Dr. Sharolyn Pollard-Durodola is a Professor in the English Language Learning program in the Department of Early Childhood, Multilingual, and Special Education, in the College of Education at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. She received a BA degree in Romance Languages from Mount Holyoke College, a MAT from Columbia-Teachers College, an MS in Developmental and Remedial Reading from City College of New York, and an EdD in Curriculum and Development with an emphasis in Second Language Acquisition from the University of Houston. Her scholarship attends to the language and literacy development of multilingual students. Central to her scholarship is developing school-based interventions, evaluating their impact on the language and conceptual knowledge development of PK-3 multilingual learners and investigating how to improve the quality of language practices that are embedded in subject area instruction (e.g., science, social studies). She has been the co-principal investigator on two IES grants titled Words of Oral Reading and Language Development, focusing on preschool language/literacy development and is the co-principal investigator for Project E3: Enhancing, Engaging, and Empowering Teachers for the Next Generation of English Learners funded by The Office of English Language Acquisition (OLEA), National Professional Development Program. She was also the Senior Researcher (Nevada) for the multi-site Project International Consortium for Multilingual Excellence in Education (ICMEE), also a National Professional Development Grant funded by OELA. These OELA grants focus on supporting general education teachers of multilingual learners via professional development approaches (e.g., eLearning, Saturday Advanced Professional Learning Institutes, My Teaching Partner coaching) with attention to the influence of teacher beliefs and attitudes on their instructional practices. She has published in peer-reviewed journals such as Early Education and Development, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, The Elementary School Journal, Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, The Reading Teacher, and Bilingual Research Journal.
In 2019, Dr. Pollard-Durodola traveled through India, noting its multilingual presence, which inspired her to consider how Indian teachers are able to promote multilingual learning during the early primary school years in a country where many languages, mother tongues, and dialects are spoken. She investigates how beliefs (teachers, school administrators, parents) about multilingualism (e.g., learning English, Hindi, Mother Tongue) may influence the implementation of India’s Three Language Model priorities and how the history of India’s language education policies may provide insights about current tensions. This Fulbright-Nehru projects seeks to provide insights about the factors that contribute to or hinder early childhood multilingualism in similar global settings where immigration patterns challenge educational systems to promote linguistic equity.