Graduate Student, Curriculum & Instruction
Hyeryung Claire Kim is a doctoral candidate in Language and Literacy. Born and raised in South Korea, she spent significant time in her mother’s kindergarten classroom while she was growing up. This early exposure to teaching young children led to her interest in early childhood education. After graduating high school, Claire moved to the United States to pursue early childhood education as a profession. Dr. Lillian Katz’s research on the project approach at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign drew Claire to this institution. After completing her Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education at Illinois, Claire continued as a master’s degree student and worked at University Primary School (UPS) as a preschool and a 2/3 grade teaching assistant for six years. Claire’s dissertation research explores dramatic response to multicultural literature in an early childhood classroom setting.