Peggy A. Kong
Bio
Peggy A. Kong (she/her) is a clinical associate professor with expertise in educational policy and comparative education at the University of Utah. Dr. Kong brings an interdisciplinary approach to her research on immigrant families, rural education, and family and school relationships. She has been working in rural China for two decades on a large survey project. Building on her research in China and East Asia, her work has expanded to include a transnational focus. She has been awarded research grants to investigate the parent-school relationship for immigrant and non-immigrant parents regarding kindergarten transition and school readiness. She is developing a more complete and complex model of the immigrant experience including a focus on race and racism.
Dr. Kong has taught courses in educational policy, comparative and international education, program evaluation, Chinese education and society, globalization and education, gender and development, and quantitative and qualitative research methods.
Dr. Kong is a board member of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) and co-chair of The Carnegie Project for the Education Doctorate (CPED) Online/Hybrid CIG. She is past chair of the CIES East Asia SIG and past president of the Mid-Atlantic Association for Asian Studies (MARAAS). She serves on the editorial boards of Cogent Education and Chinese Education and Society. Dr. Kong earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
Publications
- Kong, P. A., Zhang, X., Yu, X., & Wyman, D. (2024). Adolescent Romance in Rural China: The Role of Gender and Parenting Practices. Chinese Education & Society, 57(1–2), 54–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/10611932.2024.2377019
- Sawyer, B., Shera, S., Cai, Y., Sonnenschein, S., Kong, P. Simons, C., Zhang, X., & Yu, X. (2023). School Readiness Beliefs: Comparing Priorities of Early Childhood Teachers and Immigrant Latine and Chinese Parents. Early Childhood Education Journal. doi:10.1007/s10643-023-01617-1
- Zhang, X., Sachdev, A., Dzotsenidze, A., Yu, X. & Kong, P. (2023). Anti-Asian Racism during COVID-19: Emotional Challenges, Coping, and Implications for Asian American History Teaching. Education Sciences. 13, 903. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13090903
- Kong, P., Zhang, X., Yu, X.,& Sachdev, A. (2023). Learning the Rules: Chinese Immigrant Parent’s Involvement During Their Children’s Transition to Kindergarten. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-023-01452-4
- Zhang, X., & Kong, P. A. (2023). Immigrant Chinese Parents in New York Chinatowns: Acculturation gap and psychological adjustment. Asian American Journal of Psychology 14 (2), 145-154. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000280
- Sawyer, B.E., Dever, B.V., Kong, P. Sonnenschein, S., Simons, C., Yu, X., Zhang, X., & Cai, Y. (2022). Dominican, Salvadoran, and Chinese Immigrant Parents’ Reasoning About School Readiness Skills. Child & Youth Care Forum 51(1), p.137-159. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-021-09623-3
- Simons, C., Sonnenschein, S., Sawyer, B., Kong, P., & Brock, A. (2022). School Readiness Beliefs of Dominican and Salvadoran Immigrant Parents. Early Education and Development 33(2), p. 268-289. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2021.1930747
- Zhang X, Kong PA. (2021). Rural Chinese Youth During the Transition into Adulthood: Family Dynamics and Psychological Adjustment. International Journal of Psychology 56(5):756-765. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12749
- Kong, P., Yu, X., Sachdev, A., Zhang, X., & Dzotsenidze, N. (2021). From “How are you doing?” to “Have you eaten?”: Understanding the Daily Lived Experiences of Asians in America During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Perspectives in Education, 39(1), 77-105. https://doi.org/10.18820/2519593X/pie.v39.i1.6.
- Kong, P, Hannum, E, & Postiglione, G. (2020). Rural Education in China’s Social Transition. Abington, Routledge, Studies in Chinese Education and Society Series.
- Kong, P. (2016). Parenting, Education, and Social Mobility in China: Cultivating Dragons and Phoenixes Abington, Routledge, Contemporary Asian Studies Series.
Research
Dr. Kong's research interests focus on family and school relationships in rural China and with immigrant families in the United States. She combines rich ethnographic research with longitudinal survey data to deeply understand the social mobility challenges facing rural children and families. She is the author of Parenting, education, and social mobility in China: Cultivating dragons and phoenixes, which illuminates that poor rural families share the same educational values as wealthier families, but the strategies they are able to use to support their children’s schooling are invisible to schools and largely ignored in the academic literature on parental involvement. She is co-editor of Rural education in China’s social transition (with Emily Hannum and Gerard Postiglione), the first book focused on the educational challenges and opportunities of diverse populations of rural residents. Dr. Kong investigates parental strategies for supporting education among immigrant families in the United States. She examines the ways immigrant families navigate the transition to kindergarten and parental racial socialization and discrimination experiences of Asians in America during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Anne and Michael Golden Grant
- International Baccalaureate Organization
- Research Grants Council (RGC) Hong Kong
- Spencer Advanced Doctoral Student Fellowship