Learning and teaching from experience
A journey — with stops in Louisiana, Morocco and Uganda — inspired by equity and education.
By Grace Rubin
Elisabeth Lefebvre’s first classroom had black mold growing from a hole in the ceiling and two old computers: one broken, one barely working. The desks were of different styles and heights and would slide underneath each other. She taught students who lived in homes with dirt floors, with family members other than their parents, and without electricity.
This was in South Louisiana from 2006 until 2008, and the first-graders Lefebvre taught through Teach for America — a non-profit organization focused on expanding education opportunities—felt comfortable talking about their lives. She would even occasionally drive students home down dirt roads to trailer parks.
Lefebvre’s path from the impoverished Louisiana classroom to Bethel University — with stops in Morocco, the West Coast and Uganda on the way — led her to a life filled with research and teaching inspired by her drive for equitable education.
As an undergraduate student at the University of Miami, Lefebvre did not know she wanted to pursue education. At a job fair post-college, she came across a table promoting Teach for America. There was around an 11% acceptance rate the year she applied, but Lefebvre beat the odds and began teaching in a first-grade, low-income classroom in Southern Louisiana 15 minutes from the Mississippi border. Lefebvre was hired in 2006, one year after Hurricane Katrina. Multiple teachers had been displaced, and physical evidence of the hurricane around the area showed.
“The kind of poverty I saw there was a direct result of intentional policies to disinvest in education, bound up with racism and other kinds of structural inequalities.” — Elisabeth Lefebvre, educator
“It was like stepping into a totally different reality from the schools I had grown up in,” Lefebvre said.
The school was 95% African-American. Next door sat a private school established after Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954. Even after the Baton Rouge Parish was eventually desegregated in 1970, the majority of white students still attended private schools, and African-American students attended public schools. Because of this, there was not as much money going into the public schools.
“The kind of poverty I saw there was a direct result of intentional policies to disinvest in education,” Lefebvre said. “Bound up with racism and other kinds of structural inequalities.”
Throughout her two years with Teach for America, Lefebvre called home crying, wanting to quit multiple times. While there, it became apparent to her that some particular patterns and structures shape the way people live their lives and influence the resources they receive. Teaching in Louisiana was the hardest thing she had ever done. She cared deeply for her students and their community but craved teaching in a context where she would have the mentorship and support she needed.
Lefebvre’s parents had been working in a private international school in Morocco for several years. She and her partner ended up interviewing with that school and being placed there. They got married and Lefebvre became a second-grade teacher in the fall of 2008.
Lefebvre loved teaching in Morocco. She loved her students and the community of coworkers. Being there helped her better understand international differences in schooling. She taught for two years and then switched to administration.
After four years, Lefebvre returned to the United States with a passion for education and development. She attended the University of Oregon, gaining her M.A. in International Studies in 2012. Afterward, she attended the University of Minnesota for a Ph.D. in Comparative and International Education. Through that, she was part of a fellowship program that allowed her to be on a research team.
One research project studied Uganda’s education system, where her team would do an annual monitor — researching how race, gender, religion, and development impacted schooling there. She would go back numerous years to continue this research with a team.
As Lefebvre continued to research, she was hired at Bethel as an adjunct professor for a year and, in 2018, was hired for a full-time position in the Education Department. Since then, she has continued to learn so that her teaching can be the most effective.
Now, Lefebvre walks around a Bethel classroom as her students write their ideas on the whiteboards framing the walls. She observes students’ conversations and collaborations. If they have any questions, she is an ear to listen to and a mind to help.
Abbey Payeur is another professor in the Bethel Education Department. Lefebvre participated in the interview panel and became an “unofficial mentor” to Payeur. Every semester, the department gets together to set goals, and Payeur observes Lefebvre’s ability to analyze data and see what’s important. Lefebvre listens to the “Holy Post” podcast and draws on her past experiences to think about lesson planning.
“She’s always looking for what might resonate for a college student,” Abby Payeur said.
Lefebvre teaches Educational Equity, Educational Psychology: Exceptionalities and Classroom Management, Doctoral Research, and Schooled: Global Perspectives on Education. All the courses directly correlate to what she learned before her time at Bethel.
“She makes [the classes] approachable. She is so passionate about it; she makes it easy to learn.” — RyleeAnn André, student and teaching assistant
Lefebvre hosts Educational Equity for the students in the classroom once a week, with the rest of the week open for working on classwork. One of the educational equity teaching assistants this spring is Senior RyleeAnn André. At the beginning of the semester, Lefebvre meets with all teaching assistants to review what the job will look like. Throughout the semester, she checks in and encourages her assistants.
Since Lefebvre’s classes are not only for education majors, she pushes students to examine their own education and compare it to others. Students draw from what they know to learn from Lefebvre.
“She makes [the classes] approachable,” André said. “She is so passionate about it; she makes it easy to learn.”
In the spring semester, Lefebvre’s inquiry seminar students work on an education comparison project. They chose various countries to highlight and dive into their previous schools’ systems. Students find differences in those experiences from their own and those of other students, using knowledge from Lefebvre’s past to enhance their education. Lefebvre continues to research — when the time allows — and draw on her previous experiences to educate young minds.
