The Syracuse University School of Education is pleased to sponsor Professor Emerita Sonia Nieto as she takes the stage to receive an honorary degree from Syracuse University at its 161st Commencement on Sunday, May 10.
Sonia Nieto is professor emerita of language, literacy and culture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, but her teaching and ideas have made an impact nationally. Nieto, who was on the faculty of the university’s School of Education for 25 years, is an esteemed leader in the field of multicultural and bilingual education.
After earning degrees in elementary education and Spanish and Hispanic literature, her first position was as a junior high school teacher of English, Spanish and ESL in Brooklyn and then at P.S. 25 in the Bronx, the first fully bilingual school in the Northeast. She later was an instructor at Brooklyn College, where she taught in a bilingual education teacher preparation program, before completing doctoral studies at the University of Massachusetts with specializations in curriculum studies, bilingual education and multicultural education.
Nieto, who was a past lecturer for the Douglas P. Biklen Landscape of Urban Education Lectures Series at Syracuse University, has been a vital advocate for learning from practicing teachers about improving the educational outcomes for children of diverse backgrounds. With this central tenet, her scholarship has impacted the school experiences of generations of children. Nieto promotes teaching with a social justice perspective, the moral dimensions of teaching, advocating for students and challenging the status quo.
Her publications are central to the study of teaching across the globe. Those include “Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education,” “The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities, Language, Culture, and Teaching” and “What Keeps Teachers Going?” She has also written widely in such journals as the Harvard Education Review, Educational Leadership and many more, and has authored or co-authored many book chapters, book reviews and commissioned papers.
A recipient of many awards for her scholarship and advocacy and a fellow of the American Educational Research Association, Nieto continues to conduct research, speak and write on multicultural education and teacher preparation. Her most recent work was “Finding Joy in Teaching Students of Diverse Backgrounds: Culturally Responsive and Socially Just Practices in U.S. Classrooms,” a project that asked educators to consider what it means to be a teacher today in a more demanding and diverse classroom.