguistically diverse multilingual learners and their families since 1992. She began her teaching career in Pittsburgh Public Schools were she taught Spanish in grades 6-8 for 11 years and ESOL in grades 9-12 for 9 years. She also served as an Instructional Team Leader, a Clinical Resident Instructor, and a K-12 ESL Curriculum Coach.

Dr. Ramos earned a PhD in Language, Literacy, and Culture from the University of Pittsburgh in 2012 and also holds an M.A. in Foreign Language Teaching earned at Pitt. She began her work as a teacher educator in Pennsylvania. Dr. Ramos joined Mason's School of Education in August 2016. As a teacher educator and scholar, she is dedicated to supporting preservice and in-service teachers locally, nationally, and globally to strengthen their capacity to serve culturally and linguistically diverse students and their families with excellence and equity. 

One of her proudest moments as a teacher educator came in Spring 2021 when Dr. Ramos was awarded a university-wide Teaching Excellence Award!

In 2018-2019, Dr. Ramos was selected to be one of seven national Global Teacher Education (GTE) Fellows (sponsored by Longview Foundation). As a GTE Fellow, Dr. Ramos participated in webinars and dialogue with leading scholars in globalizing teacher education and worked closely with a mentor in global education research to internationalize an existing teacher education course to include global learning outcomes, content, assessment, and technology. Dr. Ramos piloted the revised globalized course with graduate students in fall 2018 and spring 2019 and collaborated with other GTE Fellows to share this work at AACTE in Atlanta in February 2020. She remains dedicated to internationalizing the curriculum in teacher education and to supporting educators in enhanching their intercultural and global competence in order to invite their own learners to engage as thoughtful global citizens who are prepared for life and work in a complex, interconnected world. 

In spring 2018, Dr. Ramos and a colleague in Elementary Science Education, Dr. Andrew Gilbert, received a Global Discovery grant from Mason's Global Education Office to travel with graduate students in two CEHD teacher education courses to Tres Rios, Costa Rica in December 2018 to design and implement an inquiry-based science and language learning enrichment program to K-8 bilingual learners at Saint Gregory school. 

In spring 2017, Dr. Ramos was selected as an Open GATE Faculty Fellow via Mason's Center for International Education (CIE). She traveled to Oslo, Norway in October 2017 to collaborate with Dr. Kristin Skinstad van der Kooij, associate professor in critical mulitucultral education, at the CIE's partner university, Oslo and Akershus University College (now OsloMet), on research around internationalizing teacher education. In October 2018, Dr. Skinstad traveled to Mason to continue the collaboration, and she and Dr. Ramos shared their work at the Washington Area Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (WATESOL) conference. Drs. Skinstad and Ramos also presented their work at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Hamburg, Germany, in September 2019.

Research Interests

Dr. Ramos is interested in researching theoretically-informed practices in teacher education that hold promise for building educators' capacity to enhance equity and excellence in teaching and learning with multilingual learners across the lifespan. In particular, she focuses on investigating promising pedagogies for builiding literacy/language development and conceptual learning in disciplinary areas in tandem. As such, she aims to contribute to research about content-language integrated approaches, disciplinary and critical lilteracy approaches, multiliteracies approaches, and translanguaging pedagogies that value bi-multilingualism and biliteracy, inviting multilingual learners to draw on their full linguistic repertoire to use languages in action as meaning-making tools to learn, communicate, and create knowledge. Dr. Ramos has contributed to scholarship around genre pedagogy, as informed by systemic functional linguistics and sociocultural theories with publications in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy and the Journal of Education

Current research projects included content-language integratedinstruction, multimodal approaches to science instruction, and using children's and adolescent literature to foster anti-racism and global competence education. Dr. Ramos has published research with two doctoral students in the Journal of Research in Childhood Education (JRCE) about how teacher educators can integrate a focus on teaching for global competence in their coursework.

Dr. Ramos has presented at international, national, state, and local conferences including TESOL, CIES, ECER, ACTFL, CARLA, AACTE, and NABE as well as VACTE, VATESOL, and WATESOL.

