Sarah C.B. Norsworthy, Ed.D.

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Educator - Reading Specialist - Parent - Scholar

Dr. Norsworthy has taught elementary and middle school students.  She has collaborated with, coached and led educators serving in pre-schools through higher education settings.  Currently, Sarah develops and delivers programming supporting multilingual adults, focused on developing their English. 

Much of Sarah's expertise comes from listening to the voices of those most often marginalized in education, and to their families.  She also draws on her own experiences within the US system of education as an educator, leader, student and, perhaps most particularly, as a parent.  Much of Sarah's recent scholarship is grounded in the wisdom, labor and scholarship of People of the Global Majority.  In particular, Sarah is guided by the voices of women of the Global Majority.

In addition to working in schools, Sarah worked for the Maine Department of Education as the Social Emotional Learning Implementation Specialist.  In that role she originated the Picture Books Featuring Immigration Help All Students Navigate Social Emotional Learning (PINE) project, She brings the unique experience of having taught a public school virtual classroom for students from 1st-8th grades.  These students brought with them many languages and nearly every label assigned to students in public schools.  Picture books were invaluable tools for teaching and learning with this incredible group of students, confirming Sarah's belief, that picture Books - in the hands of a knowledgable teacher -  can carry sustaining curriculum.  Their place in reading development, and the power they hold to support reading instruction, must not be underestimated.  

Sarah learned from listening to educators in Early Childhood through Higher Education settings, that few opportunities to learn about, read, look at and discuss picture books were present in schools.  Sarah's Doctoral Dissertation focused on the affordances and constraints of using picture books as tools to develop adult senses of identity and belonging.  Teachers are adults first, and educators second.   Through two cycles of Action Research, Sarah learned from adult participants about both how picture books serve us, and what we may need to support our reading of them.  Sarah consults on the use of picture books as tools in schools and in communities.

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