









































From the Editors 
 

Dr. Alexandra J. Reyes, Associate Professor, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA; email 
areyes@georgiasouthern.edu 

Dr. Eliana Hirano, Professor, Berry College, Mt. Berry, GA; email ehirano@berry.edu 

 
 

Staying the Course through 
Challenging Currents 
 

GATESOL Journal 
2025, Vol. 34(1), pp. 1–2 
doi:10.52242/gatesol.207 

ISSN: 2331-6845 
 

Alexandra J. Reyes 
Georgia Southern University 
 
Eliana Hirano 
Berry College 
 
 
Amid the volatile waves of rapidly shifting expectations, unpredictable policy updates, and ever-
changing circumstances, many educators are struggling to stay afloat. It is from within this context 
that we publish the fall 2025 issue of GATESOL Journal. While the articles featured in this issue 
vary in focus (i.e., supporting teachers of newcomers in rural schools, utilizing closed-model 
artificial intelligence to streamline standards alignment, and refining generative AI prompts to 
scaffold writing), all address the challenge of meeting student and teacher needs, despite changing 
demographics and evolving technologies. Taken as a whole, this journal issue envisions the 
educational horizon as one in which technological tools and human expertise are thoughtfully 
harnessed in service of educational growth and English language development. 
 
Shifting Tides 
In Leckie and Wall’s empirical research article, they detail their work with four rural elementary 
school teachers to identify pragmatic approaches in supporting newcomer English learners. 
Although seasoned professionals, these general education teachers had little or no prior experience 
working with this student population, a situation that is not uncommon in rural schools. 
Compounding the challenges of unfamiliarity, many rural school districts lack the resources and 
supports more often found in their counterparts with established multilingual communities and 
larger numbers of identified ELs. Employing a formative experiment approach, the researchers 
guided the participant teachers through cycles of observation, goal setting, and reflection to modify 
and refine instruction. With mentorship, the teachers were able to use the students’ home 
languages, incorporate visual supports, and foster culturally sustaining learning environments in 
general education settings to propel academic and English language development. 
 
Braiding a Strong Rope 
Shafer Willner’s pedagogical practice piece delineates how educators can utilize a closed artificial 
intelligence system to align content standards, the WIDA ELD Standards Framework, and K-12 
ELA Literacy Foundations standards to streamline the planning process. Rather than resisting 
technological innovation or becoming mired in the minutiae of aligning curricular, literacy, and 
language development standards, the author proposes braiding these standards with the assistance 
of closed AI. Using Georgia as an anchor, Shafer Willner outlines how educators can use the tool 

mailto:areyes@georgiasouthern.edu
mailto:ehirano@berry.edu


2 GATESOL Journal 34(1)  
 

for generating unit goals and lesson objectives that are accurate, relevant, and well-aligned. This 
time-saving strategy efficiently integrates academic content, foundational literacy, and English 
language development goals, potentially freeing up teachers to focus energy on collaborative 
planning and differentiation. 
 
Helming the Craft 
Dos Santos’s teaching technique explores how teachers can guide multilingual learners in crafting 
well-structured prompts to leverage generative AI for writing support. The article describes how 
students in a ninth-grade ELA class employed the Prompt Creation Reference Chart (dos Santos 
et al., 2025) to refine structured prompts to provide scaffolding for a persuasive book review 
assignment. By using the chart to determine the author, purpose, and request, multilingual students 
engineered generative AI prompts that resulted in customized scaffolding. The students then 
revised the prompts to produce a manageable set of steps to steer their writing. Applying the output 
to the writing task allowed learners to build confidence and develop their skills in writing as a 
social practice. Through this example, dos Santos highlights the potential of generative AI to serve 
as a tool for critical engagement and suggests that the structured chart encourages thoughtful 
prompt engineering, thereby fostering the ethical use of artificial intelligence platforms.  
 
Navigating the Currents 
The fall 2025 issue of the GATESOL Journal shines a light on the numerous ways that educators 
can embrace the opportunities that are often overshadowed by uncertainty. While educators may 
feel unmoored by the relentless fluctuations that currently impact our profession, we can take 
inspiration from the educators, learners, community members, and leaders in the field who are 
striving to chart a course to safe harbor. The articles in this issue illuminate inspiring ways for 
those who work with multilingual learners to embody adaptability and resilience in the face of 
changing contexts. Although shifting currents create challenges, they also offer possibilities for us 
to recommit to our mission and set out on new routes. 
 
References 
 
dos Santos, A. E., Boa Sorte, P., & de Oliveira, L. C. (2025). Generative artificial intelligence in 

writing: ChatGPT and critical questioning for multilingual learners. In C. Wang & Z. Tian 
(Eds.), Rethinking writing education in the age of generative AI (pp. 138–154). Routledge. 

 
____________________________________________________________________________ 
 

Published: October 2025 


	GATESOL Journal2025, Vol. 34(1), pp. 1–2
	Staying the Course through Challenging Currents
	doi:10.52242/gatesol.207
	ISSN: 2331-6845

