Emma Chen 陈星, Ph.D.
She/her/hers/她, Assistant Professor of Elementary Education
About
Originally from China and now residing on the border between Canada and the US, Emma is an immigrant mother of two young multilingual children who speak Mandarin Chinese, English, and French. Each day, they navigate the joys and challenges of living in a diverse linguistic and cultural environment. Emma has collaborated with preschool-aged newcomers, Indigenous children, and their families in family literacy programs. She has also taught Chinese to adult learners and served as a Lecturer in early literacy and children's literature at the University of Saskatchewan. Emma’s research anchors in transnationalism, raciolinguistic ideologies, translanguaging, and parent knowledge. Using narrative inquiry methodology, her doctoral study delves into transnational parent knowledge in heritage language education in both home and community contexts. Her goal is to spotlight multilingual families’ linguistic practices in the broader scope of language teaching and learning. Nationally and internationally, Emma has presented at conferences focusing on education and linguistics. She's authored a series of peer-reviewed articles in various journals and books. Emma is a SHHRC funded scholar. Additionally, Emma is a published children's book author of picturebook Molly Misses Nainai.