Özge Ergin

Özge Ergin is a PhD candidate in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on Early Childhood Education and a minor in Applied Linguistics at Pennsylvania State University. Prior to her doctoral studies, she spent nearly a decade working as a preschool teacher, where she gained extensive hands-on experience in multilingual and diverse early childhood classrooms. Her background as an educator deeply informs her research approach, which is rooted in both practice and theory.

Özge’s research interests center around affect theory, sound, and movement studies in early childhood education. She explores how affective forces, embodied sound, and non-representational movement shape young children’s learning, identities, and interactions within educational environments. Her work challenges traditional models of meaning-making in classrooms, particularly those that prioritize language, and instead emphasizes the multisensory, material, and relational dimensions of learning.

Additionally, Özge is engaged in critical disability studies, examining how children with diverse abilities are positioned in relation to institutional norms, and how educational practices can be reshaped to foster more inclusive and supportive learning environments. Through her research, Özge seeks to offer alternative pedagogical frameworks that move beyond deficit-based models and recognize the dynamic, emergent nature of children’s experiences.

Conference Presentations

American Educational Research Association (AERA), Philadelphia, 2024
An Ethnographic and Sociolinguistic Study of Multilingual Immigrant Children
Presented as part of the session Unapologetically Dramatic About Injustices: AnthroPerformances of Minoritized Children/Childhoods
(SIG: Critical Perspectives on Early Childhood Education)

Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education (RECE), Chicago, 2024
Embracing Vitality: Rethinking Literacy in Multilingual Early Childhood Classrooms

Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education (RECE), Manchester, UK, 2023
An Ethnographic and Sociolinguistic Study of Un/Identified, Disabled Multilingual Children, Teachers, and School Staff

American Anthropological Association (AAA), 2024
Ethnographic Exploration: Understanding Multilingual Early Childhood Education Dynamics

Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), Chicago, 2025
Beyond the Screen and Beyond Borders: A Collaborative Narrative Inquiry of Technology

Professional Service

Peer Reviewer, International Critical Childhood Policy Studies Journal
Vol. 12 No. 1 (2025): Post-foundational and Critical Childhood Studies: New and Emerging Scholarship—Part II (Special Issue)

Grants and Fellowships

YLSY Scholarship – Ministry of National Education, Turkey
Full Scholarship for Graduate Studies Abroad (MEB Scholarship)
2019 – Present
Awarded by the Turkish Ministry of National Education to support graduate studies and academic development abroad in the field of education. Covers tuition, living expenses, and travel for doctoral studies in the United States.

Manuscripts Under Review

Ergin, Ö. (Under Review). Reimagining Sound and Affect: Challenging Traditional Meaning-Making in Early Childhood Education Assemblages Beyond Language. Manuscript submitted to Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education.