Crystal Chen Lee
Assistant Professor, English Language Arts Education
402S Poe Hall
Bio
Crystal Chen Lee (Ed.D.) is an Assistant Professor of English Language Arts and Literacy in the College of Education at North Carolina State University. Her research lies at the nexus of literacy, community-based organizations, and marginalized youth. She is the founding director and PI of the Literacy and Community Initiative (LCI), a collaboration among the College of Education, the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, and youth-serving community organizations (Juntos NC, Triangle Literacy Council—Bull City YouthBuild, and CORRAL Riding Academy). Formerly, she worked extensively with urban teachers and students as a doctoral research fellow for Teaching Residents at Teachers College (TR@TC) and as a Zankel Urban Fellow at the Center for Professional Education of Teachers (CPET) at Columbia University. Her work has been featured nationally and internationally, and she has published in books and journal articles such as Teaching and Teacher Education and the International Journal of Educational Research. Dr. Lee began her teaching experience as a high school English teacher in New Jersey and a literacy instructor at Teachers College, Columbia University and Montclair State University. In addition to her teaching, she has also served as an International Leadership Fellow in the United States Congress and an education intern at International Justice Mission, a non-profit organization focused on human rights, law, and law enforcement. She received her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University. Her dissertation, “Critical Literacy as Common Ground: The Possibilities of African Immigrant Girls in New York City Schools and Community-Based Organizations,” received the American Association of University Women (AAUW) American Dissertation Fellowship, Teachers College’s Provost Dissertation Award, and Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship. Her dissertation won the AERA Research in Women and Education SIG Outstanding Dissertation Award (Selma Greenberg Award) in 2018.
Research Description
Crystal Lee’s research focuses on two strands: one on literacy education, and one on teacher education with an intersection of critical pedagogy and multicultural education in both fields. She is interested in examining literacy from a social justice stance—one that includes the values and advocacy of families and multiple stakeholders who work to improve education for traditionally marginalized communities. In recognizing the literacy practices of community organizations, Dr. Lee is passionate about publishing student voices, as well as drawing upon their academic and personal strengths in order to inform how the community can meet the literacy needs of currently underserved and immigrant youth. Dr. Lee is the founding director and PI of the Literacy and Community Initiative (LCI) that investigates and promotes the power of voice among marginalized students through a model of Write, Engage, and Lead. LCI’s mission is to build university and community-based partnerships by amplifying student voices through student publication, advocacy, and leadership. Dr. Lee's current research projects and trajectories are:
- Youth Civic Engagement and Public Advocacy
- Literacy and Leadership in Community-Based Organizations
- Immigrant Adolescent Experiences
- Literacy and the Social and Emotional Well-Being of Marginalized Students
- Critical Literacy Practices and Social Action in English Language Arts
- Social Justice Teacher Education in Urban Communities
- Immigrant Student Experiences in New York City
- Preparing Teachers in Urban Contexts
Education
Ed.D. in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2017
M.Ed. in English Language Arts from Rutgers Graduate School of Education in 2009
B.A. in English, Summa Cum Laude from Rutgers University-New Brunswick in 2008
Programs
Selected Scholarly Publications
- Lee, C. C., Falter, M. & Schoonover N. (in press). Encountering the Affective in Latino Immigrant Narratives. Reading Research Quarterly.
- Lee, C. C. (2020). "I Have a Voice": Reexamining researcher positionality with African immigrant girls in New York City. Multicultural Perspectives. 22(1), 46-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2020.1728272
- Roegman, R., Reagan, E., Goodwin, A. L., Lee, C. C., & Vernikoff, L. (2020). Reimagining social justice-oriented teacher preparation in current sociopolitical contexts. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2020.1735557
- Lee, C. C. & Schoonover N. (2019). “My Life’s Blueprint”: Publishing critical youth narratives in community-based organizations. English Teaching: Practice & Critique. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1108/ETPC-05-2019-0069
- Lee, C. C. (2019). “Invite their languages in”: Community-based literacy practices with multilingual African immigrant girls in New York City. International Journal of Multicultural Education. 21(2), 1-22.
- Lee, C. C. & Dickstein, K. (2019). Taking global action beyond the book. English Journal. 109(1). 114-116.
- Lee, C. C. Akin, S. & Goodwin, A.L. (2019). Teacher candidates’ intentions to teach: implications for recruiting and retaining teachers in urban schools. Journal of Education for Teaching, 45(5). DOI: 10.1080/02607476.2019.1674562
- Lee, C. C. & Goulding, C. (2018). Teaching the acts of witnessing in Maus and Night. In M. Falter & S. Bickmore (Eds.) Moving beyond personal loss to societal grieving: Discussing death’s social impact through literature in the secondary ELA classroom. (pp. 149-162). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
- Lee, C. C. (2018). A critical case for rendering the invisible: The mentorship, scholarship, and leadership of Professor A. Lin Goodwin. In N. Hartlep (Ed.), Asian/American Scholars of Education: 21st Century Pedagogies, Perspective, and Experiences. (pp. 29-42) Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
- Roegman, R., Pratt, S., Sanchez, S. & Chen, C. (2018). Between extraordinary and marginalized: Negotiating tensions in becoming teachers of students with labeled disabilities. The New Educator, 14(4), 293-314.
- Reagan, E. M., Chen, C., & Vernikoff, L. (2016). “Teachers are works in progress”: A mixed methods study of teaching residents’ beliefs and articulations of teaching for social justice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 59, 213-227.
- Chen, C., Desai, K. & Knight-Manuel, M. (2016): Fostering a humanizing pedagogy: Imagined possibilities for African immigrant girls. Education Leadership Review. 16(3), 34-41.
- Goodwin, A. L. & Chen, C. (2016). New Knowledges for Teacher Educating?: Perspectives from practicing teacher educators. In C. Kosnik, S. White, C. Beck, B. Marshall, A. L. Goodwin, & J. Murray (Eds.), Building Bridges: Rethinking Literacy Teacher Education in a Digital Era (pp. 149-162). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
- Reagan, E. M., Chen, C., Roegman, R., & Zuckerman, K. (2015). Round and round: Examining teaching residents’ participations in and reflections on education rounds. International Journal of Educational Research, 73, 65-76.
Courses Taught
- ECI 709 Critical Literacy for Social Change
- ECI 820 Critical Theory and Public Engagement
- ECI 307 Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum
- ECI 450 Methods and Materials in Teaching English
- ECI 454 Student Teaching in ELA-Secondary
Honors and Awards
- AERA Research in Women and Education Outstanding Dissertation Award (Selma Greenberg Award)
- AAUW American Dissertation Fellowship
- Provost Doctoral Dissertation Grant
- Dean’s Doctoral Research Dissertation Fellowship
- Teachers College Minority Scholarship
- Arthur Zankel Urban Fellowship