Santa Clara University

Sara Soledad Garcia, Ph.D.

Director of Masters in Interdisciplinary Education - Environmental Literacy and Ethics (ELE)

Sara Garcia grew up in Santa Paula, California. She received her B.A. in Spanish Literature from San Jose State University and taught high school in Oxnard, California. She received a single subject teaching credential from Cal Lutheran University. In 1976, she accepted a position at California State University Fullerton, in the School of Education and the Title VII Training Resource Center. In 1980, Professor Garcia completed graduate studies at UCLA in the English Department and received a Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) and applied linguistics. She completed a Masters in Education at UCLA from the Graduate School of Education in 1981. At UCLA, professor Garcia worked as a research associate with the Center for the Study of Evaluation (CSE) and coordinated the Bilingual Credential Program for the Teacher Education Lab.

Professor Garcia completed her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at UC-Santa Barbara specializing in language development, cognition and learning theory. While at UCSB she supervised teacher credential candidates, held the position of lecturer in the Department of Chicano Studies, and taught at Santa Barbara City College. Professor Garcia worked as a consultant during the late 1970s and early 1980s with the California State Department of Education in linguistic assessment and is co-author of the Glossary of Bilingual Education Terms, an ERIC publication. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on teachers cultural knowledge and self-narrative inquiry. Professor Garcia has conducted work in action research projects in collaboration with other teacher educators and has a special interest in, ballad studies and the intersection of culture, self-identity and social interaction theory applied to education. A Fulbright scholar, professor Garcia has conducted an interdisciplinary action research project with school teachers and ecology researchers based on Vygotskian theory in a community in Mexicos northern desert region by using drought as a symbolic context. Two of her most notable publications appear in the Journal of Folklore Research (1994) and a collaborative study in the Journal of Communication Education (1997).

Most recently, Dr. Garcia interests are on collaborative scholarship with an emphasis on environmental education and ethics in ecology. At Santa Clara University Dr. Garcia directed the Teacher Education Program for seven years and created the Masters in Interdisciplinary Education. She also received grants from Stanford Universitys Service Learning Collaborative, and the Irvine Foundation. These provided the basis for the integration of the community-based component in the teacher credential program at SCU with an emphasis on critical pedagogy and collaborative faculty activities. Professor Garcia has been to El Salvador with the SCU Faculty Delegation and has presented professional papers in Mexico, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, and Hungary.