Alisha Nguyen

Assistant Professor

Alisha smiling in front of black background

Alisha Nguyen is an assistant professor of TESOL, Bilingual Education, and Special Education at Lesley University. Her Ph.D. is in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Critical Perspectives on Schooling: Race, Class, Gender, & Disability from the Lynch School of Education & Human Development at Boston College. She is also a 2020 Rennebohm Fellow affiliated with the Center of Human Rights & International Justice at Boston College.

Alisha Nguyen's areas of expertise include anti-bias/anti-racist education, bilingual education, language & literacy development, and family engagement. Her scholarship mostly focuses on the intersectionality of language, power, race, class, and gender across educational settings and aims to foster racial, gender, and linguistic justice. Alisha Nguyen is particularly interested in conducting participatory action research with diverse families and communities. She has been working closely with immigrant families, grassroots and community-based organizations, and school districts to advocate for anti-racist education, bilingual education, and equitable family engagement.

Alisha Nguyen's research projects have been recognized and funded by multiple organizations. She is the recipient of the Racial Equity Grant (Spencer Foundation), Elva Knight Research Grant and Award (International Literacy Association), the Peter K. New Award (Society for Applied Anthropology), the Equity Grant (American Educational Research Association, Division C - Teaching and Learning) and the Anti-Racist Seed Grant (American Educational Research Association, Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education). Her works are published in Early Childhood Education Journal, Journal of Family Diversity in Education, Journal of Practitioner Research, and Human Organization.

Publications

Nguyen, A. (2023). In solidarity: Development, implementation, and evaluation of a family engagement and home learning program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Family Diversity in Education.

Nguyen, A. (forthcoming). Building culturally sustaining learning space with young bilingual children and immigrant families during pandemic remote learning. Journal of Practitioner Research.

Nguyen, A. (2023). Food never forgets: Digital foodprints and collective memories of a Vietnamese Facebook Group. Human Organization.

Nguyen, A. (2022). “Children have the fairest things to say”: Young children’s engagement with anti-bias picture books. Early Childhood Education Journal, 50, 743-759.

Nguyen, A. (2022). Disrupting gender norms with gender-themed picture books. Literacy Today, August Issue.

Nguyen, A. (2021). Childhood innocence and the racialized child in a White space. NEOS - A Publication of the Anthropology of Children and Youth Interest Group, 13(1).

Presentations

Nguyen, A. & Tian, Z. (2023, April). Co-design and implementation of an anti-racist biliteracy program using critical translanguaging pedagogy [Invited Session, Anti-Racist Teaching and Teacher Education Seed Grant, Division K]. American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.

Nguyen, A. (2022, November). Troubling appropriateness with gender-themed picture books [Paper Presentation]. Literacy Research Association Annual Conference, Phoenix, AZ.

Nguyen, A. (2022, April). A year in turmoil: Immigrant families’ struggles and disengagement with remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic [Paper Presentation]. American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, San Diego, CA.

Nguyen, A. (2021, November). Young children's intersectional struggles in early childhood classrooms [Paper Presentation]. National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention, Virtual Conference.

Nguyen, A. (2021, April). Disruptive storytime: Teaching for social justice with anti-bias picture books [Roundtable]. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Virtual Conference.

Nguyen, A. (2021, March). “Food never forgets”: Digital footprints of Vietnamese Facebook Group and collective memories [Paper Presentation, Peter K. New Award Recipients 2020-2021]. Society of Applied Anthropology Annual Conference, Virtual Conference.

Nguyen, A. (2019, October). Who's afraid of the Big "Bad" Queer? Gender discipline and surveillance in early childhood [Paper Presentation]. American Educational Studies Association Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD.