Briana Ronan
Professor | School of Education
Areas of Expertise
Bilingual education
Social justice education
English language learners
Contact Information
Biography
Briana Ronan is professor of education in the Bailey College of Science and Mathematics’ School of Education. She works alongside in-service and pre-service educators who are dedicated to creating culturally and linguistically sustaining spaces of learning for multilingual learners. She was the principal investigator (PI) of two federal grants focused on training and the retention of bilingual educators. She is also a volunteer steering committee member of an immigrant rights coalition on the Central Coast of California.
Education
- Ed.D., Teachers College, Columbia University
- M.A. in International Educational Development, Teachers College, Columbia University
- M.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, The University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
- B.A. in English and Spanish, University of Texas at Austin
Research Interests
- Bilingual Education and English Language Development
- Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Pedagogy
- Immigration and Education
- Social Justice Education in and out of Schools
- Teacher Training and Retention in Public K-12 Schools
In the News
- “Cal Poly receives $ 8 million dollars to train aspiring teachers.” KCBX, Central Coast Public Radio. Oct. 23, 2024.
- “Cal Poly School of Education awarded two federal grants to address local teacher challenges.” KSBY-TV. Oct. 23, 2024.
- “Is Graduation Regalia Priceless or Just Overpriced?”LAist, Southern California Public Radio. April 13, 2022.
- “Cal Poly School of Education Granted $2.1 million for residency program.” KSBY-TV. June 1, 2021.
- “La Escuela de Educación de Cal Poly ortogó $2.1 milliones para el programa de residencia.” Tu Tiempo Digital. June 20, 2021.
- “Lights for Liberty Rally in Downtown San Luis Obispo Calls for Immigration Reform” KSBY-TV. July 13, 2019.
- “Local Colleges, Politicians React to DACA Announcement.” KSBY-TV. Sept. 5, 2017.
Books and Publications
- Bauer, J., Carlon, M., Jensen, J., Parker, M., Ronan, B. Sanford, J. (2025). Empowering educators for justice: Building community and advancing collective activism during a time of curriculum censorship. In Kaka, S., Hollstein, M. S., Kenyon, E., and Patterson, N. (Eds). Teacher Educators as Scholar Citizens: Activism and Resistance in Uncertain Times. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
- Diaz-Ramirez, A. & Ronan, B. (2023). Supporting critically conscious, culturally sustaining educators. Multilingual Educator. California Association of Bilingual Educators.
- Navarro, O., Ronan, B. and Patron, I. R. (2022). Teacher Candidates of Color Experiences and Perceptions of Culturally Responsive Teaching within Teacher Education: “They Hit the Target, Not the Bullseye.” Journal for Multicultural Education, 16(4), 374-386.
- Guise, M., Hegg, S., Ronan, B., Flushman, T. and Grant, B. (2020). Supporting Emergent Bilingual Professional Development through Supervisor Feedback. Journal of Educational Supervision, 3(1).
- Hardigree, C. and Ronan. B. (2019). Languaging and translanguaging for English language teaching. In Goa, X. (Ed). Second Handbook of English Language Teaching, New York, NY: Springer.
- Ronan, B. (2018). Standards-based technology integration for emergent bilinguals. Multicultural Education, 25(2), 7-12.