Current Research Projects:

S. Kim (Co-PI)K. Ramos (Co-PI), & J. Kang Shin (Co-PI) (awarded Fall 2021). Sponsoring Organization: U.S. Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA). This project is a National Professional Development grant project. Advancing Content-Integrated Education for Englilsh Learners with a STEM Focus (ACE-STEM) will be carried out over a five-year period with a school district partner, Prince William County Public Schools.

S. Kim (Co-PI) K. Ramos (Co-PI)Transmodalising with Technology in Science (TTS) (awarded December 2021). Sponsoring Organization: Spencer Foundation. A two-year project in collaboration with upper elementary science and ESOL teachers from Prince William County Public Schools that aims to enhance teacher capacity to plan and deliver a technology-integrated transmodalising pedagogy and to examine how digital infographics can facilitate new ways of learning STEM disciplinary content and language in science classrooms with multilingual learners.

Mattix Foster, A., Ramos, K., Rich, S., & Eisenberg, R. (2022). Teaching for Anti-Racism and Global Competence supported by the Longview Foundation. Awarded $24,979/1 year (Co-Principal Investigator). 

Mattix Foster, A., Ramos, K., Shin, J., Hall Haley, M., Kim, S., Valdéz Pierce, L., & Shaklee, B. (2022-2023). Real-World Video-Based Scenarios to Enhance Teacher Preparation. CEHD Academic Program Innovation Grant. Awarded $9,750.

S. Kim (Co-PI) & K. Ramos (Co-PI). Multiliteracies in Motion in Science (MMS) (awarded Spring 2020). Sponsoring Organization: George Mason University, College of Education and Human Development. A qualitative case study investigating the way that science teachers of upper elementary English learners (ELs) can be supported to recognize the centrality of multiple modalities in PreK-12 STEM instruction through integrating mulitliteracies experiences into instructional design.

S. Kim (PI) and K. Ramos, (Co-PI). Perceptions and Practices of English Education among Korean Teachers of English in K-12 Schools (Spring 2020). Mixed methods case study to investigate perceptions and practices of secondary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in South Korea.

K. Ramos (PI). Teaching for Global Competence. (Fall 2018-Spring 2020). Action research study investigating preservice and current teachers' knowledge, disposition, and skills for teaching for global competence (TfGC).

A. Hutchison (PI), J. Shin, K. Ramos, R. Dovi, C. Dovi.  Coding to Learn:  Enabling Primary Students to Experience a New Approach to English Learning (C2L).  Education Bureau, Native-Speaking English Teacher Section, Curriculum Development Institute, The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, The People’s Republic of China. June 2018 – January 2020. 

Recent Publications

Mattix Foster, A., Ramos, K., Eisenberg, R, & Rich, S. (in press). Through the pages of a book: Teaching for anti-racism and global competence with children’s and adolescent literature. Reading in Virginia.

Holmarsdottir, H. B., Baily, S., Skårås, M., Ramos, K., Ege, A., Heggernes, S. L., & Carsillo, T. (2023). Exploring the power of internationalization in teacher education. Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE)7(1). https://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.5233

Shirley, J., & Ramos, K. (2022). Integrating translanguaging pedagogy into teaching practice. In The Definite Article (WATESOL Newsletter), Summer 2022, 18-20. https://watesol.org/resources/Documents/The%20Definite%20Article%20Summer%202022.pdf 

Ramos, K., Wolf, E. & Hauber-Özer, M. (2021). Teaching for global competence: A responsibility of teacher educators. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 35(2), 311-330. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02568543.2021.1880998 

Gilbert, A., & Ramos, K. (2021). “We learned together:” Amplifying the impact of international experience for pre-service teachers through cross program collaboration. In L. Baecher (Ed.), Study abroad for pre- and in-service teachers: Transformative learning on a global scale (pp. 181-196). Routledge.

Kim, S., Ramos, K. A., Chung, H., & Choi, S. (2020). Integrating Critical Multiliteracies Pedagogy in ESL/EFL Teaching. Journal of English Learner Education. (11)1. 54-82.  https://stars.library.ucf.edu/jele/vol11/iss1/4/

Hauber-Özer, M. & Ramos, K. (2020). Preparing teachers to work with refugee children through action research. In N. Pettitt, R. Farrelly, & A. Elson (Eds.) Bridging theory and

practice (pp. 43-61). LESLLA.

