Rate My Professor Luis Poza

Luis Poza, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at San José State University’s Connie L. Lurie College of Education. His academic journey includes a Ph.D. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education (2014) with dual concentrations in Sociology of Education and Race, Inequality, and Language in Education; an M.A. in Climate and Society from Columbia University; a Preliminary Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential (BCLAD) from San José State University; and a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Yale University. Before his current role, Dr. Poza was faculty at the University of Colorado Denver and began his career teaching elementary school in East Palo Alto, California, and New York City.

Dr. Poza’s research employs qualitative methods, including ethnography and participant observation, to explore how ideologies concerning language, language learning, race, and nation manifest in educational policies and practices, shaping experiences of students from historically marginalized backgrounds. He integrates his scholarship into teaching courses on instructing culturally and linguistically diverse students, school equity, education policy, and bilingual education theories and methods. Notable publications include “Translanguaging: Definitions, implications, and further needs in burgeoning inquiry” (Berkeley Review of Education, 2017), “The language of ciencia: translanguaging and learning in a bilingual science classroom” (International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 2018), “Entre Familia: Immigrant Parents’ Strategies for Involvement in Children’s Schooling” (School Community Journal, 2014), “Matters of participation: Notes on the study of dignity and learning” (Mind, Culture, and Activity, 2020), and “Adding flesh to the bones: Dignity frames for English learner education” (Harvard Educational Review, 2021). In 2017, he was awarded the National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Poza has contributed to policy through roles on the Colorado Association for Bilingual Education board, the Colorado Department of Education’s Accountability Working Group for the Every Student Succeeds Act, and the national Working Group on ELL Policy. At SJSU, he serves as Director of the Institute for Emancipatory Education and leads the Male Educators of Color Initiative (MECI).