Quentin Sedlacek

Quentin Sedlacek is an Associate Professor of STEM Education and the Director of Graduate Studies for the Master of Education and Master of Bilingual Education programs in the Department of Teaching and Learning. His research, which has received over $2.5M in external grant funding, uses frameworks from linguistic anthropology and social psychology to examine how educators learn, adopt, sustain, and advocate for practices that seek to center the voices of marginalized students, scholars, and communities.

The first strand of Dr. Sedlacek’s research investigates the ways that science educators make sense of and respond to diverse voices and perspectives in the specific context of student writing, as well as how science educators learn to support student writing in ways that value diversity. This work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST), PLoS One, and Cultural Studies of Science Education. To inform these efforts, the second strand of Dr. Sedlacek’s research explores linguistics and literacy education. He investigates how college faculty in linguistics and related fields teach students to value linguistic diversity, how college students learn to value linguistic diversity, and how K-12 educators advocate for the value of linguistic diversity within their schools. This work has been published in journals such as Teachers College Record, Linguistics & Education, and English Teaching: Practice & Critique. This interdisciplinary agenda enables Dr. Sedlacek to draw on insights from linguistics and literacy education in order to inform his work in science teacher education.

Finally, the third strand of Dr. Sedlacek’s research examines higher education, where he explores how scholars in STEM departments and education departments represent diverse voices and perspectives in their curriculum (e.g., through course materials or invited guest lecturers) and how students benefit when diverse voices and perspectives are amplified. This work has been published in journals such as Educational Psychology Review, Science & Education, and Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education.

Dr. Sedlacek completed his Ph.D. in Race, Inequality, and Language in Education and Teacher Education at Stanford University, his M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Mississippi, and his B.A. in Physics at Harvard University. Before pursuing his doctorate, he taught science and mathematics for five years at public schools in Mississippi and American Sāmoa. During graduate school, he co-founded a peer mentorship program and co-organized an event series centering the perspectives of LGBTQ+ scholars and communities of color in education. After graduate school, he worked as a postdoctoral STEM education researcher in the College of Science at California State University Monterey Bay. Today, as a faculty member at SMU, he teaches courses such as Engaging Students through Active Learning, Groupwork, and Inquiry at the master’s degree level and Contrasting Perspectives on Language, Race, and Racism in Education at the doctoral level. Beyond his research and teaching, Dr. Sedlacek also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching and the Journal of Black Language and Culture, and has previously served as co-coordinator of the Cultural, Social, and Gender Issues Strand within the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST).

Recent publications

Sedlacek, Q. C., Casper, A. M. A., Doerr, K., Jeong, S., Marosi, N. K. M., Rende Mendoza, K., Reggiani, M., Tumber-Dávila, S. J., Adams, J. D., Anderson, A. P., Avraamidou, L., Blake, C. K., Cheuk, T., Dozier, S. J., Eddy, S. L., Eden, A., Fingalsson, R., Friend, M., Fuentes, A., Haeger, H., Kirchgasler, K. L., Krishnamoorthy, R., Lemmi, C., Maloy, J., Ovid, D., Ribay, K., Rock, R. O., Russo-Tait, T., Tolbert, S., Tripp, B., & Varelas, M. (2026). Science educators and researchers must uphold the human rights of trans, nonbinary, and intersex persons. Science Education, 110(4), 1001-1017. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.70069

Sedlacek, Q. C., Friend, M., Villa, A. M. V., Dozier, S., León, M., Haeger, H., Lomelí, K., Pérez, G., Solís-Lemus, C., & Mejia, J. A. (2025). STEM disciplines are more diverse than undergraduate courses depict. Science & Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-025-00701-9 *

Sedlacek, Q. C., Ortiz, N., Lemmi, C., León, M., & Feldman, K. (2025). Racial and linguistic ideologies and formative assessment practices of U.S. science teachers: A preregistered conceptual replication and extension. PLOS One, 20(7) e0327859. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327859 *

Sedlacek, Q. C., Villa III, A. M., Friend, M., Pérez, G., Dozier, S., Haeger, H., Lomelí, K., & Mejia, J. A. (2025). How representation matters: Conceptualizing systemic racism to develop diversity research agendas for undergraduate STEM education. Educational Psychology Review, 37(49). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-10021-7

Alvero, A. J., Sedlacek, Q. C., Peña, C., & León, M. (2025). Digital accents, homogeneity-by-design, and the evolving social science of written language. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 45, 50-68. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190525000042 *

Sedlacek, Q. C., Lemmi, C., Feldman, K., Ortiz, N., & León, M. (2025). African American Language in science education: A translanguaging perspective. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 62(1), 228-269. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.22011 *

Villa, A. M. C., & Sedlacek, Q. C. (2025). A systematic review of Complex Instruction in the United States. Intercultural Education, 36(1), 10-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2024.2425555

Sedlacek, Q. C., León, M., Grey, I., McLarty, J., Neal, S., & Neal, S. (2024). Developing pedagogical content knowledge for teaching about African American Language in college classrooms. Teachers College Record, 124(4-5), 187-219. https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681241271523 *

León, M., Lemmi, C., Sedlacek, Q. C., Ortiz, N., & Feldman, K., (2024). Languaging-as-practice in science education: An alternative to metaphors of language-as-tool. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 19, 623-631. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-024-10228-0 *

Sedlacek, Q. C., & Lomelí, K. (2024). Towards authentic purposes for student science writing using culturally relevant pedagogy. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 19(1), 141-162. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-023-10203-1

Haeger, H., Bueno, E. H., & Sedlacek, Q. C. (2024). Participation in undergraduate research reduces equity gaps in STEM graduation rates. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 23(1) ar11. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.22-03-0061

* Denotes publications with student researchers.