Sarah Vander Zanden, PhD

Head, Literacy, Early Childhood and Special Education

Professor, Literacy Education; Director, UNI Literacy Clinic

Sarah Vander Zanden
Location

SEC 525A

Phone
(319) 273-7270

Directory Contact

Sarah Vander Zanden, PhD

Head, Literacy, Early Childhood and Special Education

Professor, Literacy Education; Director, UNI Literacy Clinic

   https://coe.uni.edu/lese
 

Dr. Sarah Vander Zanden is the the Literacy, Early Childhood and Special Education head and a literacy professor. She is a former 5th grade classroom teacher and loves working with preservice educators.

Education
  • PhD, Literacy, Language and Culture, Indiana University-Bloomington
  • MEd, Elementary Education, The George Washington University
  • BS, International Relations, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Teaching Interests
  • LITED 4147 Advanced Literacy Practices
  • LITED 3116 Reading and Writing in the Content Area
  • LITED 6212 Methods and Materials in Literacy Education
  • Issues and Trends in Literacy
Research Interests
  • Literacy Teacher Education
  • Critical Literacy
Professional Accomplishments
  • Wessel Powell, C., Buchholz, B. A., DeHart, J., Frye, E. M., Ward, D., Vander Zanden, S., & Campbell, E. (2022). @ Home collective (ly): Opening doors and doing books with literacy-cast. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 14687984221118475.
  • Van Meeteren, B. (2023). Investigating ramps and pathways with young children Ages 3–8 (Ed.).Teachers College Press.  [contributing scholar]
  • Vander Zanden, S, Buchholz, B. A., Husbye, N.E., Rust, J. and Powell, C. W. (2019) Failure is an Option: Making Room for Mistakes. In A. Bambino, N. Cossa, J. Aruajo, R. Johnson (Eds.), Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers Yearbook, Vol. 41: Educating for a Just Society.  
  • Husbye, N. E., Buchholz, B. A., Powell, C. W., & Vander Zanden, S. (2019). “Death didn’t come up at center time”: Sharing Books about Grief in Elementary Literacy Classrooms. Language Arts, 96(6)347-357.
  • Vander Zanden, S. (2014) Productive taboos: Cultivating spatialized literacy practices, Pedagogies: An International Journal. 10(2), 177-191.