Rate My Professor I-Fang Lee

Dr. I-Fang Lee is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master of Arts from Ohio State University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Ohio State University. Her professional career trajectory includes an appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education at the Hong Kong Institute of Education from August 2006 to January 2012. She was the Velma E. Schmidt Fellow in the College of Education at the University of North Texas from 2010 to 2014, a member of the International Critical Childhood Studies Collaborative from 2010 to 2020, and an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016. These roles underscore her commitment to social justice, peace, and equity in early childhood contexts.

Associate Professor Lee's research specializations encompass contemporary issues of equity and justice in early childhood care and education, changes and reforms in early childhood education and care, constructions of Asian childhoods, children's mental health and well-being, and global knowledge on appropriate pedagogical practices in the early years. She utilizes critical and post-structural theories to challenge constructions of social inclusion and exclusion. As chief investigator, she led the Australian Research Council Discovery Project titled Global Childhoods in the Asian Century: Connecting Policy, Educational Experiences and Everyday Lifeworlds of Children in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore from 2019 to 2022. She is a co-founder of the Global Childhoods Collective. Key publications include Lee, I-F., Saltmarsh, S., & Yelland, N. (2023), Childhood, Learning & Everyday Life in Three Asia-Pacific Cities: Experiences from Melbourne, Hong Kong and Singapore (book); Lee, I-F. (2020), Crisis of care and education in the early years: Paradoxical moments in the global pandemic, Global Studies of Childhood, 10(4), 385-394; Lee, I-F. (2018), (Re)Landscaping early childhood education in East Asia: A neoliberal economic and political imaginary, Policy Futures in Education, 16(1), 53-65; and various chapters such as The Global Childhoods Project: Learning and Everyday Life in Three Global Cities (2023). She received the 2018 Vice Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence and Contribution to Student Learning. Lee serves as co-editor and associate editor for Global Studies of Childhood and co-editor for The International Critical Childhood Policy Studies Journal. Her teaching involves coordinating early childhood education courses, supervising Honours, Master of Philosophy, and PhD students, and convening the Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood/Primary) (Honours) and Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood/Primary) programs. She facilitates intercultural learning through New Colombo Plan Mobility Projects and collaborates on children's emotional well-being with the School of Nursing and Midwifery, influencing local policies via the Early Learning Working Party at the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese School Office.