About
Dr Choi is an Associate Professor and the Director of Internationalisation. Prior to joining the University of Southampton, she worked at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) (2013-2022) and part-time at King’s College London (2010-2013).
Dr Choi is an internationally leading scholar in language-in-education policy, who researches educational change management in the TESOL context and beyond. She has analysed TESOL-related curricular reforms, as well as language-in-education (LEP) reforms, including those concerning the medium of instruction (e.g., EMI) and multilingualism. She also investigates the development of teachers in this reform context, as they become the gatekeepers for their implementation. Finally, reflecting the global trends in TESOL and other areas of education, such as privatisation and digitalisation, she has investigated how they shape and manage student learning and teacher professionalism and, ultimately, educational equity.
In addition to her passion for research, she has actively supported colleagues in research development. Dr Choi is currently leading an interinstitutional peer review excercise in preparation for REF, where staff of the Southampton Education School and the Department of Education Policy and Leadership, EdUHK, assess the submissions from the other unit and provide feedback based on the REF assessment criteria. Previously at EdUHK, she led a cross-departmental writing group (2020-2022), and an internationalisation research cluster, FEHD Education Policy Research Hub (2019-2022). As a leader of the hub, she connected the academics of five institutes (e.g., Queensland University, Australia; University of Strathclyde, Scotland; Beijing Normal University, China), and liaised cross-institutional publications, research projects and conferences.
She is serving as an editorial board member of multiple journals, e.g., Journal of Education Policy, and of a book series (Multilingual Education, Springer). She is an associate editor of an ESCI journal, International Journal of Comparative Education and Development (since 2016).
Dr Choi has provided advice to 13 countries at the invitation of the central, local governments or their agencies (e.g., Croatia Agency for science and higher education) and international organisations (e.g., Asian Productivity Organisation; the British Council) on long-term education plans, reform management and teacher education, as well as individual educational institutes (e.g., Hong Kong University of Technology).
Dr Choi is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and the Royal Anthropological Institute, and of the US East-West Centre and is serving as a co-convenor of the Policy Studies and Politics of Education Network of the European Educational Research Association, and a Honorary Professor of the National University of Battambang, Cambodia.