Ramos, K. A. (2019).  A genre-based approach to teaching argument writing. In L. C. de Oliveira, K. Obenchain, R. Kenney, & A. Oliveira (Eds.), Approaches to teaching the content areas to English language learners in secondary schools. Springer.

Ramos, K. A. (2018).  Preparing teachers for English learners in rural settingsIn J. Sharkey & M. M. Peercy (Eds.), Self-study of language and literacy teacher education practices across culturally and linguistically diverse contexts. Emerald Press.

Ramos, K.A., & Mattix Foster, A.A. (2017). Bridging the gap: Building teachers’ capacity for developing language, literacy, and content learning.  International Schools Journal, XXXVII(1), 58-66.

Ramos, K.A. (2017). Tackling a tough task: Teaching today's teachers to teach English learners. International Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, 29(3), 471-489.

Mattix Foster, A.A. & Ramos, K. (2017). Advocating for English learners. Association for Childhood Education International, Early Years Bulletin, 4(4), 5-7. http://www.acei.org/early-years-bulletin-1/

Ramos, K.A. & Mattix Foster, A. A. (2016). Connecting home and school for English language learners. Association for Childhood Education International, Early Years Bulletin,4(2), 11-12.  http://www.acei.org/early-years-bulletin-1

Ramos, K.A. (2015). Using genre pedagogy to teach adolescent English learners to writeacademic persuasive essays. Journal of Education, 195(2), 19-35. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002205741519500205

Ramos, K. A. (2014).  Teaching adolescent ELs to write academic-style persuasive essays. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(8), 655-665. https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jaal.303

Other Information

PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS

Refereed

Ramos, K., & Zhao, M. (June, 2023). Content-Language Integration: Beyond Academic Vocabulary. Workshop presented at ACE-STEM Summer Institute 2023, Manassas, VA.

Kim, S., Ramos, K., Graville, C., Chen, X., and Langston, E. (May, 2023). Transmodalising with Technology in Science (TTS). Virtual workshop presented for spring webinar series of Washington Area Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (WATESOL).

Tinsely, R., & Ramos, K. (March, 2023). Empowering Adolescent Emerging Bilinguals as Disciplinary Participators through Translanguaging Practices. Session presented at the annual meeting of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Portland, OR.

Hauber-Özer, M., Ramos, K., & Wolf, E. (March, 2023). Teaching for Global Competence: A Responsibility of Teacher Educators. Session presented at the annual meeting of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Portland, OR.

Shin, J.K., Ramos, K., & Kim, W. (March, 2023). Innovations in Teacher Education to Foster Equity for Multilingual Learners. Session presented at the annual meeting of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Portland, OR.

Mattix Foster, A., & Ramos, K. (January, 2023). Teaching for Anti-Racism and Global Competence. Session presented at the annual meeting of The Hawaii International Conference on Education (HICE), Honolulu, HI.

Mattix Foster, A., & Ramos, K. (January, 2023). Developing Anti-Racist Approaches in Teacher Education. Roundtable discussion presented at the annual meeting of The Hawaii International Conference on Education (HICE), Honolulu, HI.

Mattix Foster, A., Ramos, K., Eisenberg, R., & Rich, S. (November 2022). Through the Pages of a Book: Teaching for Anti-Racism and Global Competence with Children’s and Adolescent Literature. Virtual session presented at the annual Globally Responsive Education and Teaching (GREAT) conference. https://international.missouristate.edu/Great_2022_Sess1.htm

LePelch, V., & Ramos, K. (October, 2022). Online Instructors Critical Reflection Practices that Promote Equity for Multilingual Learners. Session presented at the annual meeting of Southeast Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (SETESOL), Richmond, VA.

Mattix Foster, A., & Ramos, K. (October, 2022). Teaching for Anti-Racism & Global Competence Using Children’s Literature. Session presented at the annual meeting of Southeast Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (SETESOL), Richmond, VA.

