Meet Our Team

Jayoung Choi

I, Jayoung Choi (최자영 جایانگ چوی), am a professor of TESOL (Language and Literacy Education) in the Department of Inclusive Education at Kennesaw State University in the United States of America. I teach language education and educational research courses at the university. My research aims to unpack the ways in which language, culture, identity, agency, power, and ideology affect learning and teaching for immigrant multilingual learners in and beyond school contexts. Through my research, I hope to support teachers and immigrant families in disrupting the pervasive monolingual ideology and to advocate for a more multi-lingual and -literate society.

I am originally from Incheon, South Korea, and I came to the USA in 2001 upon graduating from university in South Korea. I have been married to an Iranian, and we have a 10 year old boy and eight year old girl (in 2023). We use our respective heritage languages, Korean and Farsi, with our children, who are growing up as trilinguals since their birth. I use Korean, English, and Farsi daily, and have interests in other languages.

Jayoung can be contacted at [email protected]

Please also check out Jayoung’s scholarly work at the following links: ResearchGate, GoogleScholar, KSUFacultyWeb

Mihaela Gazioglu

I, Mihaela Gazioglu, am an Education Associate at Clemson University in South Carolina, USA where I have been teaching graduate and undergraduate courses focusing on linguistic and cultural assets that multilingual students bring to the classroom. My current research focuses on multiple language acquisition and maintenance, language ideologies, and the education of English language learners.

I am originally from Romania, and together with my Turkish husband, we have called the USA home for nearly seven years. Within our household, we’ve cultivated a rich multilingual environment where Romanian, Turkish, and English are spoken daily. Our seven-year-old daughter is fortunate to be exposed to all three languages.

My educational journey began in 2003 as an English teacher in Romania, specializing in teaching English as a foreign language. I later transitioned to a role providing professional development to English teachers in my county. In 2015, I moved to Turkey, where I experienced being a linguist and cultural minority for the first time. This transformative move profoundly impacted my initial research interests, prompting me to shift my focus toward the fascinating realms of cultural and linguistic diversity. In 2022, I graduated with a Ph.D. in Literacy, Language, and Culture from Clemson University.

Mihaela can be contacted at [email protected]

Tuba Angay-Crowder

I am Tuba Angay-Crowder, a post-doctoral researcher and TESOL instructor in the Department of Inclusive Education at Kennesaw State University. I worked with pre-service and in-service teachers, coordinated ESOL degree and non-degree programs, and served as an affiliated leadership faculty member at the Center of Transnational & Multicultural Education at the Department of Middle and Secondary Education, Georgia State University (GSU). I taught English in my home country Turkiye, and in the U.S., and worked with ESOL teachers in England, and the U.S. where I also volunteered at teaching English to refugees at the International Rescue Committee. My research projects concern multilingual families’ language practices, dual language education, culturally sustaining pedagogies, language teacher’s identity tensions and agency, and counter-narratives on raciolinguistic ideologies.

I came to the U.S. in 2008 for my masters and doctoral degrees and got married in 2012. My husband, an American citizen, knows some words and sentences in Turkish. We consider ourselves a multilingual family, speaking and learning English and Turkish varieties. I enjoy outdoor activities and exercise. I love hiking in the mountains and swimming. I also enjoy traveling and spending time with family and friends. I have really enjoyed traveling to the United Kingdom, Canada, Netherlands, and France. In the U.S., I have made fun trips across the country, from East to West and from North to South.

Tuba can be contacted at [email protected]

This website was financially supported by HaBilNet, the Harmonious Bilingualism Network.