Jennifer Chen, Ed.D.

Ed.D., Human Development & Psychology, Harvard University
Ed.M., Language & Literacy, Harvard University
M.A., Bilingual/Bicultural Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
B.A., Psychology with a minor in Linguistics, Barnard College, Columbia University

Dr. Jennifer Chen is Professor of Early Childhood Education at Kean University. She is also a senior research fellow at NIEER of Rutgers University. She is a well-respected scholar who has authored/co-authored more than 100 scholarly publications, including four books, co-edited volumes, and many refereed research articles. Her research threads multiple strands of early childhood education (ECE), including child development, language and literacy, teacher stress and thriving, and the role of AI in young children’s learning. Dr. Chen has published several influential works in the use/overuse/misuse and the ethical considerations of AI in ECE. In particular, to guide ethical, responsible, and developmentally appropriate practice in AI use in ECE, she developed the POWER (Purposeful, Optimal, Wise, Ethical, Responsible) framework.

Dr. Chen has held several prominent leadership roles, including Chair of the Department of Early Childhood Education, President and Co-President (at different times) of the New Jersey Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NJAECTE), and Board Director of the New Jersey Chapter of the Fulbright Association. She is also an award-winning researcher, distinguished scholar and college professor, and a dedicated research mentor.

• Kean Presidential Excellence Award for Scholarship/Research (2025)
• Faculty Mentoring Program Recipient Award, Kean University (2025)
• Outstanding Early Childhood Teacher Educator Award from the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE) Foundation (2023)
• Exchange Leader, The Exchange Leadership Initiative in the field of Early Care and Education (2023)
• NJAECTE’s Distinguished Scholarship in Early Childhood Teacher Education/Early Childhood Education Award (2022)
• Highly Distinguished Publication Award, Kean University (2022)

For the research article, Chen, J. J., Li, Z., Rodrigues, W., & Kaufman, S. (2022). Thriving beyond resilience despite stress: A psychometric evaluation of the newly developed Teacher Stress Scale and the Teacher Thriving Scale. Frontiers in Psychology. 13:862342

• Kean Presidential Excellence Award for Distinguished Scholarship (2021)
• Research on Early Childhood Teacher Education Established Career Award from the NAECTE Foundation (2020)
• Kean Faculty Research Mentor of the Year Award (2010)
• Kean Presidential Excellence Award for Distinguished Teaching (2009)

PI: Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) Program at Kean, a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education

Grant Award Amount: More than 2.7 million dollars for a four-year grant period (2022 – 2026)

Authored Book: 

Chen, J. J. (2024). Responsive practice for dual language learners in early childhood education: Theory and case studies. Redleaf Press.

Co-authored book:

Li. H., & Chen, J J. (2023). The glocalization of early childhood curriculum: Global childhoods, local curricula. Routledge. ISBN13: 9781032229508 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003274865

Co-edited book:

Brillante, P., Chen, J. J., Cuevas, S. et al. (Eds.) (2023). Casebook: Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. NAEYC. ISBN-13:9781952331121

Journal Articles:

Chen, J. J., & Delaney, V. (2025). Leveraging AI to enhance children’s learning: Anchoring policy and practice in equity, ethics, and AI literacy for education leaders and teachers. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://org/10.1007/s10643-025-02036-0      

Chen, J. J., & Li, H. (2025). [Editorial]. AI and the developing child: Ethical and conceptual considerations, and practical frameworks for early childhood education, AI, Brain and Child, 15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44436-025-00016-0

Chen, J. J. (2025). How should we design, deploy, and regulate AI for young children?  Developmental appropriateness, ethical responsibility, and child-centeredness. AI Enhanced Learning, 1(1), 41-59. https://doi.org/10.70725/581728isdnsh

Chen, J. J. (2025). Navigating the liminal space in between surviving and thriving: A grounded theory of early childhood teachers’ processes of negotiating stress within the context of varying teaching demands and resources. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2025.2552979

Chen, J. J., Liang, X., & Lin, J. C. (2025). Weaving the fabric of social and emotional learning in the context of teaching: A Study in Hong Kong Kindergarten classrooms. Early Childhood Education Journal, 53, 1521–1537. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-024-01682-0

Chen, J. J., Li, Z., Rodrigues, W., & Kaufman, S. (2025). Who is more likely to thrive  and who is more likely to have thoughts about quitting teaching?: A study of early childhood teachers in the United States. Teaching and Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2025.105054

Chen, J. J., & Garcia, M. M. (2025). Teaching demands and resources: Early childhood teachers’ experiences of remote and hybrid instruction during COVID-19 in the United States. Education 3-13. 53(4), 530-543. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2023.2206833

Chen, J. J. (2025). From Turing's conception of machine intelligence to the evolution of AI in early childhood education: Conceptual, empirical, and practical insights. AI, Brain, and Child, 1(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44436-025-00002-6

Chen, J. J. (2025). “The grass is greener where you water it”: Nurturing teacher-child relationships and facilitating student learning as sources of teacher joy amidst stress for early childhood teachers in the United States. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and practice. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2024.2445841

Shen, F., Mi, R., Lee, H., Chen, J. J., & Zhang, Y. (2025). The effects of childhood maltreatment and social support on the trajectories of depressive symptoms from adolescence to young adulthood. Child Abuse & Neglect. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.107242

Chen, J. J., & Badolato, H. (2025). Scaffolding social and emotional learning in preschool children from low-income backgrounds: A study of teacher strategies during COVID-19. Education 3-13, 53(1), 85-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2023.2168131

Delaney, V., & Chen, J. J. (2024). Developmental considerations and practical recommendations for parents and early childhood educators in the age of AI. Policy Brief. Stanford Graduate School of Education: Public Scholarship Collaborative. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.14603.20000

Cutler, C. S., Chen, J. J., & Zhang, A. (2024). Cultural mindsets for supporting preschoolers’ executive functioning. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 52(3), 19-24.