Tinsely, R., & Ramos, K. (October, 2022). Disciplinary Literacy in Action: Empowering Adolescent Emerging Bilinguals as Disciplinary Experts. Session presented at the annual meeting of Southeast Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (SETESOL), Richmond, VA.

Shirely, J., & Ramos, K. (October, 2022). Integrating Translanguaging Pedagogy into Our Teaching Practice. Session presented at the annual meeting of Southeast Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (SETESOL), Richmond, VA.

Shin, J., Vinogradova, P., & Ramos, K. (October, 2022). Fostering Equity for Multilingual and Multicultural Learners in TESOL Settings. Session presented at the annual meeting of Southeast Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (SETESOL), Richmond, VA.

Ramos, K., Shin, J., & Kim, S. (May, 2022). Implementing a Multiliteracies Pedagogy with PK-12 Multilingual Learners. Virtual workshop presented for spring webinar series of Washington Area Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (WATESOL).

Ramos, K., & Shin, J. (March, 2022). Integrating Multiliteracies Pedagogy in Online Teacher Education Courses in TESOL. Session presented at the annual meeting of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Pittsburgh, PA.

Ramos, K., Wolf E.J., Hauber-Özer, M. (March, 2022). Teaching for Global Competence with Global Thinking Routines. Workshop presented at the annual meeting of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Pittsburgh, PA.

Kim, S., Ramos, K., Chung, H., and Choi, S. (March, 2022). Integrating Critical Multiliteracies Pedagogy in ESL/EFL Teaching. Virtual session presented at the annual meeting of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Pittsburgh, PA.

Ramos, K., & Mattix Foster, A. (November, 2021). Imagining ways that education for global competence can be an anti-racist approach in teacher education. Virtual workshop presented at the annual meeting of Virginia Association of College Teacher Educators (VACTE).

Mattix Foster, A., & Ramos, K. (November, 2021). Building bridges: Using children’s and adolescent literature to understand sociocultural identities and strengthen cultural pluralism. Virtual workshop presented at the annual meeting of Virginia Association of College Teacher Educators (VACTE).
 
Shirley, J., & Ramos, K. (October, 2021). Integrating translanguaging pedagogy into our teaching practice! Workshop presented at the fall virtual meeting of the Washington Area Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (WATESOL), Washington, DC.
 
Ramos, K., Kim, S., & Kang Shin, J. (September, 2021). Integrating multiliteracies pedagogy in online teacher education courses in TESOL. Virtual workshop presented at the annual meeting of Virginia Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (VATESOL).
 
Kim, S., Ramos, K., Chung, H., & Choi, S. (September, 2021). Enacting critical multiliteracies pedagogy with multilingual learners in ESL/EFL classroom. Virtual workshop presented at the annual meeting of Virginia Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (VATESOL).

Kim, S., Ramos, K., Chung, H., & Choi, S. (2020, October). Developing critical and multiliteracies pedagogy in ESOL/EFL/EAL contexts. Workshop presented at the fall virtual meeting of the Washington Area Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (WATESOL), Washington, DC.

Ramos, K., Hauerwas, L., Schneider, S., Gustafson, G., Tanghe, S., & Guler, N. (2020, February).  Our case stories around globalizing teacher education:  What?  Why?  How? Annual meeting of American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) in Atlanta, GA. 

Ramos, K. (2019, September).  Reading the world of refugees to teach for global competence.  Workshop present at the annual meeting of Virgina Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (VATESOL), Charlottesvile, VA.

Ramos, K., & van der Kooij Skinstad, K. (2019, September).  Internationalizing the curriculum in teacher education to foster global competence and social justice.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Hamburg, Germany.

Ramos, K. (2019, April). A teacher educator’s effort to approach the critical work of integrating teaching for global competence in a teacher education course.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of Comparative International Education Society (CIES), San Francisco, CA.

Ramos, K., & van der Kooij Skinstad, K. (2018, October). Building global competence in PK-12 classrooms through global thinking routines. Workshop presented at the fall meeting of the Washington Area Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (WATESOL), Washington, DC.

Ramos, K. (2018, September). Practical strategies for globalizing the classroom:  Why it matters and how to get started. Workshop presented at Tri-Association 37th Annual Educators’ Conference, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Ramos, K., & Liu, Y. (April, 2018).  Engaging young adult EFL/ESL learners in meaning-making tasks.  Workshop presented at the annual meeting of the Conference onLanguage, Learning, and Culture (CLLC), Fairfax, VA.

