Heather Reichmuth, PhD

Assistant Professor of Teacher Education
Photo of Heather Reichmuth
207-780-5534

Bailey Hall, room 301, Gorham campus

Education

  • PhD  Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education; Michigan State University 
  • MAT, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL); University of Southern California
  • BA, Literature, Purchase College, State University of New York

Research Interests

My research interests center on multilingual learners and their families. I am interested in how parents support their children’s multilingualism in the home to help teachers better understand how to support multilingual learners in the classroom.  I am also interested in global perspectives of education and how we can apply a global mindset to our classes here in the U.S. to create a more supportive environment for our culturally and linguistically diverse students while also creating globally minded citizens in all learners.

Teacher Education School of Education and Human Development Center for Teaching and Innovation

Prior to earning my PhD at Michigan State University I taught English for 15 years in South Korea. Although I primarily taught high school and university age students, I had the opportunity to teach students from pre-school through middle school as well. Being in an international setting, I was also fortunate to teach students from all over the world. I taught students from countries such as Angola, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, France, China, and Uzbekistan to name a few.

Expertise

Multilingual Language Learners, Multilingual Families (Family Language Policy), Bi/literacy, Pre-service Teachers, Global Perspectives of Education.

Selected Publications

Book chapters
  • Reichmuth, H.L. & Cárdenas, L.C. (2025). Transmodal Family Literacies: Familial Cariño Practices Sustaining Children’s Bilingualism and Biliteracy Development.
  • In Edwards, P.A., Compton-Lilly, C., & Li, G. (Eds.), International handbook of literacies in families and communities. Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Cárdenas, L.C., & Reichmuth, H.L. (2025). Bilingual Literary Calaveras: Mediating Poetry Writing for Elementary Bilingual Learners through Transmodal Practices.
  • In Gort, M., Zapata, A., Seltzer, K., & Gomez, M. (Eds.), Translanguaging Perspectives on Writing Development and Pedagogy: Learning from Findings Across Contexts
  • Edwards, P.A., Peltier, M. R., Sweeney, J., Reichmuth, H.L., White, K., Castle, A., & Rice, D. (2025). "I didn't learn anything about families: In-service teachers' reflections and recommendations about teacher preparation experiences.
  • In Edwards, P.A., Compton-Lilly, C., & Li, G. (Eds.), International handbook of literacies in families and communities. Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Gordon, R.R., Reichmuth, H.L., Her, L., & De Costa, P.I. (2021). Thinking beyond "languaging" in translanguaging pedagogies: Exploring ways to combat white fragility in an undergraduate language methodology course.
  • In U. Lanvers, A.S. Thomson, & M. East (Eds.) Language Learning in Anglophone countries: Challenges, practices, solutions. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Practitioner-focused journals
  • Hollibush, M. & Reichmuth, H.L. (2023). Supporting new educators’ well-being beyond the teacher education program: New teacher needs and perceived support. Journal of Maine Education.
Public scholarship
  • Reichmuth, H. L. & Kim, T. (2024, April). Imagining Educational Change through Cross-cultural Perspectives on Learning. Lead the change series: Q & A with AERA 2024 Presenters: (Re)Conceptualization Change at Scale: New Visions. Issue No. 160.
Reports 
Photo of Heather Reichmuth
207-780-5534

Bailey Hall, room 301, Gorham campus

Education

  • PhD  Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education; Michigan State University 
  • MAT, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL); University of Southern California
  • BA, Literature, Purchase College, State University of New York

Research Interests

My research interests center on multilingual learners and their families. I am interested in how parents support their children’s multilingualism in the home to help teachers better understand how to support multilingual learners in the classroom.  I am also interested in global perspectives of education and how we can apply a global mindset to our classes here in the U.S. to create a more supportive environment for our culturally and linguistically diverse students while also creating globally minded citizens in all learners.