Dr. Leanne Kang is an associate professor of Educational Foundations at Grand Valley State University. She is also the author of Dismantled: The Breakup of an Urban School System: Detroit, 1980-2016. Kang began her career during the onset of NCLB, teaching language arts at an urban public high school in New Jersey. The experience led her to doctoral studies at the University of Michigan where she received a Ph.D. in Educational Foundations and Policy. Kang works closely with preservice and in-service teachers and administrators across Michigan, particularly in Grand Rapids and Detroit. Her research examines the history of urban education in the U.S. as a critical component to understanding and improving current educational reforms, policies, and practices. As an Asian American woman, daughter of immigrants, and a former public school teacher, advancing social justice is a driving force behind her teaching and research. She is currently working on a second book that chronicles the history of the Grand Rapids Public Schools from 1968 to the present. You can listen to the oral histories for this book as podcasts on Spotify or Apple.

• Educational Foundations

Courses

• EDF 315: Diverse Perspectives in Education
• EDF 485: Context of Educational Issues
• EDF 671: Educational Policy and Practice
• EDF 672: Social and Cultural Foundations of Education

• Ph.D. in Educational Foundations and Policy, University of Michigan, 2015
• M.A. in Public Affairs and Politics, Rutgers University, 2010
• M.Ed. in Language Arts, Rutgers University, 2004
• B.A. in English, Rutgers University, 2002

• American Educational Research Association
• History of Education Society
• Urban Affairs Association

Awards & Honors

• GVSU CSCE Distinguished Early Career Scholar Award, 2021
• King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellow, 2014

Publications

Kang, L. (2023). Urban education reform in wicked times: The limits and possibilities of building civic capacity in Detroit. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 31.

Kang, L. (2022). Why anti-racist education must include Asian American History. Mid-Western Educational Researcher, 34(2).

Kang, L. (2020). Dismantled: The Breakup of an Urban School System: Detroit, 1980-2016. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Kang, L. & Slay, K.E. (2019). The costs and consequences of school governance change in Detroit: From Proposal A to the Education Achievement Authority. In E.M., Duncan-Shippy (Ed.), Shuttered Schools: Race, Community, and School Closures in American Cities, Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

• History of education
• Education reform and politics
• Race and education

My Current CV