Jennifer Higgs Joins Research Team to Examine the Impact of Asian American Studies

Professor Jennifer Higgs is among a group of researchers recently awarded a prestigious $3.5 million Transformative Research Grant from the Spencer Foundation. Their project aims to examine the implementation of Asian American Studies (AAS) in five states with divergent political contexts. Together, they hope to uncover that educational reform toward AAS inclusion can lead to justice, solidarity, and expansion of the curriculum.

Alongside the project PI Noreen Naseem Rodríguez of Michigan State University and fellow co-PIs Esther Kim of College of William and Mary, Soo-yong Byun of the Pennsylvania State University, and Michael Brown of the University of Michigan, Higgs will conduct surveys, a network analysis and a comparative case study to gain insights on the contexts that help or hinder AAS curriculum implementation. Over the next five years, she will work with educators, youth, school leaders, community partners and organizations and practitioner consultants to identify strategies that can target and transform systems for equity. Higgs and her collaborators also plan to develop a resource hub for advocates and educators that will include videos of AAS teaching and learning, student testimony and curricular recommendations. 

“We anticipate this research will contribute to robust understandings of different kinds of systems learning needed at every level to support durable change,” Higgs said. “We also hope this research will make clear how systemic change for educational justice can only happen when students, teachers, families and communities of color take the lead in identifying educational problems and designing solutions for them in solidarity with one another.”

Higgs’ work also brings the opportunity to better support young people on an individual scale. “I’m looking forward to understanding students’ experiences in different contexts and the similarities and differences across their individual learning journeys,” she said.

Higgs was selected for the Transformative Research Grant project because of her background in young people’s learning, perspectives and experiences. Her work examines the use of digital tools in the classroom and how they can lead to new forms of reading, writing and participation. Most recently, she co-authored two articles on the relationship between young people and artificial intelligence and how this interplay informs students’ writing processes.