David Hernández-Saca, PhD

Associate Professor

COE Faculty Senate Co-Chair

David Hernandez-Saca, Ph.D.
Location

Schindler Education Center 630

Phone
(319) 273-7646

David Hernández-Saca, PhD

Associate Professor

COE Faculty Senate Co-Chair

David I. Hernández-Saca, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). Dr. Hernández-Saca is a former 8-12 multi-subject teacher and his teaching responsibilities at UNI include undergraduate teacher preparation courses in the areas of 1) special education law, assistive technology and advocacy and activism and 2) creating and sustaining positive learning environments for K-12 for Strategist I and Strategist II teacher education from a Disability Studies in Education (DSE) interdisciplinary and intersectionality approach. Dr. Hernández-Saca's research nucleus of his research agenda is problematizing the common sense assumptions of learning disabilities (LD). Dr. Hernández-Saca's three lines of inquiry include: (1) the emotional impact of LD labeling on conceptions of self. Dr. Hernández-Saca's second line of inquiry is (2) the role of emotion and affect in teacher learning about social justice issues. Dr. Hernández-Saca's third line of research is (3) examining violence within the academy against historically multiply marginalized and non-hegemonic scholars at their intersections of power and identities for their well-being and healing. What ties all three of his lines of inquiry together is his commitment to educational equity through an interdisciplinary research design and methodology. Overall, Dr. Hernández-Saca investigates these as they relate to historical equity issues in general education and special education and current movements for inclusive education at the boundaries of traditional special education and DSE.

Teaching Interests
  • SPED 4150/5150: Introduction to Special Education: Legal, Advocacy, and Assistive Technology Practices and Issues
  • SPED 4171/5171: Creating and Sustaining Positive Inclusive Learning Environments in K-12
  • SPED 4192/5192: Experience in Special Education: Practicum 2, Strategist I K-8 (K-8 Field Experience)
  • SPED 4192/5192: Experience in Special Education: Practicum 2, Strategist II K-12 (K-12 Field Experience)
  • INTDEPED 7303: Foundations of Inquiry
Research Interests
  • Problematizing the common sense assumptions about what Learning Disabilities (LD) are through investigating the emotional impact of LD labeling on conceptions of self 
  • The role of affect and emotion in teacher learning as it relates to social justice issues within educational contexts 
  • Examining violence within the academy against historically multiply marginalized and non-hegemonic scholars at their intersections of power and identities for their well-being and healing
Professional Accomplishments
  • Hernández-Saca, D.I. (forthcoming, 2017). Re-framing the master narratives of dis/ability at my intersections: An outline a research agenda. Critical Disability Discourses/Discours critiques dans le champ du handicap
  • Moreno Sandoval, C. D., Hernández-Saca, D. I., & Tefera, A. A. (2017). Intersectional rights of teachers and students in computer science and special education: Implications for urban schooling. Urban Education, 1-30.
  • Hernández-Saca, D.I., Kahn, L. G., & Cannon, M. A. (under review). A look inside: How intersectional educational research reveals the multidimensional construction of (dis)abled experiences, for the 2018 volume of Review of Research in Education (RRE), “The Challenges and Possibilities of Intersectionality in Education.”
  • Gonzalez, T., Hernández-Saca, D. I., & Artiles, A. J. (2016). In search of voice: Theory and methods in K-12 student voice research in the US, 1990-2010. Educational Review, 1-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2016.1231661