Ramos, K. (March, 2018).  Strengthening the academic language and literacy practices of adolescent English learners from the global south in the global north.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of Comparative International Education Society (CIES), Mexico City, Mexico.

Ramos, K., & Wolf, E. (2017, October).  Using an online collaboration tool to engage adolescent ELLs in meaningful peer-to-peer feedback.  Workshop presented at the fall meeting of the Washington Area Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (WATESOL), Washington, DC.

Ramos, K. (2017, April).  Developing teachers’ understanding of pedagogical language knowledge and disciplinary literacy practices.  Workshop presented at the annual meeting of the Conference on Language, Learning, and Culture (CLLC), Fairfax, VA.

Mattix Foster, A. A. & Ramos, K. (2017, March).  Preparing teachers to advocate for equity for PK-12 English learners at home and abroad.  Workshop presented at the annual meeting of the Virginia Association of College Teachers and Educators (VACTE), Williamsburg, VA.

Ramos, K. (2017, March).  Teaching pre-service teachers to teach ELs in monolingual and monocultural areas: Thinking outside the box.  Workshop presented at the annual meeting of the Virginia Association of College Teachers and Educators (VACTE), Williamsburg, VA.

Ramos, K. & Zhang, Y. (2016, April). Traversing borders:  Building bridges to disciplinary literacy practices through genre pedagogy.  Workshop presented at the annual meeting of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Baltimore, MD.

Ramos, K. (2015, March). Teaching adolescent ELs to write academic-style persuasive essays.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Toronto, Canada.

Ramos, K. (2015, March). Teaching adolescent English learners to write academic-style persuasive essays. Paper presented at the annual meeting of National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE), Las Vegas, NV.  

Ramos, K. (2014, October). Making it real:  Creating campus connections between pre-service teachers and their ESL peers.  Workshop presented at the fall meeting of Pennsylvania Council of Teacher Education (PAC-TE), Harrisburg, PA.

Ramos, K. & Aguilar-Francis, S. (2013, November). Employing a genre-based approach to teaching adolescent English language learners to write persuasive argument essays.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), Orlando, FL.

Ramos, K. (2013, May). Employing a genre-based approach to teaching adolescent English language learners to write persuasive argument essays.  Workshop presented at the annual meeting of the New Jersey Writing Alliance, Edison, NJ.

Ramos, K. (2011, May). Pre-service and in-service teachers' attitudes and beliefs regarding language-based pedagogy.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA), Minneapolis, MN.

Invited

Ramos, K. (March, 2020). Panel Discussion for Recently Promoted Faculty. Panel participant for Professional Development Committee, College of Education and Human Development, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

Ramos, K. (October, 2019). Teaching philosophy in the U.S. and Innovative Teaching Methods. Presentation for principal and educator delegation from Zhengzhou Province, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

Ramos, K. (2019, January). Introduction of teaching philosophy and curriculum design in the U.S. Presentation for Shaanxi Province K-12 educators, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

Ramos, K. (2018, April).  Transforming teaching and learning for English learners. Presentations for Greater Washington Reading Council (GWRC), Arlington, VA and Loudoun, VA.

Ramos, K. (2018, February).  Integrating global perspectives in language teaching & learning.  Workshop presented to TEA International Educators, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

Ramos, K. (2017, October). Best practices in reading instruction for adolescent ELs from diverse cultural and linguistic background.  Presentation for International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), Herndon, VA.

Ramos, K. (2017, March). Preparing pre-service teachers to teach English learners in monolingual and mono-cultural areas:  A self-study.  Presentation for Center for International Education Open GATE collaboration between George Mason University and Oslo and Akershus University College, Fairfax, VA.   

Ramos, K. (2017, February).  How do U.S. K-12 Schools promote and improve educational quality.  Workshop presented for Changping Teachers Program, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

Ramos, K. (2017, February).  Using technology to enhance instruction for diverse learners.  Workshop presented for Changping Teachers Program, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.