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Carolina Serna
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Carolina Serna

Director of Bilingual Authorization (BILA)
Associate Professor

DepartmentSchool of Education
Biola AffiliationsFaculty
Phone(562) 903-4843 (School of Education)

Documents

Degrees

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

M.Ed., University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

B.A., University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

Multiple Subject Credential, with Bilingual Cross-cultural Language Development Credential (BCLAD), University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

Member of

Biography

Dr. Carolina Serna is an associate professor of Education at Biola University. In her 35 years of experience, she has taught in elementary public schools, CSU Monterey Bay, and currently at BIOLA University. She teaches courses addressing literacy, children’s literature, and child development. Her research interests center around issues of literacy/biliteracy, bilingual education, and teacher preparation. Dr. Serna began her career as a bilingual teacher in Culver City and Oakland Unified School Districts and in the Migrant Education Program in Los Angeles County.



Affiliations

  • International Literacy Association, 2017 to present
  • California Association for Bilingual Education, 1991 to present
  • American Educational Research Association, 1996-2015; 2022-present
  • Association of Language Awareness, 2015-2023
  • National Association of Bilingual Education, 2002-2010

Publications

  • "Sojourners of truth: Five women’s stories of triumph, tribulation, and teaching in academia." Young, P. A., Serna, C., De La Vega, E., Charlton, L., Casimir, M. Published in Educational Studies, 2020.
  • "Improving students’ literacy skills while training future teachers." Serna, C., Williamson, S. Published in Southern California Professional Development School News Magazine, 2018.
  • "Developing responsive teachers: A challenge for a demographic reality." García, E., Arias, M.B., Murri, N.J., & Serna, C. Published in Journal of Teacher Education, 2010.
  • "Preparing pre-service teachers to teach English language learners." Serna, C., Meier, N. Paper presented at The Hawaii International Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2010.
  • "Autores Bilingües: Writing from a dual-linguistic and dual-cultural repertoire." Serna, C. Published in Education, 2009.

Presentations

  • California Association of Bilingual Education Annual Conference (CABE), Long Beach, CA.
    Presented on "Using Children’s Literature to Build Students’ Resiliency," March 2023.
  • California Association of Bilingual Education (CABE) Annual Conference, Virtual Conference.
    Co-presented with Dr. Cortes and Dr. Ferguson on "What is the Optimal Instruction for Dual Immersion Programs? A Best Evidence Synthesis," March 2023.
  • California Association of Bilingual Education (CABE) Annual Conference, Virtual Conference.
    Co-presented with Dr. Wong-Lo on "Dually identified students: How can we best support them?" March 2023.
  • California Association of Bilingual Education (CABE) Parent & Para-Educator Conference, Anaheim, CA.

    Presented on "Emergent literacy development of trilingual students: Triqui-speaking kindergarten students on the Central California Coast," January 2020.

  • California Association of Bilingual Education (CABE), Monterey County Regional Conference, Monterey, CA.

    Presented on "Effective interpretation practices for Spanish, Triqui, and Mixteco speaking parents," November 2019.

  • California Association of Bilingual Education (CABE), Long Beach, CA

    Presented on "Emergent literacy development of Triqui-speaking students on the Central California Coast," March 2019.

  • Southern California Professional Development Schools Consortium (SCPDS), Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA.

    Presented on "Improving students’ literacy skills while preparing future teachers," March 2019.

  • ACSI Early Childhood Conference, Biola University, La Mirada, CA.

    Presented with three teacher candidates (R. Yang, S. García, V. Smith) on "Using the language experience approach to teach emergent literacy," March 2018.

  • Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA.

    Presented keynote address on "Language diversity on the Central California Coast," December 2016.

  • California Association of Bilingual Education (CABE) Conference, San Francisco, CA

    Co-presented with Dr. Cortes on "Best practices in communicating/interpreting with Spanish and indigenous speakers," March 2016.

  • Faculty Conference, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany.

    Research presentation on "Kassel English Colloquium," 2015.

  • California Association of Bilingual Education (CABE) Parent & Para-Educator Conference, Monterey, CA

    Co-presented with Dr. Cortes on "Best practices in communicating with non-English speaking parents," April 2015.

  • California Association of Bilingual Education (CABE) Conference, San Diego, CA.

    Presented on "Indigenous English learners: Triqui-speaking students on the Central California Coast," March 2015.

Research Interests

  • Literacy/Biliteracy
  • Bilingual Education
  • Teacher Preparation

Courses

  • SEED520/LEDU420 English Language Arts/Reading
  • SEED549/LEDU380 Children's Literature
  • SEED535/LEDU335 Child Development: Birth to Adolescence 
  • SEED541/LEDU341 Methods of Teaching Linguistically Diverse Children
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