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Soo-yong Byun

Dr. Soo-yong Byun

Professor of Education, Demography, and Asian Studies; Social Science Research Institute co-funded faculty member

Phone: 814-863-1626

310D Rackley Building
University Park, PA 16802

Department(s)

  • Education Policy Studies

Program(s)

  • Educational Theory and Policy Program
  • Education and Public Policy
  • Education Policy and Leadership
  • Comparative and International Education

Center(s)

  • Center on Rural Education and Communities (CREC)
  • Educational Risk Initiative (ERI)
  • Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Analysis (CEEPA)
  • Population Research Institute (PRI)

Most excited about: Social Justice and Equity

Current Research: The roles of shadow education in non-cognitive outcomes and the roles of teacher leadership in professor wellbeing and teacher collaboration.

Education

  • PhD, Educational Policy and Administration (Concentration on Comparative and International Development Education), University of Minnesota at Twin Cities
  • MA, Sociology of Education, Korea University (South Korea)

Biography

Soo-yong Byun is a professor of Education (Educational Theory and Policy), Demography, and Asian Studies with a joint appointment with the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) as a co-funded faculty at the Pennsylvania State University. He is a faculty member of Penn State's Comparative and International Education Program.

 

Before joining Penn State in 2012, he worked as a postdoctoral scholar at the National Research Center on Rural Education Support, which was housed within the Center for Developmental Science in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2008 to 2011. He also served as a research associate and survey/psychometric specialist for the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA)'s Teacher Education Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) at the College of Education at Michigan State University from 2007 to 2008.

 

Dr. Byun earned his Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Administration, with a focus on Comparative and International Development Education track, from the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities in 2007. In 2017, he was named one of 17 rising alumni by the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development. He was also honored with the 2021 Penn State's College of Education Senior Outstanding Research Award. He served as the president of the Korean American Educational Researchers Association (KAERA) for 2017-18 and as a visiting scholar at Seoul National University's Department of Education for 2018-19.

 

His scholarly interests encompass sociology of education, international comparative education, rural education, and educational policy analysis and program evaluation. His work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including American Educational Research Journal, Comparative Education Review, and Sociology of Education. Furthermore, he has contributed to multiple editorial and advisory boards, including American Educational Research Journal, American Journal of Education, and Sociology of Education.

Areas of Expertise

Expertise and Research Interests

Educational Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation
International Comparative Education
Rural Education
Sociology of Education
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