Dr Daeul Jeong is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre (ITRC), University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC). Her research themes include education for Indigenous peoples, Indigenous economic success, cultural diversity, education policy, and global education frameworks.

Research Focus

• Dr Jeong’s work focuses on equity in education, especially for Indigenous and ethnic-minority communities in global and cross-cultural settings.
• She explores education policy enactment, language policy, minority rights and access to quality education, particularly in Southeast Asia and underrepresented contexts.
• Her research also examines Indigenous economic success, cultural diversity, and structural challenges affecting marginalised populations aligning strongly with ITRC’s commitment to transcultural, socially impactful scholarship.

Key Research Impact

• Through empirical and policy-oriented research (e.g. “Imagining language policy enactment in a context of secrecy: SDG4 and ethnic minorities in Laos” (2023), she sheds light on how global education goals intersect with local minority rights and education access a critical contribution to global education equity and policy debates.
• Her conference presentation “Intersecting sovereignties: Exploring Indigenous employment in transcultural enterprises” (2025), co-authored with colleagues, underscores her commitment to understanding how economic opportunity, cultural identity and education intersect offering potential pathways for Indigenous economic empowerment.
• Dr Jeong’s research helps broaden understanding of how structural inequalities including language, culture, and policy shape educational and social outcomes for Indigenous and ethnic-minority communities globally. This aligns with ITRC’s vision of socially just, inclusive, culturally responsive research.
• Prof Raciti and Dr Jeong were recently awarded the UniSC LAUNCH Pilot grant for Dr Jeong’s new project, "Transcultural Employment: Building Reciprocal Relationships among Indigenous and Non-European migrant peoples."

Translation to Practice and Policy

Dr Jeong’s research offers practical and policy-relevant contributions by:

• Informing education policy and implementation for minority and Indigenous communities particularly in multilingual, multicultural and cross-national contexts.
• Supporting equity and inclusion agendas by revealing structural barriers to education and employment for marginalised populations, and proposing culturally aware, context-sensitive frameworks.
• Contributing to global education discourse aligned with international frameworks (e.g. Sustainable Development Goal 4 Quality Education), thereby influencing how education equity and cultural diversity are addressed in both research and policy domains.
• Strengthening transcultural and decolonising research practices modelling how education research can centre minority voices and cultural diversity in design, analysis and advocacy.

Recognition and Significance

Dr Jeong’s role as a postdoctoral fellow at ITRC with a focus on Indigenous and minority education, economic success, and global policy frameworks positions her as a rising scholar whose work embodies key ITRC values: cultural respect, social equity, global connectedness and inclusive impact. Her research bridges academic research, policy relevance and social justice, contributing to UniSC’s capacity to influence meaningful, cross-cultural educational change.