Susan Sandretto

Susan Elaine Sandretto is an American–New Zealand academic, and is a full professor at the University of Otago, specialising in working with teachers to develop critical literacy in primary and secondary school pupils. Sandretto also works on unintended consequences of educational policy, such as changes to active transport.

Academic career
Sandretto trained as a teacher, and worked as a Spanish immersion teacher in California primary schools before moving to New Zealand in 1997. She lectured in education at the University of Otago, and completed a PhD titled Teacher education and social justice: theorising professional practice at Otago in 2004. Sandretto then joined the faculty of the university, rising to associate professor in 2019 and full professor in 2024.

Sandretto's research and teaching focus on the development of critical literacy, which is the ability to find embedded discrimination in media, although she is also interested in multiliteracies and gender issues in education. She teaches in primary teacher education, and education studies. Sandretto is part of the writing team for the English Learning Area of the New Zealand refreshed curriculum, Te Mātaiaho, and has produced materials to support literacy development in the classroom. Sandretto has also focused on how educational policy can have unintended effects, such as changes in rates of active transport. Sandretto is a member of the Built Environment Active Transport to School research group, a Health Research Council-funded project led by Sandra Mandic at Otago and Auckland University of Technology.

In 2008 Sandretto won Otago University Students' Association's New Supervisor of the Year award.