Carmen I. Lugo Llerena

Carmen I. Lugo Llerena is an early childhood educator and scholar whose work focuses on culturally relevant and socially just teaching practices in early childhood classrooms. She is a coauthor of No More Culturally Irrelevant Teaching: Not This, But That, part of Heinemann’s Not This, But That series, alongside Mariana Souto-Manning and colleagues. Her research and practice examine how young children make sense of the world, construct identities, and develop shared culture through play and engagement with popular media texts.

Lugo Llerena has taught in New York City public schools for more than 18 years, including work in dual language and progressive education settings, and serves as an instructor and doctoral candidate in the Early Childhood Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her professional interests center on childhood culture, emotional literacy, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and children’s play as a site for curriculum and inquiry, and she has co‑authored articles and books on race, equity, and social justice in education.