ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú

Personal Summary

Jingjing Sun is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the Department of Teaching & Learning. Her research has centered on children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development, with an emphasis on promoting academic engagement and wellbeing among all children. The privilege to work with Indigenous communities on the Flathead Nation in ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú, as well as schools in urban and rural settings in both the United States and China, has profoundly shaped Jingjing's research agenda. Collaborating with community leaders, educators, and interdisciplinary colleagues, Jingjing's work examines the impact of broader ecological systems, including culture, land, community, and tribal sovereignty, on learning and children’s social and emotional development in school. Further, Jingjing is passionate about supporting educators’ learning and wellbeing through extended professional development co-designed with community members and educators themselves. She helps teachers integrate collaborative discussions and social-emotional learning into their regular pedagogies. 

Jingjing directs the  at the ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú and is proud to lead an interdisciplinary team of dedicated graduate and undergraduate students. She values mentoring the next generation of scholars in developing expertise in sophisticated mixed-methods designs and community-based participatory research. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, dancing, figure skating, skiing, experimenting with new cuisines, and getting lost in nature with her family.

Education

Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, Cognitive Science of Teaching and Learning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

M.S. in Applied Statistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

M.S. in Educational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

B.A. in English, with Honors, Anhui University

Courses Taught

Graduate Courses:

• EDEC 540 Neuroscience & Its Impact on Child Development
• EDU 510 Developmental and Learning Sciences
• EDU 626 Mixed Methods Research Design

Undergraduate Courses:

• EDU 221 Educational Psychology & Measurement 
• EDU 222 Educational Psychology​ & Child Development 

Projects

Ongoing

1. PI. Expanding the Space to Dream: Co-adapting a Culturally Responsive Social-emotional Learning Program to Promote Indigenous Survivance. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Indigenous-led Solution Grant, $634,786, 10/01/2024-9/30/2027. Co-PIs: Anisa Goforth and Michelle Mitchell. 
2. PI. Co-designing for the Future: Supporting Indigenous Children in Rural ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú through Community-Engaged and Culturally Responsive Social-Emotional Learning. Spencer Foundation Research-Practice Partnership Grants, $399,998, 08/01/2024-07/31/2027. Co-PI: Anisa Goforth, Michelle Mitchell, Cory Beckham.  
3. PI. Supporting Indigenous Children's Mental Health through Community-engaged Research. ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) Major Research Grant, $263,600, 5/1/2023-4/30/2025. Multiple PI: Anisa Goforth.
4. PI. Co-designing for the Future: Supporting Indigenous Children through Community-engaged and Culturally Responsive Social-Emotional Learning. Research for Indigenous Social Action and Equity (RISE) Center Grant, $15,000, 1/1/2023-12/31/2024. Co-PI: Anisa Goforth. 

Recently Completed

1. Co-PI. ENGAGE: Transformative Social-Emotional Learning for Educators to Support Indigenous Students. PI: Anisa Goforth. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Research Awards, Society for the Study of School Psychology, $10,000. 06/15/2022 – 10/30/2023.
2. PI. Project SELA: Improving Mental Health for Native American Youth through Social-Emotional Learning. Early-Stage Investigator Career Award, American Indian/Alaska Native Clinical & Translational Research Program, National Institutes of Health, $220,000, 8/1/2019 –12/31/2021.
3. Co-PI. Early Learning Fellows: Fostering and Connecting Emerging Education Leaders. PI: Kate Brayko. 21^st Century Learning Program, Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation, $113,000, 03/01/2019 – 12/31/2023.
4. PI. Building Resilience and Social Emotional Competence among Native American Youth. American Indian/Alaska Native Clinical & Translational Research Program, National Institutes of Health, $54,500, 8/1/2018 –07/31/2019.

Publications

Referred Journal Articles (* = student author; ⁺ = community partners)

Sun, J., *Kusumaningsih, S., & +Yang, R. (2025). Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy.  

*Violante, A. E., Goforth, A. N., Sun, J., *Lilly, J, +Howlett, R., +Hogenson, D., +Munro, B., Ith, D. A., & Reszewicz, A. (2025). School Psychology Review.   

Lin, F., & Sun, J. (2024).  Learning and Information Sciences. 

Reid, S., & Sun, J. (2024). Art Education, 77(2), 40-46.

Goforth, A. N., Nichols, L. M., Sun, J., Violante, A., Brooke, E.*, Kusumaningsih, S.*, Howlett, R.⁺, Hogenson, D.⁺ & Graham, N.⁺ (2024).  School Psychology Review, 53(4), 365-381. 

