Chris Chang-Bacon

Chris Chang-Bacon researches equity in multilingual and multicultural contexts. His work explores how language difference is understood, promoted, or restricted in educational and broader societal contexts. His primary line of research documents how language ideologies and policies impact teachers of multilingual learners, particularly in English as a Second Language (ESL) and Bilingual Education contexts.

Chang-Bacon began his teaching career through the Peace Corps in Morocco. He subsequently taught high school and middle school in South Korea and Massachusetts before starting his PhD at Boston College. In Boston, Chang-Bacon worked for the Boston Public Schools’ Office of Opportunity Gaps while researching the impacts of the state’s former “English Only” education policy. He has consulted for multiple K-12 content-area textbooks, helping publishers adapt content for linguistically inclusive accessibility.

Chang-Bacon’s current projects focus on anti-oppressive pedagogies in teacher education, documenting how teachers work, both individually and collectively, to disrupt policies that uphold racial and linguistic discrimination. His research has been funded by grants from the Spencer Foundation, NCTE, and the International Research Foundation for English Language Education.

Chang-Bacon is co-editor of Racial Justice in Multilingual Education (RJME), a peer reviewed journal dedicated to documenting and disrupting the overlap of racial and linguistic injustice in schools. He also serves on the editorial board for several other scholarly journals, including TESOL Quarterly, Linguistics & Education, and the American Educational Research Journal (AERJ).

Chang-Bacon was the recipient of the 2020 AERA Language and Social Processes Emerging Scholar Award, and in 2023, he was awarded the UVA All-University Teaching Award. In 2025, he was named a postdoctoral fellow for the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation.

Dr. Chang-Bacon will be recruiting doctoral students to begin in Fall 2027 (applications Due Dec 1st, 2026). Students may apply through the Curriculum & Instruction PhD Program or the Language Education in Multilingual Contexts PhD program.

Ph.D., Boston College, 2019
M.Ed., Boston University, 2014
B.A., Gustavus Adolphus College, 2007

Curriculum Vitae