Steven Sharp, Ph.D.

Steven K. Sharp, Ph. D. is an associate professor and coordinator of the Bicultural and Bilingual Education program. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses for teachers and teacher candidates interested in getting an ESL or Bilingual endorsement. Dr. Sharp has a BS in Linguistics and a BA in Russian Language Education. He also has an M.Ed. in TESOL. His master's degree research was on how technology has been used to support classroom education. 

Dr. Sharp completed his doctoral degree at the University of Maryland at College Park, where his dissertation investigated how teachers in a one-to-one implementation of iPads in the classroom were able to leverage their prior teaching experiences and knowledge of technology use to mediate their instructional practices and support multilingual children in their developing use of the English language in a middle school setting. 

His research centers on instructional support of multilingual users and the use of technology in instruction. Dr. Sharp has presented at many conferences on the use of technology in the classroom and has published papers on how teachers develop communities of practice in their use of technology and how they can develop their skills through community support. During his 20-year career in the classroom, Dr. Sharp has taught multilingual users at many different levels— from elementary school to adult. He spent 10 years teaching middle and elementary school students and preparing them for success in English-language classrooms. He also spent several years training teachers on best practices for using technology in the language classroom. He has spent several years teaching and developing technology practices for an IEP program at the University of Maryland. 

Dr. Sharp has served as a member of the Illinois Gateway Professional Development Advisory Council (PDAC) for several years. He served on the ESL and Bilingual Credentials Committee, developing credentials for ESL and Bilingual teachers in early childhood settings. He also serves on the Qualifications and Credentials Committee. Dr. Sharp is a member of AREA, CALICO, IALLT, TESOL, NABE, AAAL, and continues to be active in local organizations supporting multilingual children, and higher education's role in it, including the English Learners Advocacy Council in Higher Education (ELACHE), Illinois TESOL/BE and the Illinois Association of Multilingual and Multicultural Education (IAMME).

Sharp, S. K. & Conrad, D. L. (2025).  Developing a Classroom to Support Culturally Responsive Teaching: A Culturally Responsive Aspiring Teacher Assignment.  Journal of Applied Disciplines.

Sharp, S. K. (2024). Discussing challenges with Black language in terms of a bilingual pedagogy and implications for administrators: A review of linguistic justice by April Baker-Bell.  Journal of School Administration Research and Development 9(1), pp. 31-38. 

Sharp, S. K. (2023).  Teachers’ Use of iPads in a Multilingual Classroom.  Teaching English as a Second Language International Conference, 2023.

Sharp, S. K. (2022).  Using proficiency level descriptors to make language objectives. Illinois TESOL Bilingual Education Conference Spring 2022.

Sharp, S. K. (2020).  Challenges with remote learning and multilingual students.  Illinois TESOL-Bilingual Education Conference.

Bai, Y., Breese, S., MacSwan, J., Sharp, S. K., Song, V., Yao, Q. (2015). Maryland: A changing demographic landscape with growing opportunities for English language learner programs. A paper presented at the American Association for Applied Linguistics. 

Sharp, S. K. (2012). Technology as a context: How ESL professionals manage when technology use is an expectation. In E.F. Boucher-Yip & P. Ng (Eds.) Local contextual influences on teaching: Narrative insights from ESL and EFL professionals, pp. 152-167. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars. 

Sharp, S. K. (2011). Teachers’ acquisition of CALL expertise. International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching 1(4): 1-16.