Sonoma State University

Rhianna Casesa

Associate Professor, BILA & Residency Coordinator, MA in Education RLAA Advisor, Multiple Subject Credential Advisor

Rhianna Casesa
Rhianna Casesa

Contact

707-664-2431
casesa@sonoma.edu
Office Hour Zoom

Office

Stevenson 2300

Office Hours

Mon: 4:00 pm-6:00 pmVia Zoom

Dr. Rhianna Henry Casesa has been a professor in the Literacy Studies and Elementary Education Department at SSU since 2015. Prior to teaching in higher education, Dr. Casesa taught in a 4th-grade bilingual classroom on the US/Mexico border. Her areas of expertise are biliteracy instruction, dual-language education, and language & literacy development. Dr. Casesa served as Co-PI/Project Director for the Preparing Underrepresented Educators to Realize their Teaching Ambitions (PUERTA) grant. When not engaging in academic pursuits, Dr. Casesa enjoys single-parenting her daughter, traveling, reading, and the outdoors.

About

  • Co-PI: PUERTA
  • Coordinator: Bilingual Authorization
  • Advisor: Reading MA

Biography

  • Bilingual teacher, Chula Vista Elementary School District-- 2006-2012
  • Graduate Assistant (teaching & research)-- 2012-2015
  • Assistant professor, SSU-- 2015-current

Education

  • PhD: San Diego State University + Claremont Graduate University, Joint Doctoral Program
  • MA (Education): San Diego State University
  • BCLAD: San Diego State University
  • BS (Psychology): Santa Clara University
  • BA (Spanish): Santa Clara University

Academic Interests

  • Biliteracy identity
  • Bicultural development in dual-language programs
  • Latinx Serving Institutions
  • Emergent bilinguals/ English learners

Concentrations

  • Literacy & Biliteracy Studies
  • Dual-language education

Selected Publications & Presentations

  • Casesa, R. (2019). Latinx students’ perceptions of bicultural identity in English-only and two-way immersion elementary programs. Schools: Studies in Education, 16 (1), 84-108.
  • Casesa, R. (2018). Their images, their stories: Using student-generated photography in the classroom. Multilingual Educator, March 2018, 38-41.
  • Casesa, R. (2016). Building dual-immersion teacher capacity: A partnership between Sonoma State University and Loma Vista Immersion Academy. Southern California Professional Development Schools, 10 (5), 5.
  • Casesa, R. (2013). “I spoke it when I was a kid”: Practicing critical bicultural pedagogy in a fourth grade classroom. Schools: Studies in Education, 10 (2), 171-191.
  • Casesa, R., Estrada, K., LaDuke, A., O’Keeffe, S., Virmani, R., & Rhodes, L. (2020, forthcoming). Cultivating engagement: Supporting future bilingual teachers at Sonoma State University. Workshop submitted for 2020 annual meeting of California Association of Bilingual Education (CABE). San Francisco, California.
  • Casesa, R. & Virmani, R. (2020, forthcoming). Diverse teachers for diverse contexts: Learning in and from teacher residency programs. Paper submitted for presentation at the 2020 annual meeting of American Educational Research Association (AERA). San Francisco, California.
  • Cappello, M. & Casesa, R. (2019). Leveraging graphica as a literacy tool to communicate teacher identity. Paper presented at the annual meeting of Literacy Research Association (LRA). Tampa, Florida.
  • Casesa, R. (2019). Soy de abrazos: Students’ explorations of bicultural identity through multimodal art. Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Education Research Association (AERA). Toronto, Canada.
  • Casesa, R. (2019). It’s about identity: Confronting deficit-based assumptions about Latinx students at a developing Hispanic serving institution. Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Education Research Association (AERA). Toronto, Canada.
  • Casesa, R., Estrada, K., Noel, J., Berta-Aguilar, M., & Cintron, J. (2019). Growing our own: Developing robust teacher pathways at the CSU. Paper presented at the annual conference of California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE). Long Beach, California.
  • Casesa, R. (2018). Participatory visual discourse analysis with children’s photos and drawings: The co-construction of meaning. Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Education Research Association (AERA). New York, New York.
  • Casesa, R. (2018). Enseñanza reciproca: Estrategias de comprensión para estudiantes de dúo-idioma. Workshop presented at the annual conference of California Association for Bilingual Education, Sacramento, California.
  • Casesa, R.  (2018). Reciprocal Teaching: Using Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies to Support ELD.Workshop presented at the annual conference of California Association for Bilingual Education, Sacramento, California.
  • Casesa, R. (2017). Desde el estudiante “batallando” hasta el estudiante “exitoso”- El uso de las novelas gráficas bilingües en programas de doble inmersión. Workshop presented at the annual conference of California Association for Bilingual Education. Anaheim, California.
  • Casesa, R. (2016). From “Struggling” to “Successful”: The Use of Bilingual Graphic Novels in Dual-Immersion Programs. Paper presented at the annual meeting of Literacy Research Association, Nashville, Tennessee.
  • Casesa, R. (2016). Photography, Identity, and Dialogue: Visual Discourse Analysis and Photo-elicitation Interviews with Latino Elementary Students. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Washington, D.C.
  • Casesa, R. (2016). (Bi)cultural Identity Development: Acculturation Patterns of Latino Students in Elementary Dual-Language and English-only Programs. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Washington, D.C.
  • Casesa, R. & Cappello, M. (2015). Visualizing Theory. Poster presented at the semi-annual meeting of the California Council on Teacher Education, San Diego, CA.