Jongyeon Joy Ee
Associate Professor Loyola Marymount University
Media
Biography
Education
University of California, Los Angeles
Ph.D.
Education
2015
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
MA
Teaching English as a Second Language
2010
Areas of Expertise
Industry Expertise
Accomplishments
LMU Ascending Scholar Award
2020-03-23
The LMU Ascending Scholar Award recognizes excellence and promise in faculty whose scholarship exemplifies LMU’s mission and standard of excellence.
Outstanding Dissertation Award
2016-03-04
Received the outstanding dissertation award from National Association for Bilingual Education
Affiliations
- American Education Research Association
Articles
Bilingualism as activism: Collective efforts in building the first Korean dual language programs in the US
International Multilingual Research JournalJongyeon Ee, Minhye Son
2025-04-05
This qualitative study, led by two Korean transnational scholars, explores the development of the first Korean Dual Language Programs (KDLPs) in the United States, emphasizing how communities leveraged bilingualism as a powerful tool for activism through collective efforts. Grounded in the notions of historicizing communities and ourselves, as well as community cultural wealth, the study captures the narratives and experiences of twelve educators, community leaders, and activists through individual interviews and focus groups conducted in Korean, English, and translanguaging. The findings underscore the multilayered factors that shaped the establishment of KDLPs, including social and historical contexts (i.e. the Lau v. Nichols legacy and the influx of Korean migrant students), community dynamics (i.e. vibrant transnational funds of knowledge within the Korean diaspora and the collective efforts of various stakeholders), and individual contributions marked by strong activism, visionary leadership, and pioneering spirit among educators. Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Lau v. Nichols decision and the 30th anniversary of KDLPs, this study offers a rich historical narrative and valuable insights for Asian language communities and transnational immigrant communities of color speaking less-commonly-taught languages. It underscores the enduring influence of bilingual education as a form of community-based activism and its role in promoting educational and linguistic equity for all students.
Are parents satisfied with integrated classrooms?: Exploring integration in dual language programs
International Journal of Bilingual Education and BilingualismJongyeon Ee
2021-01-06
This study concerns integration in a two-way dual language immersion (DLI) context. Specifically, the present study examines parents of students in Korean-English DLI programs with the intent to understand the extent of their satisfaction with their child’s ability to get along with children of different cultures and languages. This study also examines parental views on integration among parents themselves. Using the survey data collected from over 450 parents in seven elementary schools in southern California, this quantitative study also investigates to what degree the variables of integration among children and among parents are associated with other parental demographic characteristics and parental experiences in their child’s DLI program. Based on the study findings, this study argues that integration in DLI must be a school-wide commitment and not simply a program’s goal. Moreover, to achieve integration in DLI, all stakeholders of the program need to be considered, including students, educators, and families of students in the school. This study also highlights the need to diversify discussions regarding DLI programs in terms of target languages, program types, and school locations.
A critical collaborative self-study of transnational teacher educators on AI and multilingual education
Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher EducationSae Saem Yoon, Jongyeon Joy Ee, Minhye Son
2025-10-02
In this critical collaborative self-study, three Korean multilingual teacher educators reflect on their engagement with ISTE’s 8-week professional development. Guided by reflective practice and teacher agency frameworks, this study poses the following questions: (1) How do teacher educators perceive the efficacy of AI tools in preparing preservice teachers? and (2) What challenges and disparities emerge in the creation and use of AI-generated multilingual resources? Thematic analysis of multimodal and written reflections demonstrates that while AI offers efficiency and creative potential, its effective use requires strong AI literacy and consciousness to avoid biases and foster culturally responsive, equitable teaching practices. The study highlights the need for preservice teachers to engage with AI through critical reflection and proactive teacher agency.
The Impact of Immigration Enforcement on the Nation’s Schools
American Educational Research JournalJongyeon Ee and Patricia Gándara
2019-07-18
In response to growing concerns about the impact of harsh immigration enforcement policy since the 2016 presidential campaign, we examined its overall impact on the nation’s schools, using survey data completed by over 3,600 educators across the country. Our study results show that immigration enforcement is affecting all students—both those from immigrant homes and those that are not. In particular, Title I schools are the most affected by immigration enforcement. Our results also show that the higher the percentage of White students, the more educators reported immigrant students being exposed to a hostile, anti-immigrant environment. We conclude that the current policy of immigration enforcement significantly dismantles an equitable education for all students and creates a critical threat to their futures.
Bamboo bridges or barriers? Exploring advantages of bilingualism among Asians in the U.S. labor market through the lens of superdiversity
Bilingual Research JournalJongyeon Ee
2019-05-03
The number of Asian immigrants in the United States has increased remarkably over the past decades and now accounts for nearly 30% of all immigrants in the country. However, the umbrella term Asians includes a wide range of variety. Acknowledging diversity among Asians, this study explores advantages of Asian bilingualism in the American labor market by attending to employment status and personal earnings through the lens of superdiversity. A series of logistic and ordinary least squared regression analyses of the 2011–2015 American Community Survey (ACS) data shows that substantial differences exist across different ethnic groups among Asians. Bilingual advantages appear in most Asian groups when predicting both employment status and personal earnings, and the benefits tend to be more salient in the results of earnings analysis. The findings indicate that native-language literacy skill is a more momentous variable than the other variables in the model and that bilingual advantages stand out among Asian Indians and Chinese/Taiwanese more substantially compared to other Asians. Immense gender gaps also exist between Asian males and females in terms of economic well-being, and such gaps are more conspicuous in personal earnings than in employment status.
Two dimensions of parental involvement: What affects parental involvement in dual language immersion?
The Journal of the National Association for Bilingual EducationJongyeon Ee
2017-04-07
This article investigates parental involvement in Korean two-way immersion (TWI) programs from the social capital theory perspective. This study explores the degree to which parental involvement is affected by parents’ demographic features and parent-related variables by analyzing data from 454 parents of students enrolled in seven elementary schools; the majority of parents and students in these schools are from immigrant families with different linguistic and cultural values. The findings reveal two dimensions of parental involvement activities: personal interactions among parents regarding their children’s education and parental participation in school. The results of a series of regression analyses indicate that the impact of social capital-related features on parental school engagement is modest. Parental interaction and participation are positively associated with each other; positive school environment is another salient factor in predicting parental involvement. The study’s findings provide insights regarding empirical evidence on parental practices in TWI and call for discussions and further research.
Exploring Korean dual language immersion programs in the United States: parents’ reasons for enrolling their children
International Journal of Bilingual Education and BilingualismJongyeon Ee
2016-07-14
This study explores parents’ reasons for enrolling their children in a Korean dual language immersion (KDLI) program. The research focuses on parents’ reasons for choosing a school and a KDLI program, respectively, to examine whether a KDLI offering significantly affects parents’ decision to enroll their children in a specific school and to investigate which factors parents tend to prioritize when selecting a KDLI program over other language immersion programs. Given the various contexts in which individual KDLI programs operate, this study also compares different parent groups characterized by Korean ethnicity and school characteristics in terms of their responses. The study surveys more than 450 parents of students enrolled in 7 elementary-level KDLI programs in southern California to determine the extent to which parents’ reasons vary across different groups and examine whether group differences exist between Korean and non-Korean parents as well as between parents whose children attend high socioeconomic and low socioeconomic status schools. The study discusses the findings by comparing the results to prior literature and identifies implications for KDLI and DLI programs in general.
