Jennifer C. Ng
- Department Chair of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies
- Professor
Contact Info
1122 W. Campus Rd.
Lawrence, KS 66045-3101
Biography —
Dr. Jennifer Ng is a professor and chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Kansas. She has also served in several senior leadership positions at KU, including Interim Vice Provost for the Office of Diversity & Equity and Associate Vice Provost for the Office of Faculty Affairs. Prior to her career in higher education, Jennifer was a middle school English teacher in Houston, Texas. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Iowa and her doctorate in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Research —
Throughout Jennifer’s faculty career, she has explored how the social contexts of schooling affect educators’ work—especially with race, class, culture, and other forms of difference as primary features. She has pursued this interest in urban areas with preservice, novice, and veteran teachers serving students of color in high poverty, hard-to-staff schools. Additionally, she has advanced the scope of existing scholarship about rural “new destinations” where immigrants have increasingly settled and spurred not only the rapid growth of many small towns throughout the Midwest and the South but also their demographic, linguistic, and cultural transformation. Jennifer’s recent work further extends into higher education with a focus on institutional diversity initiatives and faculty careers. Appreciating the vitality of intellectual exchange across departments and institutions, Jennifer’s scholarship includes multiple interdisciplinary collaborations and community-engaged partnerships.
Research interests:
- multicultural issues related to race, class, and other equity concerns in education
- qualitative research methodology
Teaching —
- Social and cultural foundations of education
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion in K-12 and higher education
- Qualitative research and writing
Selected Publications —
Ng, J. (Forthcoming). Where diversity grows: Reflections on translocational positionality and identity, difference, and belonging. Anthropology and Education Quarterly.
Ng, J., Portillo, S., & Thomas, K. (2022). The rationalized myth of faculty mentoring: A critical examination of faculty experiences and institutional change. In V.L. Baker and A.L. Terosky (Eds.). Bridging the research-practice nexus: Resources, tools, and strategies to navigate mid-career in the academy (p. 45-52). Hanover, PA: New Directions for Higher Education, Wiley and Sons.
Foste, Z., & Ng, J. (2022). “Didn’t mean to mean it that way”: The reduction of microaggressions to interpersonal errors of communication among university resident assistants. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 15 (5), 548-559.
Ng, Jennifer C. (2021). Refuse thy name? Critical reflections on the convention of masking place in rural educational research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 34 (9), 790-799.
Martinez, R., Ng, J., & Martinez, S. (2021). Focus on faculty: A missing link in community-university partnerships. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 31 (1), 99-109.
Ng, J., Stull, D.S., & Martinez, R. (2019). What if only what can be counted will count? A critical examination of making educational practice “scientific.” Teachers College Record, 121 (1), 1-26.
Ng, J. & Esposito, P. (2017). Telling tales in the field: Understanding how educational practitioners determine the credibility of ideas about poverty. The SoJo Journal: Educational Foundations and Social Justice Education, 2 (1), 17-27.
Stull, D. & Ng, J. (2016). Majority educators in a United States minority/immigrant public school district: The case of Garden City, Kansas. Human Organization, 75 (2), 181-191.
Ng, J., Wolf-Wendel, L., & Lombardi, K. (2014). Pathways from middle school to college: Examining the impact of an urban, pre-college preparation program. Education and Urban Society, 46 (6), 672-698.
Ng, J., Skorupski, W., Frey, B., & Wolf-Wendel, L. (2013). ACES: The development of a reliable and valid instrument to assess faculty support of diversity goals in the United States. Research & Practice in Assessment, 8 (Winter), 29-41.
Ng, J., Morsbach Sweeney, H., & Mitchiner, M. (2013). Let’s sit together: Exploring the potential for human relations education at lunch. Journal of Thought, 48 (2), 65-77.
Peter, L., Ng, J., & Thomas, K. (2011). How career changers make sense of teaching through professional metaphors. Action in Teacher Education, 33 (3), 232-245.
Ng, J. & Peter, L. (2010). Should I stay or should I go? Examining the career choices of alternatively licensed teachers in urban schools. The Urban Review, 42 (2), 123-142.
Ng, J. & Rury, J. (2009, Winter). Problematizing Payne and understanding poverty: An analysis with data from the 2000 census. Journal of Educational Controversy, 4 (1).
Ng, J., Lee, S. & Pak, Y. (2007). Dismantling the model minority and perpetual foreigner stereotypes: A critical review of literature on Asian Americans in education. Review of Research in Education, 31, 95-130.
Ng, J. (2006). Understanding the impact of accountability on preservice teachers’ decisions about where to teach. The Urban Review, 38 (5). 353-372.
Ng, J. & Rury, J. (2006, July 20). Poverty and education: A critical analysis of the Ruby Payne phenomenon. Teachers College Record. Retrieved from www.tcrecord.org ID# 12596. (Featured also in a special issue of Teachers College Record’s most read articles of 2006)
Awards & Honors —
2018 Recipient, Faculty Achievement Award for Service
School of Education, University of Kansas
2017 Recipient, Steeples Service to Kansans Award
University of Kansas
2016 Recipient, Dr. Bob Frederick Educator Award
School of Education, University of Kansas
2015 Selected Member, Leadership Kansas, Class of 2015
2011 Recipient, Gene A. Budig Teaching Professorship
University of Kansas
2010 Recipient, Keeler Intra-University Professorship
University of Kansas
2009 Recipient, Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Teacher
School of Education, University of Kansas