Accepting new graduate students
Email
parkso@uw.edu
Phone
206-616-3029
Office
Miller 322C

Research Interests

Development of Children & Youth
Early Childhood
Educational Policy
Equity Studies
Immigration and Schooling
Learning Sciences & Human Development
Literacy
Qualitative Research Methods
Quantitative Research Methods

Soojin Oh Park

Assistant Professor

Soojin Oh Park is an assistant professor in Early Childhood and Family Studies at the University of Washington (UW) College of Education. Dr. Park studies early childhood development and parenting in the context of culture, immigration, and public policy. In particular, she is concerned with systematically expanding equitable learning experiences particularly among children with multiply marginalized identities. She seeks to understand how learning and development unfold across socioeconomically and culturally diverse ecologies and help create policies that humanize and reimagine early learning environments that reflect the hopes and priorities of historically underserved families and communities.

Education
Ed.D., Human Development and Education, Harvard University, Graduate School of Education
M.Ed., Educational Policy and Analysis, Harvard University, Graduate School of Education
M.S.Ed., Learning, Teaching, and Literacies, University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education
B.A., Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Expertise
Early childhood education
Parenting
Dual Language Learners (DLLs) / emergent bilingual children
Multilingual family engagement
Early language & literacy development
Certifications
Pennsylvania State PreK-4 Teacher Certification
Courses Taught
ECFS 410 Supporting Language and Literacy Learning in Preschool (Offered annually in Autumn)
EDPSY 567 Bilingual and Biliteracy Development in Early Childhood: Advancing Equity-Driven Policies and Practices (Offered Annually in Autumn)
ECFS 315 Parenting and Child Development: Socioeconomic & Racial Inequities in the First Years of Life (Offered Annually in Winter; Fulfills Diversity & Writing Requirements)
EDPSY 582 Parenting and Early Learning: Class, Race, and Family Life (Offered Annually in Winter; Graduate Seminar)
Research

Dr. Park directs the Early learning, Parenting, Immigration, and Culture (EPIC) lab in pursuing three interconnected lines of research.

1. Supporting immigrant-origin, racialized Dual Language Learners (DLLs) 

Decades of scientific evidence suggest that high-quality early education benefits all children, with substantially larger gains in learning among DLLs in low-income, immigrant families. However, much work is needed to understand the developmental contexts and processes of this increasingly diverse and fastest growing segment of U.S. child population. In one of Dr. Park’s current projects, BASECAMP (Bolstering Asian American Students in Early Childhood in Advancing Multilingual Practices), she conducted an ethnographic investigation of how families and communities mobilize to support the learning and development of emergent bilingual learners. In collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of colleagues, she is committed to increasing the pipeline of early childhood bilingual teachers in Washington state equipped to support culturally and linguistically responsive instruction.

2. Understanding Parenting and Family Context of Early Childhood Development

Families and home environment serve as the first and primary context of development in the early life span. The role of parenting and family context present promising policy levers (or family-level mediators) yet current evidence base and broad-based early childhood quality improvement efforts focus much less on the role of families and communities. To this effort, Dr. Park examines the role of parental investment in early learning across racially and socioeconomically diverse communities as a critical force in dismantling educational inequities in early childhood. In particular she is interested in meaningful yet understudied ways in which non-dominant families engage and expand their young children's learning. The central aims of her study, FAMILY (Fathers And Mothers Investing in the Learning of Young Children)are to [1] expand and complicate dominant notions of critical parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices by privileging the voices of families most often left invisible and silenced in academic literature and policymaking process; [2] understand what, how, and why families support their children's early learning and development, in order to reimagine transformative possibilities for equitable policy and practice.

3. Improving and Evaluating Early Childhood Policies, Systems, and Programs through an Equity Lens

Dr. Park's current program of research stems from her early work in evaluating the impact of early childhood policies and programs on children’s development and parenting practice. Greater attention in the field of ECE has been focused on impacts than processes. To better understand “active ingredients” or mechanisms in these programs that enhance the quality of early learning experiences, Dr. Park examines the role of statewide research-practice-policy partnership (RPP) in anchoring systemic supports for states to continuously improve the quality of publicly-funded prekindergarten (preK). She recently conducted a multi-year, cross-state case study to investigate (1) how states develop equitable, cross-sectoral partnerships for continuous quality improvement and evidence-based decision-making; and (2) how contexts of state preK (governance, leadership, advocacy, fiscal systems, workforce development, and politics) facilitate or impede quality improvement efforts. As an affiliate faculty at the Center for Early Childhood Policy & Equity, Dr. Park is committed to cultivate future generations of early childhood policy leaders positioned to engage in equity-oriented, evidence-based policymaking that promotes intersectional justice in early childhood. 

