Sera J. Hernández, Ph.D

Sera J. Hernández, Ph.D., is a faculty member in the College of Education at San Diego State University where she prepares bilingual teachers and teaches M.A. and Ph.D. courses on language policy, multilingual education, biliteracy, and critical theories in educational research. She earned her Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Berkeley and has worked in public K-12 schools and universities for over 20 years. With an interdisciplinary academic background, her research bridges the fields of educational linguistics and the anthropology of education to examine the sociocultural, linguistic and political contexts surrounding family and community engagement in schools, educational language policies, bilingual teacher preparation, and bilingualism and biliteracy practices, particularly in border regions around the world. 

Dr. Hernández is a Research Associate for the Center for Equity and Biliteracy Education Research and the Co-Director of the Virtual Center for Bilingual and Bicultural Books for Children and Young Adults at SDSU. She is currently a co-Principal Investigator of the U.S. Department of Education Grant “Developing Effective Bilingual Educators with Resources” (Project DEBER) designed to support future bilingual teachers currently enrolled at local community colleges. She is also the Principal Investigator for “Binational Project GLAD,” a study which examines the professional development experiences of binational educators working and living near the Mexico-U.S. border. Her scholarship has been featured in journals such as the Review of Research in Education, Language Policy, the CATESOL Journal, Journal of Latinos and Education, Children’s Literature in Education, and several edited volumes and handbooks such as Bilingualism for All? Raciolinguistic Perspectives on Dual Language Education in the United States and A Companion to the Anthropology of Education. She has also published on critical perspectives on parent, family and community engagement. In her scholarship, Dr. Hernández asks critical questions such as, “How can schools better serve diverse students and families?” “How can we shift educational engagement policies and practices to be more family- and community-centered?” “How can we avoid status quo power dynamics between schools and linguistically and culturally diverse homes and communities?” and “Which children get to be bilingual in U.S. schools?”

More importantly, Dr. Hernández is a proud parent to two children in San Diego public dual language schools. She has worked with families all over the state of California as a facilitator of Latinx family literacy projects and is thrilled to be on the Board for PIQE. Read more about Dr. Hernandez at serajeanhernandez.com