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 25 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 has published on critical perspectives in parent, family and community engagement, as well as issues in dual language education and bilingual teacher preparation. 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 of two bilingual children. She has worked with families all over the state of California as a facilitator of Latine family literacy projects and is thrilled to be on the Board for PIQE. Read more about Dr. Hernandez at serajeanhernandez.com