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College of Education College of Education

Sandra M. Gonzales, Ed.D.

Sandra M. Gonzales, Ed.D.

Associate Professor of Bilingual/Bicultural Education

313-577-0998

sandra.gonzales@wayne.edu, bm6380@wayne.edu

313-577-4091 (fax)

Office Hours: Tuesdays, 1:30-4pm, 285 College of Education and 6:50-7:50pm, after classThursdays, 1:30-3pm, 285 College of Education, or by appointment

285 Teacher Education Division, College of Education

Sandra M. Gonzales, Ed.D.

Degrees and Certifications

  • Ed.D., International Educational Development, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2009.
  • M.Ed., International Educational Development, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2002.
  •  M.A., Psychology, Mental Health Counseling, Antioch University, Seattle, Washington, 1996.
  • Certificate, School of Social Work, Ethnic Minority Mental Health Specialist, University of Washington, 1996.
  • B.S., Psychology, Michigan State University, 1992.

Research Interests

Research interests include the intersection of Bilingual/Bicultural and Family and Community Education with Indigenous and Latino Studies.  Family and Community Education is utilized as a foundation through which to examine learning from the perspective of the learner as opposed to the institution.  Such examination is critical to teacher education because it provides a useful lens through which one can examine the social, political and historical constructs that hinder educational collaborations between Latino students/families and the school, the community and society at large.  Also of significance is "autohistoria-teoría," a term coined by Gloria Anzaldúa, a Chicana literary scholar, to describe how personal narratives can become critical pedagogies that inspire social justice, dialogue and cross-cultural understanding. Autohistoria-teoría and Indigenous pedagogies are infused with the contemporary and the urban, to establish a new discourse within Bilingual/Bicultural Education that counters the effects of "subtractive" schooling models by creating an "additive" environment that uses stories and storytelling as a pedagogical tool to promote cultural, linguistic and intellectual diversity in the classroom. 

Awards

  •  2016
    Wayne State University College of Education Scholarship Award

Community Engagement Activities

  • Michigan Department of Education, ELL Advisory Committee
  • The Detroit Latino Agenda, Education Committee

Featured publications

Are you HIP?: How one Latinx learning community integrates ten high-impact practices to foster student success

Gonzales, S.M., Baier, S.T., & Brammer, E.C. (2022). Are you HIP?: How one Latinx learning community integrates ten high-impact practices to foster student success. Student Success, 13(1), 74-79.

This report shares practices from a successful Latinx Studies learning community model at an urban research-intensive university in the Midwestern United States. The learning community model offers a tiered developmental curriculum to support the three different stages of a student's journey, from enrollment to graduation. The three distinct phases of the learning community model are: a pre-college summer enrichment program, a first- and second-year college scholars program and a third and fourth-year college-to-career component. The model also integrates 10 out of 11 of Kuh's (2008) high impact practices demonstrated to support student engagement and success for students making a direct transition from high school to university. The authors share gains in student retention and five-year graduation rates as evidence of effectiveness.

“¿Yque?”: Diverse literacy experiences within a pre-college high school program

Gonzales, S.M., Lopez, J., Torres, L. and Calandrino, A. (2020). “¿Yque?”: Diverse literacy experiences within a pre-college high school program. Michigan Reading Journal, (52)2, 60-67.

In this article, four (4) Latina staff members from a college access program examine the literacy practices of the emergent bilingual high school students they assist. Many of the students enrolled in the program have recently immigrated from Guatemala. In many cases, the language spoken at home is neither English nor Spanish, but an Indigenous Guatemalan language. In addition, these students are often the first generation in their homes to receive any formal education and are the first in their families to learn to read and write. Nevertheless, the authors argue that the parents of these students still demonstrate different forms of literacy— which have a long history of being discounted and marginalized within our traditional schooling structures. In this article, the authors explore these various challenges while also disrupting the “low literacy/illiteracy” trope which provides an alternative way of understanding literacy. The authors also ponder ways in which Western standards of teaching and learning can be bridged with culturally sustaining practices, as they prepare their students for post-secondary education. 

Publications

  •  Education reform in Latino Detroit: Achievement gap or colonial legacy?
    *Gonzales, S. M.* and Shields, C. 2014 Race Ethnicity and Education 18(3)
  • Belonging in the academy: Creating a “casa away from casa” for Latino undergraduate students
    *Gonzales, S.M.*, Brammer, E. C. and Sawilowsky, S. 2014 Journal of Hispanics in Higher Education 14(3)
  • Abuelita Epistemologies: Counteracting Subtractive Schools in American Education
    Gonzales, S. M. 2014 Journal of Latinos and Education 14(1)
  • “CEOs don’t cry.” “But, this one does”: Gender, Identity, Language and Culture at the Periphery of School Leadership in Latina/o Detroit
    *Gonzales, S. M.*, Ulloa, A. and Muñoz, C. 2016 National Forum of Educational Administration and Supervision Journal 33(2)

Courses taught by Sandra M. Gonzales, Ed.D.

Winter Term 2025 (future)

Fall Term 2024

Winter Term 2024

Fall Term 2023

Winter Term 2023

Fall Term 2022

Spring-Summer Term 2022

Winter Term 2022

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