Dr. Hosun Kang
Associate Professor
School of Education, University of California, Irvine

Dr. Hosun Kang was selected to receive the NARST 2019 Early Career Research Award (ECRA). This honor recognizes Hosun Kang’s professional accomplishments as significant among other early career researchers nominated this year.

Dr. Kang’s research addresses a central educational problem: persistent unequal opportunities in secondary science classrooms for youth of color and those from linguistically and socioeconomically marginalized communities, to learn. Three lines of her scholarship have direct implications for three aspects of science education: science learning, science teaching, and the preparation of future science teachers. She both studies and addresses this issue by working collaboratively in the design of citizen science learning experiences with key educational actors: teachers, teacher leaders, scientists and community-based organizations. Dr. Kang’s research advances knowledge in the field by illuminating the processes by which preservice teachers learn to teach in situated ways within a complex learning ecosystem, and the impact of these approaches on early career teachers’ learning trajectories beyond preparation.

As an early career scholar, Dr. Kang has made significant contributions, publishing 16 papers in quality science education and teacher education journals. Her potential for research excellence was identified early; she received the AERA Division K Outstanding Dissertation Award and was a finalist for the NARST Outstanding Dissertation award.