She became the Head of the Department of International Education and the leader of the university's Diversity, Equity and Social Inclusion Research Group in 2022.

[citation needed] Through her writings, Jackson has consistently sought to bridge educational theory and practice while examining the diversity of the human experience.

Her first sole-authored book, Muslims and Islam in U.S. Education: Reconsidering Multiculturalism (2014) explored the complex interface that exists between U.S. school curriculum, teaching practice about religion in public schools, societal and teacher attitudes toward Islam and Muslims, and multiculturalism as a framework for meeting the needs of minority group students.

It presented multiculturalism as a concept that needs to be rethought and reformulated in the interest of creating a more democratic, inclusive, and informed society.

Her analysis is critical, challenging, but also constructive in providing a more productive way forward in dealing with Islam – as well as other "controversial" cultural subjects – in schools.

Winner of the 2020 American Educational Studies Association’s Critics’ Choice Award, the book offered a new framework for students and academics by questioning existing thinking and shifting the focus of attention from the right balance to strike between local, national, and global allegiances to the more fundamental question of what counts as “local,” “national,” and “global,” and what might be involved in cultivating allegiances to them.

It considered allegiance to not just transnational but also sub-global “civilisations.” The book was featured in a review symposium in the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory.

It also discusses education for happiness, compassion, gratitude, resilience, mindfulness, courage, vulnerability, anger, sadness, and fear.

"[12] Jackson has also co-authored two books with Tanzanian colleagues focused on Tanzanian education: Educational Assessment in Tanzania: A Sociocultural Perspective with Joyce Kahembe (2020), and Corporal Punishment in Preschool and at Home in Tanzania: A Child Rights Challenge with Reuben Sungwa and Joyce Kahembe (2022).