Grace A. Chen is an Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow in the Department of Teaching and Learning. She holds a Ph.D. in Learning, Teaching and Diversity from Vanderbilt University and B.A. in Psychology and in Organizational Studies from the University of Michigan.
A former secondary school mathematics teacher, Chen studies teacher learning around issues of race, power, and equity, with particular interests in identity, ethics, and affect. Her dissertation explored secondary mathematics teachers’ ethical stances on relational work. In addition to academic research on teachers' attunements, teachers' pedagogical responsibilities, marginalization in mathematics education, and Asian Americans in STEM education, her teacher-facing work on the politics of teaching mathematics, building mathematical community in secondary classrooms, and refusing racialization has appeared in The Best of the Math Teacher Blogs 2015, the Global Math Department newsletter, and as keynotes at Twitter Math Camp and other professional development experiences. She also co-founded the monthly #miseducAsian Twitter chat.
Prior to joining NYU, Chen was a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, where she received the Graduate School's Founders Medal for First Honors, Otto C. Bassler Outstanding Dissertation Award, and the Peabody Faculty Council Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Leadership Award. She was also a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.
Selected Publications
- Chen, G. A. (2024). Choosing cruel optimism: What relational ethics offers “equitable” mathematics education. In P. Ernest (Ed.), Ethics and Mathematics Education: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (p. 319-339). Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-58683-5_16
- Chen, G. A. (2023). Teacherly response-ability: Ethical relationality as protest against mathematical violence. Educational Studies in Mathematics. doi: 10.1007/s10649-023-10230-3
- Calarco, J. M., Horn, I. S., & Chen, G. A. (2022). “You need to be more responsible”: Homework as a status-reinforcing process in school. Educational Researcher, 51(8), pp. 515-523. doi: 10.3102/0013189X221111337
- Chen, G. A. & Horn, I. S. (2022). A call for critical bifocality: Research on marginalization in mathematics education. Review of Educational Research. doi: 10.3102/00346543211070050
- Yoon, I. H. & Chen, G. A. (2022). Heeding hauntings: Research projects for personal, collective, and societal transformation. In A. Tachine & Z. Nicolazzo (Eds.). Weaving an otherwise: Reframing qualitative research through relational lenses. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
- Chen, G. A., Marshall, S. A., & Horn, I. S. (2021). “How do I choose?” Mathematics teachers’ sensemaking about pedagogical responsibility. Pedagogy, Culture, and Society, 29(3), pp. 379-396. doi: 10.1080/14681366.2020.1735497
- Chen, G. A. (2020). “That’s obviously really insensitive:” Teacher attunement to marginalization and power. Cognition and Instruction, 38(2), pp.153-178. doi: 10.1080/07370008.2020.1722128
- Chen, G. A. & Buell, J. Y.* (2018). Of models and myths: Asian(Americans) in STEM and the neoliberal racial project. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 21(5), pp. 607-625. doi: 10.1080/13613324.2017.1377170 (*equal authorship)