Applied Linguistics, Language education, TESOL, Teacher education, Transnational educator experiences, critical, humanizing, culturally sustaining pedagogies, online learning,.

Astrid Sierra is a transnational teacher educator and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Teaching, Learning, Policy, and Leadership at the University of ÀË»¨Ö±²¥, specializing in Applied Linguistics. Before joining the program, she worked as a bilingual and ESOL hybrid instructor, as well as a teacher educator, in both K-12 and higher education settings. Her research broadly focuses on the language and education of marginalized communities. Drawing from critical, humanizing, and culturally sustaining pedagogies, Astrid explores issues related to teacher preparation and professional development to better support bilingual and ESOL teachers. She is particularly dedicated to promoting social justice and equitable education through collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches.

Astrid has been involved in various projects that engage multilingual families and foster early literacy development. Her work includes collaboration with mentors and professors on National Science Foundation (NSF) and Spencer-funded projects, where she has supported mathematics, literacy, and parent engagement initiatives, as well as the development of bilingual educators in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) schools. 

  1. Social Justice and Equity Award. 2024 Transdisciplinary Approaches to Language & Literacy in Educational Research (TALLER) Graduate Student Conference
  2. Graduate Scholarship Award. College of Education 

  3. Dissertation Funding Award. Multilingual Research Center

     

Mahalingappa, L., Crawford, J. B., & Sierra, A. (2024). Linguistically Responsive Instruction and Ideologies in Preservice Teacher 

      Preparation. In The Routledge Handbook of Language and Mind Engineering (pp. 431-445). Routledge. DOI:10.4324/9781003289746- 

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Sierra, A; Martin-Beltran, M., Gutierrez, S; Cataneo, A. (2024) Dual Language Bilingual Education Leaders as Learners, Anchors, and 

       Advocates. Bilingual Education Research Newsletter (pp.17-19) 

Martin-Beltran, M., Sierra, A; Cataneo, A. (2024). Exploring Diverse Educators’ Language Ideologies: ÀË»¨Ö±²¥ Lived Experiences Shape 

      Understandings of Bilingual Education Goals. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 

Martin-Beltran, M., Cataneo, A. Sierra, A (in press). The Challenges and Potential for Collaboration and Communities of Practice 

       Among Dual Language Bilingual Education Teachers. Teachers and Teaching Journal

 

TLPL 443 Understanding Cross-Cultural Communication for TESOL

TLPL 657 Teaching for Cross-Cultural Communication

TLPL 441 Methods for Teaching Multilingual Learners

TLPL  788Q Seminar in Teacher Education and Professional Development