Dr. Sarah Hesson

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Sarah Hesson
Department, Office, or School
Department of Educational Studies
  • Associate Professor

Sarah Hesson is an Assistant Professor in the Educational Studies Department and the Director of the TESL Program at ̳. She earned her doctorate in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center. Some of her current research interests include the school experiences of Latino adolescent youth, translanguaging as social justice pedagogy, and the possibilities of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) with emergent bilingual adolescent youth. She previously worked as an adjunct professor at Hunter College as well as a Research Assistant with the City University of New York – New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals (CUNY-NYSIEB).

Sarah received her BA in Comparative Literature from Bryn Mawr College, and earned her Master’s in Bilingual Childhood Education from Fordham University through the NYC Teaching Fellows Program. She previously worked at the NYC Department of Education as a bilingual elementary and middle school teacher, and has taught in various educational settings PK-Adult as well.

Education

The Graduate Center, CUNY, PhD in Urban Education

Selected Publications

Ascenzi-Moreno, L., Hesson, S., & Menken, K. “School leadership along the trajectory from monolingual to multilingual,” Language and Education, (2015).

García, O. & Hesson, S. “Translanguaging frameworks for teachers: Macro and micro perspectives,” in Multilingualism and Language in Education: Current Sociolinguistic and Pedagogical Perspectives from Commonwealth Countries, (2015).

Hesson, S., Seltzer, K, & Woodley, H. Translanguaging in curriculum and instruction: A CUNY-NYSIEB guide for educators, accepted for publication for internal use through CUNY-NYSIEB, CUNY Graduate Center, (December 2014).

Hesson, S. “Rethinking assessment policies for emergent bilinguals in New York State,” in TRAUE, Volume 2, Issue 1 (Fall 2013).

García, O., Herrera, L., Hesson, S., & Kleyn, T. A CUNY-NYSIEB Framework for the Education of Emergent Bilinguals with Low Home Literacy: 4-12 Grades, published through CUNY-NYSIEB Project, CUNY Graduate Center, (Spring 2013).

Hesson, S. “Ester J. de Jong: Foundations for multilingualism in education: From principles to practice,” in Language Policy, Volume 12, Issue 4 (November 2013), pp. 367-369.

Courses

Foundations of Bilingual Education
Teaching Reading and Writing to ESL Students 
Curriculum and Methods for Content ESL Instruction 
Teaching Content in English and Native Languages
Assessment of English Language Learners
Internship in English as a Second Language
Bilingual Practicum Year 1
Bilingual Practicum Year 2
Fieldwork Supervisor

Research Interests

My research interests include the school experiences of Latino adolescent youth, translanguaging as social justice pedagogy, policy and pedagogy for emergent bilinguals, raciolinguistics, or the intersections of language and race, and the possibilities of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) with emergent bilingual adolescent youth.

Grants and Awards

Enhanced Chancellor’s Fellowship, CUNY Graduate Center; New York, NY — 2011-2016
This award offers funding for a 5-year period and includes the opportunities to work with professors, teach graduate level Education courses, and work at a CUNY college as a writing fellow. Includes Graduate Teaching Fellowship and Writing Across the Curriculum Fellowship.

Scholarship to PAR Institute “Reading Just the Word: It Ain’t Enough!” — June 2015
Provided funding to attend a Social Justice Curriculum Institute focused on Participatory Action Research.

Provost’s Summer Research Award, CUNY Graduate Center; New York, NY — Summer 2014
This award offered financial support over the summer to enable the development of the dissertation research proposal. ​​​