Chen, J. J. (2024). A scoping study on AI affordances in early childhood education: Mapping the global landscape, identifying research gaps, and charting future research directions. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 81, 701-740.  https://doi.org/10.1613/jair.1.16882

Chen, J. J. (2024). An integrated approach to social and emotional teaching (SET):  A qualitative study of the beliefs and practices of preschool teachers in the United States. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-024-01803-9

Wu, D., Cai, L., Chen, J. J., & Li, H. (2024). Questioning to elicit inferential responses: A study of teacher-child linguistic interactions during block play activities in Chinese kindergartens. Early Education and Development, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2024.2423274

Chen, J. J., Ren, Y., & O’Neill, S. (2024). Exploring the literacy experiences of preservice early childhood teachers: Social and contextual influences, and implications for teacher education. Education Sciences, 14, 1042. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14101042

Chen, J. J. (2024). Neoliberalism and neocolonialism in the mix: Evidence of glocalization in the globalization-localization dynamics of early childhood practices in Hong Kong. Policy Futures in Education, 22(6), 1053-1081. https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231171977

Chen, J. J., & Lin, J. C. (2024). The double-edged sword of artificial intelligence: Wielding the POWER principles to maximize its positive effects and minimize its negative effects. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 25(1) 146–153. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231169813

Chen, J. J. (2024). In search of silver linings in teaching during COVID-19: A study of early childhood teachers’ perspectives. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and practice, 30(1), 49-70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2023.2225436

Chen, J. J. (2023). Reflecting on reflection among early childhood teachers: A study of reflection for, in, and on action intersecting with the technical, practical, and critical dimensions. Reflective Practice, 24(3), 324-346. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2023.2194624

Chen, J. J. (2023). Pedagogical adaptability as an essential capacity: Reflective practice of applying theory to practice among first-year early childhood teachers during remote instruction. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 44(4), 723-746. https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2022.2147879

Chen, J., J., & O’Donnell, B. (2023). Facilitating children’s social and emotional development in virtual learning: Implications for in-person teaching. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 58(S1), 82-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/00228958.2022.2125128

Chen, J. J., & Adams, C. B. (2023). Drawing from and expanding their toolboxes: Preschool teachers’ traditional strategies, unconventional opportunities, and novel   challenges in scaffolding young children’s social and emotional learning during remote instruction amidst COVID-19. Early Childhood Education Journal, 51, 925-937. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-022-01359-6

Chen, J. J., & Rivera-Vernazza, D. (2023). Communicating digitally: Building preschool teacher-parent partnerships via digital technologies during COVID-19. Early Childhood Education Journal, 51, 1189-1203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-022-01366-7

Chen, J. J., & Perez, C. (2023). Enhancing assessment and personalized learning through artificial intelligence. Childhood Education, 99(6), 72-79. https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2023.2282903

Chen, J. J., & Li, H. (2023). Tian Shi (timing) Di Li (context) Ren He (human capital): A new theoretical framework for analyzing the implementability of imported early childhood practices and making a case for a hybrid model. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 37(2), 292-309. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2022.2107588

Chen, J. J., & Krieger, N. J. (2023). Learning gain rather than learning loss during COVID-19: A proposal for reframing the narrative. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 24(1), 82-86. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491211073144

Chen, J. J., Kacerek, C. R., & Ruiz, M. (2023). The letter-naming benchmarks, growth profiles, and the efficacy of an interactive learning app on uppercase letter-name learning for preschool children. International Journal of Technology in Education (IJTE), 6(1), 113-135.https://doi.org/10.46328/ijte.360

Chen, J. J. (2023). Leadership at play in preschool children: A systematic synthesis of nearly nine decades of research. Early Education and Development, 34(1), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2021.1988036

Chen, J. J. (2022). Between the foreground and the background lies the middle ground: Painting a harmonious early childhood curriculum landscape. ECNU Review of Education. 5(2), 328-337. https://doi.org/10.1177/20965311221092035

Chen, J. J., & Othman, R. O. (2022). At the helm of navigating the remote instruction terrain. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 58(4), 178–182. https://doi.org/10.1080/00228958.2022.2110823

Chen, J. J., & Kacerek, C. (2022). Leaders and followers during sociodramatic play: A study of racial/ethnic minority preschool children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 36(3), 517-540. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2021.1960939

Chen, J. J. (2022). Assessing preschool children’s letter-name knowledge: Responsive practices. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 58(3), 130-135. https://doi.org/10.1080/00228958.2022.2076532

Chen, J. J., Li, Z., Rodrigues, W., & Kaufman, S. (2022). Thriving beyond resilience despite stress: A psychometric evaluation of the newly developed Teacher Stress Scale and the Teacher Thriving Scale. Frontiers in Psychology. 13:862342. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.862342

Chen, J. J. (2022). Self-compassion as key to stress resilience among first-year early childhood teachers during COVID-19: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Teaching and Teacher Education, 111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103627