Sun, J., Goforth, A. N., Nichols, L. M., Violante, A. E.*, Christopher, K.*, Howlett, R.⁺, Hogenson, D.,⁺ & Graham, N.⁺ (2022). . Child Development.

Sun, J., Anderson, R. C., Morris, J. A., Lin, T.-J., Miller, B. W., Ma, S., & Scott, T. (2022). Contemporary Educational Psychology.

Goforth, A., Nicols, L., Sun, J., Violente, A.*, Christopher, K.*, & Graham, N.⁺ (2022). Psychology in the Schools, 59(10), 1984-2004. 

Sun, J., Zhang, J., & Li, H. (2020).  ECNU Review of Education. â€‹

Morris, J. A., Miller, B., Anderson, R. C., Nguyen-Jahiel, K., Lin, T.-J., Scott, T., Zhang, J., Sun, J., & Ma, S. (2018). International Journal of Educational Research.

Sun, J., Anderson, R. C., Perry, M., & Lin, T.-J. (2017). Cognition and Instruction, 35(3), 212-235. 

Ma, S., Anderson, R. C., Lin, T., Zhang, J., Morris, J. A., Nguyen-jahiel, K., Miller, B. W.,  Jadallah, M., Scott, T., Sun, J., Grabow, K., Latawiec, B. M., & Yi, F-H. (2017). Learning and Instruction, 5845, 217–244. doi: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2016.12.00

Ma, S., Zhang, J., Anderson, R. C., Morris, J., Nguyen-Jahiel, Miller, B. W., Jadallah, M., Sun, J., Lin, T.-J., Scott, T., Hsu, Y.-L., Zhang, J., Latawiec, B. & Grabow, K. (2017).  Discourse Processes.

Zhang, X., Anderson, R. C., Morris, J., Miller, B., Nguyen-Jahiel, K., Lin, T.-J., Zhang, J., Jadallah, M., Scott, T., Sun, J., Latawiec, B., Ma, S., Grabow, K., & Hsu, Y.-L.. (2015).  American Educational Research Journal, 54(1), 194-223. DOI: 10.3102/0002831215618663

Miller, B., Anderson, R. C., Morris, J., Lin, T.-J., Jadallah, M., & Sun, J. (2014). Learning and Instruction, 33, 67-80.

Book Chapters (* = student author; ⁺ = community partners)

Sun, J., Howlett, R.⁺, Hogenson, D.⁺, Nichols, L. M., Goforth, A. N., Kusumaningsih, S.*, Graham, N.⁺, & Brooke, E.* (2023). Community-engaged culturally sustaining social and emotional learning as an approach to speculative education. In A. G. Garcia, & N. Mirra (Eds.), New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Ma, S., Anderson, R. C., & Sun, J. (2023). In R. Tierney, F. Rizvi, & K. Ercikan (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education, 4^th edition.

Lin, T.-J., Ma, S., Anderson, R. C., Jadallah, M., Sun, J., Morris, J., Miller, B. & Sallade, R. (2018). In R. Gillies (Ed.), Promoting academic talk in schools. UK: Taylor & Francis. 

Ma, S., Sun, J., Morris, A. J. & Anderson, R. C. (2016). Collaborative reasoning: An instructional approach that promotes higher-order thinking. In W. Li (Ed.), International research on children’s reading. Beijing, China: Beijing Normal University Press. [In Chinese]

Sun, J., Anderson, R. C., Lin, T.-J., & Morris, J. A. (2015). Social and cognitive development during collaborative reasoning. In L. B. Resnick, C. Asterhan, & S. N. Clarke (Eds.), Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

Miller, B., Sun, J., Wu, X. & Anderson, R. C. (2013). Child leaders in collaborative groups. In C. E. Hmelo-Silver, C. A. Chinn, C. K. K. Chan, & A. O'Donnell (Eds.), London, UK: Taylor & Francis.

Honors / Awards

2024                  Extraordinary Public Impact Award, National Association of Public and Land-Granted Universities

2023                  SRCD Early Career Transdisciplinary Fellow, Society for Research in Child Development

2020-                 Women's Leadership Initiative Fellow, ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú & Clearwater Credit Union

2019-2021         Early-Stage Investigator Career Award, American Indian/Alaska Native Clinical & Translational Research Program, National Institutes of Health

2019-2021         AERA-SRCD Early Career Research Fellow in Middle Childhood Education and Development