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Janet Sauer

Professor

Janet Sauer

Janet Sauer draws on her own experiences teaching young children, adolescents, and adults in multiple contexts to prepare educators for inclusive education. Her scholarship is based in the interdisciplinary field of Disability Studies and focuses on family engagement. She believes advocacy for the inclusion of students with disabilities in community and educational contexts is a social justice issue and is necessary for a healthy democracy. 

Dr. Sauer has a B.A. from Emerson College, M.Ed. from Ohio University, and Ed.D. from the University of Northern Iowa.

Select Publications

Select Presentations

  • Sauer, J. (2023, December 18). Guest speaker with host Jayne Singer, PhD focused on Disability, Culture & Equity. Brazelton Touchpoints Center at Children’s Hospital.
  • Sauer, J. (2021, April 9). Cultural Brokering With Families in the Research and Writing Process. Presenting at the American Education Research Association (AERA) 2021 Annual Conference.
  • Sauer, J. (2021, March 8-13). Reframing Disability and Developing Cultural Humility with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families. Presented at the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) 2021 Annual Conference.
  • Sauer, J., Gooden, A., Gimmi, S. (2019, November 8). Practicing What We Preach: Applying UDL Principles for 'Cross-pollination' in Undergraduate Learning Communities. Presented at the Second Annual Universal Design for Learning Conference, Goodwin College, East Hartford, CT.
  • Sauer, J., Ho, S., Hartmann, E. (2017, July 31). Applying UDL for Social Justice in Teacher Education. Presented at the CAST Conference. 
  • Rossetti, Z. & Sauer, J. (2016, June). Learning from culturally and linguistically diverse families with children who receive special education services. Paper presented at the 16th Annual Second City International Conference on Disability Studies in Education (Disability Studies in Education SIG of the American Educational Research Association), Des Moines, IA.
  • Sauer, J. & Rossetti, Z. (2017, April). Negotiating meanings of disability through the lived experience of culturally and linguistically diverse families. Paper presented at the 2017 American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX.
  • Sauer, J. & Rosetti, Z. (2014). Disrupting Power in the Teacher Education Process through Collaborative Research. Peer-reviewed paper presentation. AERA conference in Philadelphia in April. This piece describes her work with culturally and linguistically diverse families who collaborate with Lesley students and The Federation for Children with Special Needs. 
  • Sauer, J. (2014, May 3). What is inclusion? Invited presentation for families on behalf of Urban Pride at The Parent University and a workshop for youth with disabilities titled “Who am I? How do I learn?” as part of the conference where several of Sauer’s students from Lesley University volunteered.
  • Sauer, J. & Jorgensen, C. (2013, October 24). Creating Collaborative Partnerships. Invited presentation for the Fitchburg Special Education Parent Advisory Council.