Rate My Professor Ryan Pontier

Ryan W. Pontier is Associate Department Chair and Associate Professor of bilingual education and TESOL in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Florida International University’s College of Arts, Sciences, and Education. He earned a Ph.D. in Language and Literacy Learning in Multilingual Settings (2014) and an M.S.Ed. in Reading Education (2012), both from the University of Miami, School of Education and Human Development, and a B.A. in Hispanic Studies from Boston College (2004). A former second and third grade dual language teacher in Florida and Texas, Pontier began his education career with Teach For America, teaching third grade in Spanish at a dual-language elementary school in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley. He served as Associate Site Director and Dean of Students at Breakthrough Miami (2007-2009), Teaching Assistant in Bilingual Education and TESOL at the University of Miami (2009-2013), Instructor in TESOL at Miami Dade College (2013-2017), Visiting Assistant Professor at FIU (2018-2020), and Assistant Professor before promotion to Associate Professor at FIU since 2020.

Pontier’s research specializations include teachers’ instructional practices supporting multilingual students, teachers’ language ideologies, translanguaging, emergent bilingualism, and teacher education. His work has been published in TESOL Quarterly, Bilingual Research Journal, Language and Education, International Multilingual Research Journal, and Journal of Culture and Values in Education, among others. Key publications are “Latina Teachers' Enactment of Counter-Hegemonic Worlds of Language and Bilingual Education in Miami Early Childhood Education Settings” (2026, TESOL Quarterly), “TESOL Teachers' Writing to Support Developing Understandings of Translanguaging Theory and Praxis in Neoliberal Times” (2023, TESOL Quarterly), “Coordinated Translanguaging Pedagogy as Distributed Cognition: A Case Study of Two Dual Language Bilingual Education Preschool Coteachers’ Languaging Practices During Shared Book Readings” (2016, International Multilingual Research Journal), and “Exploring Bilingual Pedagogies in Dual Language Early Childhood Classrooms” (2013, Language and Education). Pontier has received major awards including the 2020 CASE Faculty Award and 2016–2017 Miami Fellow, Class IX. He secured grants such as a $50,000 Spencer Foundation Conference Grant (2019) for the Conference on Emerging Hispanic-Serving School Districts. His influence is evident in leadership roles: Past President of the Florida Association for Bilingual Education, past co-chair of the National Association for Bilingual Education Research and Evaluation Special Interest Group, Chair of the League of United Latin American Citizens Florida’s Government & Media Relations Committee, Past Chair of LULAC Florida’s Early Childhood Bilingual Education Council, and Member of AERA’s Bilingual Education Research SIG Advocacy Working Group.