Sarah Surrain, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Sarah Surrain is a postdoctoral researcher at the Children’s Learning Institute at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Her research focuses on the contextual factors that support and inhibit the bilingual development of dual language learners in early childhood. She is particularly interested in how language environments at home and school influence the acquisition and maintenance of minoritized languages such as Spanish in the United States. She has used both quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the complex roles of attitudes toward bilingualism and parent-child interactions in children’s language development. She is currently investigating how aligned home and school interventions can support dual language learners’ oral language skills in Spanish and English.
Dr. Surrain’s research has been supported by the National Academy of Education / Spencer Dissertation Fellowship and a merit fellowship from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. Prior to her doctoral studies, Sarah was a curriculum developer and literacy coach in Spanish-English bilingual classrooms in Chicago.
Education & Training
Dr. Surrain earned her doctorate degree in Human Development, Learning and Teaching at Harvard University, and her master’s degree in Language and Literacy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
