Biography
Sean McDonald serves as the student representative for the nationally recognized Council for Exceptional Children’s Division for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Learners (DDEL). He is also a doctoral scholar for the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) program for preparing future faculty of color on university campuses nationwide. Prior to becoming a Ph.D. student, he assumed multiple positions as a special education teacher, social studies teacher, and instructional coach across elementary, middle, and high school public settings for seven years. McDonald’s research interests include designing, implementing, and evaluating literacy supports for students with learning disabilities and reading difficulties; approaches for serving culturally and linguistically diverse learners in and around special education; and, with his advisor, Michael Kennedy, investigating multimedia instructional technology for supporting student populations in inclusive, content area settings.
Education
M.T., University of Virginia, 2014
B.A., University of Virginia, 2013
Research
- Evidence-based literacy instructional approaches
- Learning disabilities
- Multimedia technology
- Culturally-linguistically diverse learners
- Professional development
- Group experiment and single case design methodologies