UWP Writing Center Blog

The University Writing Program is publishing a series of spotlight articles about multilingual students and faculty at DU. These articles are based on interviews that Dr. Kamila Kinyon and a group of multilingual students conducted about interviewees’ lived experiences, including continuing connection to heritage languages, role as writers and teachers at DU, and thoughts about multilingual and multicultural identity.  This project is funded by a Faculty Research Fund Grant awarded to Dr. Kinyon for 2023-25. We welcome this opportunity to celebrate DU’s multilingual community. 

Multilingualism Spotlight: Dr. Rashida Banerjee

By Mina Khadem

We often forget how important our teachers and professors are in shaping our lives and the lives of others. And in a globalized world, where cultures and languages interact, it is becoming increasingly evident that our education system is stagnant and must change. In this way Professor Rashida Banerjee is inspiring and a leader actively advocating to make our education systems better through more empathetic, inclusive, and empirical changes. Doctor Banerjee is a professor at the University of Denver in the Department of Teaching and Learning Sciences, who has dedicated her study to improving early childhood special education, particularly for students that come from linguistically and culturally diverse households. 

Professor Banerjee is originally from Bengal, India (in the eastern part of the country), but her family is from west India, which created a diverse linguistic and cultural environment as she was growing up. She spoke both Bengali and Gujarati at home while also learning four other languages. She explained that in India parents can choose whether they want their children to attend a school taught in English, Bengali, or Hindi. Despite attending an English school, Professor Banerjee consistently spoke in Hindi, Gujarati, and Bengali due to her community, family, and environment; she also studied Bengali, English, and Hindi in school. She explained that due to India’s unique configuration, the country is very multilingual. In addition to family, regional, and state languages, she explained that religion is another important aspect of Indian culture that shapes ones linguistic identity. She can read Arabic since she was raised Muslim and studied the Quran. Furthermore, due to her background she learned Urdu and picked up a few other dialects spoken in India, such as Punjabi. She also shared that she is currently learning Spanish. 

While she grew up speaking multiple languages, she considers Gujarati to be her native language, making English, Bengali, and Hindi more scholastic for her. Arabic was a language tied to her religion, and Urdu and other dialects were social languages. She also shared that while she was growing up, her home was full of multilingual books, magazines, movies, and newspapers which helped to foster her extensive linguistic skills. 

Professor Banerjee initially attended university in Calcutta and graduated with a bachelor's degree in commerce, accountancy, and management. However, she realized that “business wasn’t my cup of tea” and decided to get a post grad diploma in multiple and intellectual disabilities at Jadavpur University. After being awarded a full Ford Foundation fellowship, Professor Banerjee decided to continue her studies in special education in the United States at the University of Kansas, where she completed a master’s and doctoral degree. She explained that it was not until when she came to the US to study that she thought of herself as multicultural or multilingual because everyone was multicultural and multilingual in India. She stated: “I remember when I came to DU and even before that I think increasingly we become more aware of these identities. I came to DU and I received that welcome letter, ‘congratulations you’re here’. And one of the letters I also received was a welcome from the Faculty of Color. And I hadn’t really thought of myself that way.” She explained that she felt confused by this sudden attention to her identities, because she felt that all her hard work and achievements were not connected to her ethnic background. 

She explains that despite her personal experiences and multicultural and multilingual identities—including having married her husband who is religiously, linguistically, and culturally different—she “lived in a space which was multicultural” but “lived it without actually talking about it.” Professor Banerjee explains that she learned more about diversity through a United States lens and was exposed to new identities, which led her to look deeper into herself and others. And despite living in the US and her dominant language becoming English, Professor Banerjee’s world remains colorful with linguistic diversity. She shared that she has made friends and found a community that relies on Bengali and other languages, allowing her to stay connected with politics, culture, and childhood memories from India. 

Professor Banerjee explains that there are many children in the US who have a multicultural and multilingual background like her own whose lives are measured using western developmental concepts and milestones. She explains that this has limited the understanding of professionals, parents, and teachers in supporting children with special needs. Professor Banerjee gives the example of the use of the spoon, explaining that for “a three-year-old, four-year-old child in the United States, a question on an assessment tool could be ‘Can this child eat with a spoon?’” But in India, we don’t eat with a spoon. We use our fingers, which is a fine motor grasp…a more culturally appropriate question to ask would be…can the child feed himself?” In this way, Professor Banerjee works in studying the cultural and linguistic relationships within early childhood special education to help fill in these knowledge gaps. Her work has actively helped families and is helping to create changes in the field of special education that acknowledges cultural and linguistic diversity in a positive manner. She states: “I knew that I always wanted to intervene early, do something where we can really start early and make changes so the child can be on a good path forward…”

Like her research on early childhood special education, Professor Banerjee has been a leader and positive presence in the classroom, particularly in supporting international students, as she was one herself. She explains that because she understands the pressures of being an international student, such as missing home and adapting to a completely new environment, she can better support students. This way she echoes a call for improving general academic and social support and opportunities for international students and those with a multicultural and multilingual background. Additionally, she states that we must continuously promote multilingualism and support cultural diversity especially in schools. 

Professor Banerjee’s diverse and complex background has empowered her research and has strengthened her ability to support students in different ways. Having leaders like Professor Banerjee that value codeswitching, cultural inclusivity, and systemic change creates opportunities for multicultural and multilingual students to thrive in academic settings. Furthermore, her work, specifically in the field of early childhood special education, reminds us how our teachers and professors can show us how to address incomplete understandings within traditional frameworks and how we can support those around us.