Dr. Marla Sanders

Dr. Marla Sanders is a professor in the Division of Education and Director of the Alternative Pathways for Educator Certification (APEC) Center at Columbia College. She has worked in higher education as a teacher educator for more than ten years and is currently the Chair of the Middle Level Education Program at Columbia College. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Columbia College and a PhD in Educational Research and Policy Analysis from North Carolina State University. 

Dr. Sanders taught social studies and English language arts in middle schools in South Carolina and North Carolina. She has served as a board member for the South Carolina Association of Teacher Educators (SCATE) and the South Carolina Professors of Middle Level Education (SCPoMLE). 

She has been a member of the editorial review board of the journal Multicultural Learning and Teaching (MLT) and has published in MLT, the Journal of Latinos and Education, and the Canadian Journal of Action Research. Her research interests include school policies and practices that negatively impact students from ethnic and cultural minority groups. She has presented at state and national conferences including SCATE, the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), and the Southeastern Regional Association of Teacher Educators (SRATE).