Background

Sarah Warshauer Freedman was born on February 23, 1946, in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States. She is a daughter of Samuel Edward Warshauer, a physician, and Miriam Warshauer (maiden name Miller).

Education

Sarah Warshauer Freedman studied at the University of Pennsylvania where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967. Three years later, she graduated from the University of Chicago with a Master of Arts degree.

Then, Freedman pursued her academic training at Stanford University which provided her with a Master of Arts in 1976 and a Doctorate of Philosophy the following year.

Career

Since the beggining of her career in the second half of 1960s, Sarah Warshauer Freedman has spent many years teaching writing at various corners of the United States. So, from 1967 to 1969, she taught English at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, and at the School District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The following decade, she moved from schools to the universities starting from a one-year post of an instructor in English at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, North California, and then a six-year one at her alma mater, Stanford University.

In 1977, Freedman joined the professor’s staff of San Francisco State University where she served first as an assistant professor of English till her promotion to associate professor in 1979. Two years later, she moved to the University of California, Berkeley as an assistant professor in education. By 1983, Freedman was promoted to an associate, and by 1989 to a full professor of education.

It was this time, having enough experience in the field, when she commenced her researches of the teaching of writing from different sides. Since then, Sarah W. Freedman has contributed to many books and articles on the subject of education, and has edited or written volumes of her own, including ‘The Acquisition of Written Language: Response and Revision’, ‘Response to Student Writing’, and ‘Exchanging Writing, Exchanging Cultures: Lessons in School Reform from the United States and Great Britain’.

In her investigations, she has collaborated with many teachers and practitioner researchers. So, her recent 2014 edition, ‘The First Year of Teaching: Classroom Research to Increase Student Learning’, was edited by her Berkeley colleague Jabari Mahiri. It presents the results of their collaborations in teacher education and teacher research.

The posts related to Freedman’s exploratory activity include the directorship of the National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy from 1985 to 1995, the leadership of the Bay Area Writing Project at the University of California, Berkeley (2009), fellowship (senior fellow) of the University’s Human Rights Center (2000), as well as advising for many relevant groups such as Advisory Committee for the McDonnell Foundation’s Cognitive Studies for Educational Practice (1994-96), the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and the National Advisory Board for Ghostwriter at the Children’s Television Workshop. The researcher has given papers and lectures in the United States, Finland, Israel and Italy.

The role played by education in renovation of societies after genocide in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia has grabbed Freedman’s attention the recent years.

Achievements

• Sarah Warshauer Freedman is an accomplished academician and researcher who has made an important contribution to the exploration of English teaching, teacher Education, and educational linguistics.
  
  A prolific author, she has produced a lot of articles and a number of books, both on her own and in collaboration, many of which were marked by such prestigious awards as Richard Meade Award, Ed Fry Book Award, both two times, and Alan Purves Award.
  
  Freedman has been a recipient of a great number of research grants and fellowships from various groups and foundations, including the National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy, the Spencer Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the United States Institute of Peace, and others.
  
  Her explorations in the divided societies of Northern Ireland, South Africa, and the United States was sponsored by the Spencer Foundation and Facing History and Ourselves.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Exchanging Writing, Exchanging Cultures: Lessons in School Reform from the United States and Great Britain

    (The book offers concrete lessons to school reformers, pol...)

    1994
  • The First Year of Teaching: Classroom Research to Increase Student Learning

    (In this compelling look at first-year teachers’ practice ...)

    2014
  • Response to Student Writing

    (A book in collaboration with Cynthia Greenleaf and Meline...)

    1987
  • Inside City Schools: Investigating Literacy in Multicultural Classrooms

    (The book edited by Sarah W. Freedman synthesizes and co-o...)

    1999
  • Bakhtinian Perspectives on Language, Literacy, and Learning

    (The book edited by Sarah W. Freedman and Arnetha F. Ball ...)

    2004
  • The Acquisition of Written Language: Response and Revision

    (A book edited by Sarah W. Freedman)

    1985

Views

Quotations: "A prolonged and intimate look at British English classes helped me see a number of exciting ways for rethinking how we teach middle and high school students English and how we might hold them to significantly higher standards than we currently do in most secondary schools in the United States. I also learned that many of our current educational reforms have a long history in Britain. U.S. educators stand to learn a great deal about the wis¬dom of such reforms and issues involved in imple¬menting them from studying the British example. I found that I learned most when I was able to link the reforms, which often are initiated at the policy level, to their direct effects on students in classrooms. The British national examinations, for example, created many obstacles to teaching and learning."

Membership

• National Academy of Education , United States

  2014

• American Educational Research Association , United States

• National Conference for Research in the Language Arts , United States

• National Council of Teachers of English , United States

• Linguistic Society of America , United States

• American Association for Applied Linguistics , United States

• International Literacy Association , United States

Connections

Sarah Warshauer Freedman married S. Robert Freedman on August 20, 1967. The family produced one child named Rachel Karen.

Father:

Samuel Edward Warshauer

Mother:

Miriam Warshauer

husband:

S. Robert Freedman

Daughter:

Rachel Karen Freedman

colleague:

Jabari Mahiri

colleague:

Verda Delp