Assessing Child Initiated Play: Reality Or Illusion?

TACTYC CONFERENCE SPEAKERS 2015

Dr.IoannaPalaiologou, CPsycholAFBPsS

Assessing Child Initiated Play: Reality or Illusion?

Dr IoannaPalaiologou, CPsycholAFBPsS, is currently Director and Head of Children's Services at Canterbury Educational Services. Ioanna is a Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society, specialising in child development and learning theories and shehad recently been appointed an Associate Fellow of BPS. Ioannacompleted her PhD in 2003 and has worked both as a researcher in education and lecturer on Education and Early Childhood Studies. In 2004 she joined the University of Hull, where she worked for nine years as Programme Director of BA (Hons) Educational Studies, Co-ordinator of Early Childhood Studies provision, Course Leader for the Masters in Early Childhood Studies and Academic Coordinator for Research Students Support within the Faculty of Education. Her most recent post in higher education was with Canterbury Christ Church University from January, 2014, where she remains an Associate Doctoral Supervisor. Ioanna’s books include:Child Observation for the Early Years(2e, Sage, 2012),Ethical Practice in Early Childhood(Sage, 2012) andthe Early Years Foundation Stage: Theory and Practice(2e, Sage, 2013). She has a new book due out: Doing Practical Research in Education: Theory & Practicewith David Needham and Trevor Male (Sage, 2015).

1

Professor Jayne Osgood

Reconfiguring Quality: Beyond discourses and subjectivities to matter, bodies and becomings in early childhood education

Jayne is Professor of Education and has recently joined the Centre for Education Research & Scholarship at Middlesex University. Her present research methodologies and research practices are framed by new material feminism and posthumanism. She is developing transdisciplinary theoretical approaches that maintain a concern with issues of social justice, and which critically engage with policy, curricular frameworks and pedagogical approaches. Through her work she seeks to reconfigure understandings of the workforce, families and ‘the child’ and ‘childhood’ in early years contexts.

Dr Rose Drury

Young multilingual children learning: at home and at school

Rose is Senior Lecturer in Early Years at The Open University Faculty of Education and Language Studies, and formerly Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at the University of Worcester and Principal Lecturer in Education at the University of Hertfordshire. She has worked for the Minority Ethnic Curriculum Support Service in Hertfordshire and has extensive experience of teaching bilingual children in the early years. Bilingualism and multilingualism in the Early Years is the main focus ofDr Drury'sresearch. Based on her ethnographic study, 'Young Bilingual Learners at home and at school' (Trentham, 2007) examines the experiences of three four year-old bilingual children as they begin school. The book explores new methodologies for researching multilingual voices. Its originality lies in the home school data of young children’s use of first languages and English and its contribution to socio-cultural theory.Dr Drury's subsequentpublicationsprovide insights into the learning of children whose home communities are new to English and reveal that literacy and language development is richer and more multidimensional than is often presumed. Dr Drury is engaged in teachingon all theEarly Years undergraduate courses,a Masters course and the EdD programme at the OU. In addition she undertakes consultancy work with schools and Local Authorities in order to share her own research and experience and to support practitioners' development as learners, researchers and effective professionals.

Dr Jacqui Cousins

Time to Listen: Time to Hear Young Children

Jacqui is an artist, researcher, creative advisor and freelance family support worker. She has been an infant and nursery teacher, advisory teacher. OFSTED nursery inspector and senior lecturer at Oxford Brookes. She works with families and educators both in the UK and internationally. This includes work with the UN for their gypsy division of ‘The Association for Threatened People’ and ‘Voice of Young People’ projects. In 2011-2013 Jacqui guided the ElinorGoldschmied Archive Project for The Froebel Trust. In all her work she is committed to listening to people, especially to young children at the age of four. The main focus of Jacqui's work at present is with the charity WARchild. She is also a volunteer at the Totnes Children's Centres and enjoys spending time with her two great grand-daughters.

1