Dr Lorna Arnott

Reader

Education

Contact

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Personal statement

Lorna Arnott is a Reader in the Strathclyde Institute of Education, specialising in Early Childhood Lived Experiences and Play. She previously did a term as Director for Early Years within the Institute. 

The majority of her work focuses on children's exepriences before the age of five and therefore much of her research and teaching focuses on nursery provision.

Lorna completed her Ph.D at the School of Education, University of Stirling in 2011, focusing on young children’s social interactions around technologies in preschool.

Internationally, Lorna is the founder and co-convener for the European Early Childhood Educational Research Association (EECERA) Digital Childhoods, Multimodality and STEM Special Interest Group.  She is also Deputy Editor for the International Journal of Early Years Education and an Assistant Editor for the Journal of Early Childhood Research.

Lorna is the Editor of Digital Technology and Learning in the Early Years, SAGE, Co-Editor of Research Through Play: Participatory Methods in Early Childhood and Co-Editor of The Theory and Practice of Voice in Early Childhood: An International Exploration.

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Teaching

Lorna’s teaching generally covers:

  • Early Childhood Education, specifically focused on children's experiences and play. 
  • Qualitative research methods and those related to research with very young children. 

Lorna most often teaches on the BA Childhood Practice, Master's of Education Early Years Pedagogue, PGDE Nursery and the BA Education Nursery. 

Lorna is also interested in delivering research methods training, particularly in relation to qualitative approaches and contributes to both practice-based and academic research training. 

Lorna currently supervises PGR students at Masters, PhD and Ed.D level.

 

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Research Interests

Research Interests

Lorna’s research explores young children’s lived experiences and play, typically in relation to technology, creativity and social play for learning and development.   Her work attempts to understand how the environments and culture, children's agency and the artefacts children use contribute to learning and development.  She is interested in a broader definition of technology which moves beyond the computer towards exploring technological toys, both digital and non-screen based.  Lorna has completed a wealth of research in early childhood settings but more recently have explored informal learning contexts, such as the family home.  

Secondly, Lorna's other research focuses on innovative methods for consulting with children in early childhood (typically under 6 years old).  She's interesting in voice work broadly with young children.

Lorna is currently Co-I and Scottish lead for an ESRC project, Toddlers, Tech and Talk. 

Completed Students:

  • Zainab Attar (Competed) - Innovative methods with young children and literacy. PhD.
  • Loreain Martinez Lejarreta (completed) Developing young children's critical thinking skills through teacher-children interactions in Early Childhood Education and Care settings. PhD
  • Marion Burns (Completed) Early education with a specific focus on transitions. Ed.D
  • Jennifer Zike (Completed) Using Pupil Views Templates to investigate the development of thinking across children at point of school entry in Scotland. Ph.D
  • Charlotte Allan (Completed) - Shared Experience: How attending Theatre for Early Years influences early attachment and bonding. MPhil.

Professional Activities

International Journal of Qualitative Methods (Journal)
Guest editor
2024
Participatory approaches and practitioner enquiry in early childhood
Invited speaker
11/2023
I've got plenty to say, you just need to 'listen': Exploring babies, toddlers and very young children's voices in research and practice.
Invited speaker
10/2023
EECERA online event
Chair
20/9/2023
EECERA Digital Childhoods, Multimodality and STEM SIG Annual Meeting (Hybrid)
Chair
30/8/2023
31st European Early Childhood Education Research Association Conference
Member of programme committee
8/2023

More professional activities

Projects

0-3-year-old Children's language And Literacy Learning at Home in a Digital Age (0-3s, Tech and Talk)
Arnott, Lorna (Principal Investigator)
Full project FEC: £850,442, Funded Contribution £688,654); Strathclyde element £83,601.00.
06-Jan-2022 - 05-Jan-2024
Early Years and Early Primary Science and Technology through Exploration
Moore, Iain (Principal Investigator) Arnott, Lorna (Co-investigator) Gray, Laura (Co-investigator)
A project looking to increase the confidence of early years and early level primary practitioners in the delivery of science.
01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2023
Wee People, Big Feelings Research and KE Grant
Wall, Kate (Co-investigator) Arnott, Lorna (Co-investigator)
£6000 funding
01-Jan-2021 - 01-Jan-2022
Renfrewshire Council Research Academy for Teacher Practitioners
Wall, Kate (Co-investigator) Arnott, Lorna (Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2021 - 01-Jan-2022
Socially Innovative Interventions to Foster and to Advance Young Children’s Inclusion and Agency in Society through Voice and Story
Beaton, Mhairi (Principal Investigator) Wall, Kate (Visiting Academic) Arnott, Lorna (Visiting Academic) Cassidy, Claire (Visiting Academic)
The AdVoSt -project will take into practice the theoretical guiding principles for facilitating and enhancing young children’s voice in specific contexts (Wall et al., 2017). This will be done in close cooperation with practitioners working with indigenous children in Finland, marginalized, indigenous, and immigrant children in Canada, and children with diverse ethnical and cultural backgrounds in the UK. Previous literature indicates that young children are often viewed as ‘becomings’ rather than ‘beings’ within their communities. This is especially the case with children from non-mainstream communities, where ‘becoming’ might also mean to become a mainstream citizen, meaning simultaneously compromising identity, culture and language (e.g. von Benzon & van Blerk 2017; Sköld & Vehkalahti 2016). The AdVoSt-project will enhance educators' knowledge of multiple storytelling pedagogies including perspectives of land-based learning. The research-based development of composing narratives with young learners through art, writing, photography, performance and digital representations privilege young children’s voice enabling their full citizenship. These research-based initiatives will contribute to the development of child centred learning that is focused in land-based pedagogy and play. Play helps children to gain positive learning experiences (Tang & Adams 2010). Children’s varied play engagements often use culturally relevant toys and ephemera which help them to narrate their stories and facilitate hearing the voices of young children. However, educators, administration, local communities and parents do not always know how to promote such play to enhance children’s literacy engagements. Additionally, the digital delivery of early childhood education with distance management sets diverse challenges for educational activities. The AdVoSt-project recognizes the challenges concerning minority and indigenous children and will facilitate knowledge sharing between the participating countries and beyond. Using a community-based qualitative, comparative case study approach, the project will ensure that local cultural contexts play a key role in all research activities.
01-Jan-2020
Capita PhD Studentship Application Awarded: Open World Gaming for Young Children's Creative Play
Arnott, Lorna (Academic) Levine, John (Academic)
01-Jan-2015 - 01-Jan-2019

More projects

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Contact

Dr Lorna Arnott
Reader
Education

Email: lorna.arnott@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 444 8109