People
Baiwen Peng
-
Doctoral Student, CIDE
Baiwen Peng is a doctoral student in Comparative and International Development Education at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, with a graduate minor in Program Evaluation.
Master of Education, Comparative and Global Studies in Education and Development, University of Hong Kong, 2018
- Higher education
- Education alternatives
- International development
- Minjian (among the people)
- Public scholarship
I am an international student from China, and before I came to the US in 2023, I worked in Hong Kong’s higher education sector for five years. Having experience with multiple research projects in Hong Kong, I developed a strong interest in how knowledge generated from research can go beyond academia and inform practice. This interest led me to explore related topics such as public scholarship and public intellectuals. My PhD dissertation focuses on an informal learning community at a university in Hong Kong. It is an alternative to mainstream higher education models, with an emphasis on cultivating social responsibility and citizenship for undergraduates. To account for the nature of this community, I developed minjian (民间), a Chinese concept meaning “among the people”, as my theoretical framework. I have also written an article discussing minjian, and it has been accepted by Comparative Education, a leading journal in the field of comparative and international education.
My earlier academic work is broadly positioned within the sociology of education. I published an article on shadow education (private tutoring) and co-authored ones focused on cultural capital and parenting. One of them appears in Educational Research Review. I also co-authored a book chapter focused on international schools in Hong Kong.
I recently received a research grant from the Study Abroad and International Students Special Interest Group of Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) to study international students’ engagement with AI and their sociotechnical imaginary.
In addition to research, I am actively engaged in the practice of international development. I supported UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet) for its programming promoting education for sustainable development. In summer 2025, I worked with a non-profit organization in Cambodia as a development consultant, an opportunity provided through the Mary Tjosvold graduate fellowship in community development at the College of Education and Human Development, UMN. I also worked with an education non-profit in Minnesota as an evaluator and consultant.
PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
Comparative and International Education:
Peng, B. (2025). Minjian: Exploring education “among the people” in China. Comparative Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2025.2584606.
Peng, B. (2021). Chinese migrant parents’ educational involvement: Shadow education for left-behind children. Hungarian Educational Research Journal, 11(2), 101-123. DOI: 10.1556/063.2020.00030
Tan, C.Y., Peng, B., & Lyu, M. (2019). What types of cultural capital benefit students’ academic achievement at different educational stages? Interrogating the meta-analytic evidence. Educational Research Review, 28, 100289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2019.100289
Tan, C.Y., Lyu, M., & Peng, B. (2019). Academic benefits from parental involvement are stratified by parental socioeconomic status: A meta-analysis. Parenting: Science and Practice. DOI: 10.1090/15295192019.1694836
Program Evaluation:
Peng, B., Welshons, K., Adler, T., Kim, H., & Blue, E. J. M. (2025). Remembering What We Always Knew: Development of an Indigenous Diabetes Prevention Model. Current Developments in Nutrition, 104570. DOI: 10.1016/j.cdnut.2025.104570
BOOK CHAPTERS & REPORTS
Van dermijnsbrugge, E., & Peng, B. (2022). The evaluation of free learning at International College Hong Kong. In R. Parker, D. Coniam, & P. Falvey (Eds.), Free learning: A student-directed pedagogy in Asia and beyond (pp.213-230). Routledge.
Peng, B. (2022). Supplemental Educational Services in the US and its implications for China’s After-School Services (in Chinese). Shanghai Education. Published on 10 January 2022. Available at https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-
Peng, B. (2021). An introductory article for the research “Chinese migrant parents’ educational involvement: Shadow education for left-behind children” published at Network for Research into Chinese Education Mobilities. Available at: https://chineseedmobilities.com/2021/10/27/chinese-migrant-parents-educational-involvement-shadow-education-for-left-behind-children/
Van Dermijnsbrugge, E., & Peng, B. (2020). In it together: An inquiry into a school-based curriculum approach called ‘Free Learning’. Jeff Thompson Research Award Winners’ Studies. Available at https://ibo.org/research/research-resources/jeff-thompson-research-award-winners-studies/in-it-together-an-inquiry-into-a-school-based-curriculum-approach-called-free-learning/
Peng, B. (2025). Minjian: Towards an approach to researching education in China from below. Presented at Research-in-Progress Roundtable Series session at 2025 Annual Meeting of American Education Research Association (AERA), Denver, USA.
Peng, B., & Yang, J. (2025). Social media as public pedagogy: The development of news literacy of Chinese international students in the United States. Presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), Chicago, USA.
Yang, J. & Peng, B. (2024). Chinese international students’ transnational news media repertoires and responses to political disagreement. Presented at the 107th Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Annual Conference, Philadelphia, USA.
Peng, B. (2024). In search of new possibilities: Alternative education in China. Presented at the XVIII World Congress of Comparative Education Societies, Cornell University, USA.
Kim, H., Adler, T., & Peng, B. (2024). Decolonizing health education for Indigenous communities in the US: The case of Remembering What We Always Knew. Presented at the XVIII World Congress of Comparative Education Societies, Cornell University, USA.
Peng, B. (2022). Chinese migrant parents’ educational involvement: Shadow education for left- behind children. Presented at Cambridge Pembroke Workshop on Chinese Migration, Diaspora & Mobility, University of Cambridge, UK.
Peng, B. (2021). Supplemental Educational Services in the US and its implications for China’s After- School Services. Presented at the 19th Shanghai International Curriculum Forum, East China Normal University, China.
Peng, B. (2021). Chinese migrant parents’ educational involvement: Shadow education for left- behind children. Presented at the 2021 Conference of Comparative Education Society of Asia Conference, Kathmandu University, Nepal.
