Dr. Carla España’s teaching, writing and research live at the intersection of critical literacy, bilingual/ multilingual education, children’s literature, translanguaging, culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogy, curriculum development and teacher education.
Carla is an instructor at Bank Street College Graduate School of Education in New York City. She teaches in the Bilingual/TESOL graduate program and partners with schools to support pre-service and in-service teachers. Prior to Bank Street College, Carla was the Bilingual Education Clinical Doctoral Lecturer at Hunter College, City University of New York. She taught Educational Foundations, Multicultural Education, Bilingual Literacy (Spanish), Perspectives on Literacy Across the Content Areas, Literacy Research for Change and Student Teaching Seminar courses.
Carla’s teaching journey began in Washington Heights, NYC with bilingual sixth graders. She has facilitated literacy curriculum planning and lesson demonstrations with K-12 staff in New York City public schools, international schools in Bogotá, Colombia and Santiago, Chile and across different states in the United States. She has worked with educators in Guadalajara, Mexico and international educators in South Asian schools. Carla was previously a staff developer at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. Carla now collaborates with schools across the United States and around the world, providing professional learning, co-planning and co-teaching throughout K-12.
Carla holds two master’s degrees, from Princeton Theological Seminary and from Hunter College, City University of New York, and a bachelor’s degree from New York University. Carla received her doctorate at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. You can read her dissertation, “Escribiendo para desahogarme: Release and Resistance in a Middle School Bilingual Writing Workshop” at CUNY.
Carla is an elected member (term 2018-2022) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Middle Level Section Steering Committee, the governance body of the Section. In addition, she is a member of the International Literacy Association (ILA) and the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Carla has published in the ALAN Review (from the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE), the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, and the International Literacy Association magazine, Literacy Today. Her most recent work, En Comunidad: Lessons for Centering the Voices and Experiences of Bilingual Latinx Students, co-authored with Luz Yadira Herrera, is available from Heinemann.
Carla’s presentation at the Fall 2020 #TheEdCollabGathering