Juanita C. García, Ph.D.
Education Associate, Intercultural Development Research Association

Juanita Celia García, Ph.D., is an IDRA education associate. Her current work focuses on providing campus-based technical assistance for increasing cognitive growth and academic achievement for all students, including linguistically diverse students, through intensive and sustained language-across-the curriculum professional development. Dr. García has been successful in designing and developing training models in the areas of academic language acquisition, native language instruction, research-based instructional strategies, curriculum development, bilingual and dual language instruction, and cooperative learning. She was site coordinator for IDRA’s immigrant education project, is currently a site coordinator for IDRA’s Focusing on Language and Academic Instructional Renewal (FLAIR) project and is a site coordinator for the Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program. Dr. García co-developed the teacher guide for IDRA’s bilingual Semillitas de Aprendizaje™ early childhood supplemental curriculum and is leading in developing related teacher training designs.

She received her bachelor’s in elementary education from Pan American University in Edinburg, Texas; her master’s in liberal arts and elementary bilingual education from Southern Methodist University in Dallas; and her administrative certification at Our Lady of the Lake University.  

Dr. García has been working with an elementary school in Louisiana that is committed to the total growth of its students. Serving grades Pre-K through five, the school has long been ranked as one of the top elementary schools in the parish. Its multiculturally-diverse enrollment is comprised of about 460 students. Through FLAIR, this Louisiana elementary school has created a campus-wide instructional vision that accepts no excuses for failure. All staff values the heritage and the capacities that students bring to the academic experience. Teachers incorporate research-based higher-order thinking literacy strategies into daily classroom instruction for all students.

A native of Texas, Dr. García has worked for several Texas school districts. She also has served as an administrative intern/assistant principal at Alan B. Shepard Middle School, Five Palms Elementary, South San Antonio High School, and Kindred Elementary School in San Antonio.

An educator with 20 years of teaching experience in bilingual classrooms, Dr.  García has been recognized for her successful workshops in using children’s bilingual literature for instruction. In 1991 and 1992, she was selected to attend the Bilingual Institute on Children’s Literature held in Spain at the University of Madrid. For her work at the institute, she received a Literatura Infantil Certificate.

In collaboration with IDRA education associate Dr. Chris Green, Dr. García developed FLAIR and in-service sessions on the topic of higher order thinking. She takes teachers through a process to examine the strategies they can use to provide opportunities to make children’s literature come alive for bilingual students by ensuring their active engagement, tapping their background knowledge, and teaching learning strategies for organizing the new language, English.

Dr. García has presented at a number of conferences including the meetings of the San Antonio Area Association for Bilingual Education (SAAABE) in San Antonio; the Hispanic Culture Foundation’s New Mexico Currents Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico; the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE); the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs (OBEMLA); the Texas Association for Bilingual Education (TABE); the Texas Association of Teachers of English to Students of Other Languages (TESOL); the Association for Compensatory Educators of Texas; the New Mexico Association for Bilingual Education (NMABE); the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), the Texas Association of Hispanic School Administrator s, Hawaii International Conference on Education, La Cosecha Dual Language Conference of New Mexico, and the Paris International Conference on Education, Economy and Society.

IDRA is an independent, private non-profit organization, directed by María Robledo Montecel, Ph.D., dedicated to strengthening public schools to work for all children. As a vanguard leadership development and research team for more than three decades, IDRA has worked with people to create self-renewing schools that value and empower all children, families and communities. IDRA conducts research and development activities, creates, implements and administers innovative education programs and provides teacher, administrator, and parent training and technical assistance.

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