Alisha Nguyen

Assistant Professor

Alisha smiling in front of black background

Alisha Nguyen is Assistant Professor of TESOL, Bilingual Education, and Special Education at Lesley University. Her areas of expertise include early childhood education, bilingual education, language & literacy, 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, high-quality bilingual education programs, and equitable family/community 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, The Education Research Service Grant, and the Anti-Racist Seed Grant (American Educational Research Association). Her works are published in Early Childhood Education Journal, Educational Studies, Journal of Family Diversity in Education, Journal of Practitioner Research, and Human Organization.

Publications

Nguyen, A. & Tian, Z. (2025). “It’s always been on my mind”: Asian American bilingual teachers’ approaches to centering Asian American studies in urban dual language programs. Educational Studies.

Nguyen, A. (2025). Resisting curriculum erasure: A child-initiated advocacy project for Asian American bilingual picture books. In K.-A. Escayg, F. Faragó, & T. Husband (Eds.), Anti-racism in early childhood education: Challenging whiteness to implement just practices. Teachers College Press.

Nguyen, A. (2024). Building culturally sustaining learning space with young bilingual children and immigrant families during pandemic remote learning. Journal of Practitioner Research.

Nguyen, A. (2024). 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. (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. (2025, April). Resisting curriculum erasure: A child advocacy project for Asian American bilingual picture books [Paper Presentation]. American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Denver, CO.

Nguyen, A. (2025, April). Fighting for linguistic reparations: Asian American bilingual educators’ racialized struggles in urban dual language programs [Paper Presentation]. American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Denver, CO.

Nguyen, A. (2025, March). Fighting for linguistic justice: Collective struggle in a Vietnamese dual language bilingual education program [Colloquium]. In Ashraf, H. & Ortega, L., Dual Language Bilingual Education in Non-Dominant Partner Languages: Expanding the Research Base. American Association of Applied Linguistics Annual Conference, Denver, CO.

Nguyen, A. (2024, April). “Hao, nobody calls on you if you are not quiet!”: The racialized, silenced (in)visible child in a dual language classroom [Symposium]. In Nguyen, A. & Tian, Z., The Possibilities of Community Learning Spaces: Fostering a Sense of Belonging for Asian American Young Children. American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA.

Nguyen, A. & Lima Becker, M. (2024, April). Serving whose interests, using whose labor? Looking across two nondominant dual language programs in Massachusetts [Paper Presentation]. American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA.

Nguyen, A. (2023, November). Home Connection: Partnering with immigrant families and communities during the pandemic crisis [Paper Presentation]. American Educational Studies Association Annual Conference, Louisville, KY.

Nguyen, A. (2023, November). A practitioner inquiry: Sustaining immigrant children’s cultural and linguistic diversity during the COVID-19 pandemic [Roundtable]. American Educational Studies Association Annual Conference, Louisville, KY.

Nguyen, A. (2023, November). Lessons from pandemic teaching: Building culturally sustaining space with immigrant families and young bilingual children [Paper Presentation]. National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention, Columbus, OH.

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.