About us

Naomi Flynn, PhD is Professor of Multilingual Education at The University of Reading’s Institute of Education. She has worked in partnership with Professor Annela Teemant of Indiana University School of Education, Indianapolis, since 2018; notably on a Fulbright Visiting Scholarship, studying the impact of The Enduring Principles of Learning in elementary schools in Indiana in 2021. Moreover, her partnership since 2017 with Professor Kara Mitchel Viesca of University of Nebraska, Lincoln has involved exploring how successful multilingual schools demonstrate positive orientations to diversity. Naomi’s work with Talk-Rich Teaching is represented on this website through three separate projects, but they should be read as inter-dependent.

Annela Teemant, PhD, is Professor of Second/Foreign Language Teacher Education at Indiana University Indianapolis. Using critical sociocultural theories and pedagogy, she is actively engaged in developing, implementing, and researching high-quality teacher preparation for teachers of multilingual learners, drawing on the Enduring Principles of Learning. She has been awarded six U.S. Department of Education grants focused on teacher quality ($14 million). Her current federal funding focuses on how school leadership teams can scale up pedagogical innovation using the Enduring Principles of Learning and reciprocal family, community, and school engagement in pursuit of equity.

Suzanne Graham PhD,  is Professor of Language and Education at the Institute of Education, University of Reading.  She has led a number of large research projects in the field of second language education, exploring teaching and learning in a range of different contexts including primary school education.  She has published widely in the area of language comprehension, with a particular focus on self-regulation. Formerly a teacher of French and German in secondary schools, she has been a teacher educator at the University of Reading since 2000, where she led the Modern Foreign Languages Initial Teacher Education course for 20 years. In the Talk Rich Teaching project Suzanne’s expertise was supporting the development, implementation and analysis of the pupil tests.

Aniqa Leena, PhD is a qualified primary teacher and with a PhD in Education, both completed at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education. The Talk-Rich Teaching Project was the vehicle for her PhD research which was funded by a prestigious ESRC-SeNSS collaborative studentship award. Aniqa developed the teacher-friendly tests which examined the impact of the Enduring Principles of Learning on pupils’ language and literacy development. Before joining the Talk Rich Teaching project, Aniqa taught upper Key Stage 2 pupils at one of the largest, linguistically diverse primary schools in Reading, and completed her Master’s in Education at the University of Oxford

Kara Mitchell Viesca PhD, is a Professor of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her scholarship focuses on advancing equity and racial justice in the policy and practice of educator development, particularly for teachers of multilingual learners. Dr. Viesca is currently engaged in international, national, and local research collaborations to support teachers in developing classroom communities, curricula, and pedagogies where diversity is positively productive, and self-actualization can occur in reciprocity (and with accountability). Her co-authored book with Dr. Nancy Commins, Humanizing Pedagogies with Multilingual Learners: Transforming Teaching in the Content Areas, published by Routledge, is available starting in August 2025

Mount Pleasant Schools are a federated infant and  junior school in Southampton with 95% multilingual learners and both graded OFSTED Outstanding. They have worked in partnership with Naomi Flynn since 2018, and more recently with US academics Kara Mitchell Viesca and Annela Teemant. Embracing the Enduring Principles of Learning, these schools have developed intentionally dialogic approaches to teaching alongside a culturally sustaining curriculum.  These Rights Respecting schools’ ethos is centred on enhancing children’s pastoral and academic wellbeing through oracy education which promotes genuine pupil voice. You can read about Mount Pleasant’s work with Naomi and her US colleagues in the project page entitled Oracy for Multilingual Learners: School case study.

Hampshire’s Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS)  is a local authority team of expert teachers who support over 600 schools with their multilingual pupils’ social, teaching and assessment needs. They have collaborated with Naomi for nearly twenty years, most recently in co-designing the online professional learning resource for teachers called The Talk-Rich Teaching Toolkit.  Committed to removing barriers and inequalities for minoritised learners they are a Rights Respecting service.