Sara Garner, Ed.D.

I am a child development and family studies Instructor for the Child and Family Studies Department and Extended Learning Departments at Southeast Missouri State University. I have served as a campus Child Care Center Director, Workshop-on-Wheels Trainer, and in numerous roles educating young children, families, and child development practitioners in regional and national settings. I often present at professional conferences in the areas of leadership, pre-k curriculum, and nature literacy. I also participated in a study tour of the Nature Kindergarten in Scotland hosted by Claire Warden. My research interests include higher education/adult learning strategies, the impact of poverty on preschools, the process of observation, and connecting children and families to nature.

I am married and have two adult children. Both children attended SEMO and working in successful career paths.

I want students to be engaged and interested in learning no matter what age. Take time to dig deeply, ask questions, be curious, and enjoy the journey.

Recent Publications

• Sofo, S., Ramos, A., Thompson, E., & Garner, S. (2025). Prevalence and correlates of self-handicapping tendencies among physical education preservice teachers. Journal of Physical Education, Sport, Health, and Recreation, 14(3), 1222-1228.
• Garner, S., Cortez-Castro, D. H., Felton, M.K., & Brown, A. L. (2024). Learning from diverse voices of early childhood teacher educators: Research, reflection, and possibilities. In M. K. Felton & D. H. Cortez-Castro (Eds.), Re-Exploring Play and Playfulness in Early Childhood Teacher Education.
• Garner, S. Chisum, M., & Kuborn, S. (2022). Confidence in crisis: Student self-efficacy and the online pivot. International Journal on Innovations in Online Education, 6(1), 29–47. 
• Giasi, T., Gerard, J., McNeary, W., Wacker, A. & Garner, S. (2022, October). Refining the edvolution: Increasing the integration of educational technology into content-specific teaching methods courses. In SITE Interactive Conference (pp. 196–201). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
• Garratt, E., Garner, S., Davis, T., Rushing, C, Forman, S., & Chisum, M. (2022). Therapists perspective: The impact of COVID-19 on early intervention implementation of services in Illinois, Florida, and the United Kingdom. Children, Youth, and Environments, 32(1), 210–219. 
• Garner, S., Ambery, M. E., Dees, S. (2019). Are your roots in the mud? Exchange, 41(4).