Fellowships, honors and awards
Publications

Park S. O., & Xu, C.* (2024). Parental attitudes and practices of Chinese immigrant families supporting emergent bilingual children’s Heritage Language Maintenance (HLM). International Journal of Early Childhood Education, 30(2), 99-130. http://dx.doi.org/10.18023/ijece.2024.30.2.005

González, A. P.*, & Park S. O. (2024). Culturally responsive assessment of multilingual learners: Preschool teachers’ (re)construction of pedagogical possibilities towards justice (Issue No. 12). AERA Bilingual Education Research SIG Research Brief

Park, S. O. (2023). Transforming a cemetery into a garden of languages: A justice-oriented, family-centered framework for cultivating early bilingualism and emergent biliteracy. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 24(2), 97-123. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231169762 

Park, S. O., & Hassairi, N.* (2021). What predicts legislative success of early care and education policies?: Applications of machine learning and natural language processing in a cross-state early childhood policy analysis. PLoS ONE 16(2): e0246730.

Capotosto, L., Kim, J. S., Burkhauser, M., Park, S. O., Mulimbi, B., Donaldson, M., & Kingston, H. C. (2017). Family support of third-grade reading skills, motivation, and habits. AERA Open, 3(3), 1-16.

Park, S. O., & Yoshikawa, H. (2017). Contemporary immigration policy and early childhood development. In E. Votruba-Drzal and E. Dearing (Eds.), Handbook of Early Childhood Development Programs, Practices, and Policies. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Weiland, C., Charles, D., Grace, E., & Park, S. O. (2017). Natural window of opportunity? Low-income parents’ responses to their children’s impending kindergarten entry. AERA Open, 3(1), 1-15. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2332858416681509

Warren, M. R., Park, S. O., & Tieken, M. C. (2016). The formation of community engaged scholars advancing equitable policy and practice: A collaborative approach to doctoral training in educational research. Harvard Educational Review, 86(4), 233-260. https://doi.org/10.17763/0017-8055.86.2.233

Schindler, H. S., Kholoptseva, J., Oh, S. S., Yoshikawa, H., Shonkoff, J. P., Duncan, G. J., & Magnuson, K. (2015). Maximizing the potential of early childhood education to prevent externalizing behavior problems: A meta-analysis. Journal of School Psychology, 53(3), 243-263.

Britto, P. R., Yoshikawa, H., Ponguta, L. A., Reyes, M., Oh, S. S., Dimaya, R., Nieto, A. M., & Seder, R. (2014). Strengthening systems for integrated early childhood development services: Cross-national analyses of governance. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1308, 245-255. https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.12365

Oh, S. S. & Yoshikawa, H. (2012). Examining spiritual capital and acculturation across ecological settings: Developmental implications for children and youth in diverse immigrant families. The Impact of Immigration on Children’s Development, 77-98. 

Oh, S. S., & Cooc, N. (2011). Immigration, Youth and Education: Editors’ Introduction. Harvard Educational Review, 81(3), 397-407. https://www.hepg.org/her-home/issues/harvard-educational-review-volume-8...

Catone, K., Chung, C. K., & Oh, S. S. (2011). An appetite for change: Building relational cultures for educational reform and civic engagement in Los Angeles. In M. R. Warren, K. L. Mapp, and the Community Organizing and School Reform Project (Eds.), A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing as a Catalyst for School Reform, (Chapter 3, pp. 66-98). New York: Oxford University Press. [equal authorship]

Afolabi, K. P., Bocala, C., DiAquoi, R., Hayden, J. M., Liefshitz, I., & Oh. S. S. (Eds.) (2011). Education for a Multicultural Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. [equal authorship]

Snow, C. E., & Oh, S. S. (2010). Assessment in early literacy research. In S. B. Neuman and D. K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of Early Literacy Research. (Vol. 3, pp. 375-395). New York: Guilford Press.


 

Grants awarded

2023-2025 Co-PI (PI David Knight), Developing New Leaders and Growing the Field of Early Childhood Policy. Early Childhood Policy in Institutes of Higher Education.

2021-2023     Co-PI (PI Holly Schindler), Center for Early Childhood Policy and Equity. The Buffett Early Childhood Fund and Heising-Simons Foundation.

2019-present     PI, The Fathers and Mothers Investing in Learning of Young Children (FAMILY) Study. University of Washington College of Education.

2019-2020     Faculty Collaborator (PIs: Manka Varghese, Marge Plecki, Ana Elfers), A Roadmap to Reducing Barriers to Educational Injustice in Washington State. Washington Education Association.

2017-2020     Co-PI (PI Gail Joseph), Cultivating Research-Policy-Practice Partnerships for Improving Prekindergarten Quality. Gates Foundation.

News features

Placing a greater emphasis on social skills in early childhood education than is currently the norm could significantly reduce antisocial or aggressive behaviors later in life, new research from the University of Washington College of Education finds.