I am a member of the Learning, Pedagogy and Diversity Research Cluster. Originally trained as a teacher, I taught in pre-prep, primary and middle schools. After studying ‘The Ethnography of Educational Settings’ as part of my Masters degree, I trained as an educational ethnographer whilst I was an ESRC research Fellow at the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (University of Warwick), for three years. Later on I carried out my PhD studies as an ESRC funded student at the University of Bristol, during which time I was also affiliated with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India. My PhD was a childhood ethnography on the social influences on children’s learning in India. More recently I undertook training in visual ethnography which I now use in my research with children.

I have conducted ethnographic research with children in England, Japan and India and also researched in Ghana. My research interests are in qualitative research methodology especially the use of visual methods, educational quality, the study of pedagogic relations and child socialisation, early childhood learning and development and the social influences on young children’s learning, especially fathering, Theoretically I draw on the works of both Bernstein and Vygotsky. My research on fathering includes: facilitating practitioner development for better father involvement; pedagogic relations between educational settings and fathers; and young children’s perspectives of father involvement in the home learning environment. I previously made a film ‘Father’s Friday‘, in collaboration with our local authority. The UK leading children’s charity ‘The Daycare Trust’ which was commissioned to report to the UK government on parental participation in the early years, highlighted the film and the report as a case study. The ‘Fatherhood institute’ also featured the film on their website and in training activities.