Early Childhood, Elementary & Literacy Teacher Education
Chloe LePh.D.
I prepare teachers to teach every child well, with a focus on early literacy, multilingual learners, and culturally responsive classrooms.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education
School of Education, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
University Supervisor
Louisiana State University
A teacher educator who still thinks like a classroom teacher
I came to the university from the classroom. I spent four years as a licensed K-12 teacher in Baton Rouge schools and four years directing a community tutoring program for Vietnamese, Chinese, and Hispanic families in East Baton Rouge Parish. Those years still shape how I teach future teachers and what I choose to study.
My work sits where early childhood education, literacy, and language meet. I am a licensed Reading Specialist with training in structured literacy and ESL instruction. As a researcher, I use qualitative and autoethnographic methods to ask how culture, language, and policy shape what happens in classrooms, in Louisiana and in Vietnam.
Research agenda
My research brings decolonial and posthuman theory into conversation with the daily work of teaching. I study how teachers and teacher educators move between cultures, languages, and systems of schooling.
Culturally responsive teacher education
How teacher preparation can honor the languages, histories, and family knowledge that children bring to school.
Glocal and transnational identities
Collaborative autoethnography with Asian women scholars on moving between the Global South and North in higher education.
AI in teaching and teacher education
A blended approach to teaching with AI and teaching about AI, grounded in a federally funded teacher residency.
- Autoethnography
- Decolonial pedagogy
- Posthumanism
- New materialism
- Foucauldian analysis
- Photovoice
Current writing
- Teaching in Higher Ed.
"The Teaching Wall," a Point of Departure piece comparing Louisiana's Ten Commandments classroom mandate with wall displays in Vietnamese schools.
- Educ. Philosophy & Theory
"Navigating the Glocal South within the Global North," a collaborative autoethnography with Anh Ngoc Quynh Phan.
- Educ. Philosophy & Theory
A posthuman reading of fatigue in academic life.
- Teaching in Higher Ed.
A conceptual paper on teaching with and about AI, braiding new materialism with Foucauldian governmentality.
- In development
A Foucauldian analysis of an essay prompt from Vietnam's national exam.
My published work appears in:
- Teaching and Teacher Education
- Early Childhood Education Journal
- International Journal of Social Research Methodology
- An edited volume from Bloomsbury
Courses and classrooms
My courses ask future teachers to look closely at their own communities. In my desegregation unit, for example, students study Trahan v. Lafayette as a local case before moving to national history.
K-12 classroom experience
- Villa Del Rey Creative Sciences and Arts Magnet
- Belaire Magnet High School
- Riveroaks Elementary
Teacher residency work
- Coaching feedback for teacher residents
- Resident evaluation tools based on teacher self-efficacy
- Phonics packs, decodable books, and lesson plans
License
Reading Specialist
Certification
English Language Arts, Grades 6-12
Expertise
Structured literacy and ESL instruction
Student work
Zines, paintings, and displays made by the future teachers in my courses. Select a photo to see it full size.
Building the teacher pipeline
I serve as co-investigator on a FIPSE-funded grant that supports an AI-enhanced, grow-your-own teacher residency. The program helps people from local communities become certified teachers in the schools that need them most.
Beyond the university, I support family literacy in Baton Rouge through bilingual family engagement and a community library initiative.
Get in touch
Office
School of Education
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette, Louisiana
For collaboration
I welcome conversations about teacher education, early literacy, multilingual families, and qualitative research partnerships.