Dr Rachael Levy B(Ed), M Phil, PhD

Lecturer in Early Years Education

Tel: (+44) (0)114 222 8154
Fax: (+44) (0)114 279 6236
Email: r.levy@sheffield.ac.uk
Room: 7.14

Teaching

Rachael has a variety of teaching experience, much of which is influenced by her own research as presented below. As a result, she draws upon topics such as literacy, gender, teacher-pupil relationship, multimodality and the methodology of conducting participatory research with young children, in her teaching. As well as ensuring that students receive a thorough grounding in course content, Rachael employs a philosophical approach to her teaching, inviting students to critically reflect upon and challenge their existing concepts, beliefs, values and experiences that they bring to the various programmes.

Rachael is Director of the Sheffield Ed D. She also directs and teaches on the Early Childhood Education strand of the Ed D programme. This course, aimed at those who wish to research their practice in early childhood education in more depth, provides students with a thorough grounding in the philosophy, principles and practices of educational research, as well as a critical understanding of key contemporary issues in relation to early childhood education.

As co-ordinator for the MA Educational Studies in Malta, Rachael has structured a programme of study that encourages students to develop their understanding of pedagogical practice and theories of learning as well as foster intellectual curiosity and skills of critical reflection. Rachael also teaches on the MA in Early Childhood Education programme in the UK and in Malta. All three of these courses are part-time distance learning programmes of study and incorporate five compulsory weekend study schools over the course of the two years. Rachael’s research and teaching experience also supports her involvement with the PhD programme in Malta.

Rachael supervises, and co-supervises, a number of doctoral students (PhD and Ed D). Her doctoral supervision is informed by her research interests as well as her knowledge and experience of qualitative methodologies. She is currently developing her own knowledge of quantitative methodologies.

Research interests

Rachael is interested in the factors that influence children’s attitudes and beliefs about literacy. Her PhD examined young children’s perceptions of themselves as readers at the time of entry into the formal education system. Rachael is especially interested in understanding how constructions of reading are influenced by children’s home and school discourses, including the impact of technological change within communication practices in society. As a consequence, young children’s interactions with new media and digital technology are also of interest to Rachael.

Issues of confidence and motivation for learning are also inherent factors within Rachael’s research. In particular, she is concerned with developing an understanding of the factors which influence children’s confidence and attitudes towards themselves as learners. Rachael is also interested in gender studies and has explored young boys’ and girls’ attitudes towards aspects of literacy. Moreover, she is concerned with developing a critical analysis of the ways in which gender is conceptualised and researched.

Participatory research

Rachael has been actively involved in creating methodological approaches to access the voices of very young children in participatory research. This originated within her doctoral studies and is continuing to be developed within the course of her current position.

Awards

• Rachael was awarded an ESRC Studentship in 2004 to complete a doctoral programme of study at the University of Cambridge.
• In 2009 Rachael was then awarded an ESRC Post Doctoral Fellowship which she completed at the University of Sheffield.
• Rachael was also awarded the UKLA post Graduate Research prize for doctoral research in July 2008

Activities

Rachael has presented her work at a number of national and international conferences including AERA, BERA, EECERA and UKLA. She is currently the Editor for the UKLA minibooks series. She is also a regular reviewer for a variety of journals and has published several book reviews.

Publications

Books

Levy, R. (2011) Young children reading at home and at school, London, Sage
http://www.uk.sagepub.com/books/Book236046

Journal articles

Levy, R. and Thompson, P. (2013) "Creating ‘Buddy Partnerships’ with 5 and 11 year old boys; a methodological approach to conducting participatory research with young children’, Journal of Early Childhood Research

Levy, R. (2009) `You have to understand words…but not read them´; young children becoming readers in a digital age´, Journal of Research in Reading, 32(1), 75–91

Levy, R. (2009) `Children´s perceptions of reading and the use of reading scheme texts´, Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(3), 361-377

Levy, R. (2008) `Third spaces´ are interesting places; applying `third space theory´ to nursery-aged children´s constructions of themselves as readers´, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 8(1), 43–66

Book chapters

Levy, R., Yamada-Rice, D., and Marsh, J. (2013) Digital literacies in the primary classroom. In Hall, K., Cremin, T., Comber, B., and Moll, L. (Eds) International Handbook of Research in Children’s Literacy, Learning and Culture. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell

Levy, R. (2011) `Young children, digital technology and interaction with text´ In Thomas, M. (Ed) Deconstructing digital natives; Young people, technology and the new literacies, USA: Routledge

Levy, R., & Marsh, J. (2011). Literacy and ICT in the early years. In Lapp, D. & Fisher, D., (Eds.) The Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts (3rd Ed.), Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc

Levy, R. (2011) New technologies in the primary classroom, in Moyles J (ed) Beginning teaching; beginning learning (4th Edition), Open University Press

Research Students

Ed D

Chris Merrick - How do Early Childhood teachers interpret ´Inquiry ` as a strategy for teaching and learning?

Mary Brookes - An investigation into pre-school children’s complex feelings about transition into primary school.

Jackie Musgrave - An examination of the possible impact on Inclusion of chronic childhood medical conditions: another piece of the inclusion jigsaw?

Jan Bamforth - An investigation into young children’s perceptions of achievement

Charlotte Wilders - Using participatory research methods with children to develop an understanding of their perceptions of the transition from Foundations Stage to Year 1.

Wai Ling Tsang - Concepts of giftedness in international communities

PhD

Ziyad Alateeq - Understanding the factors influencing Saudi primary students’ reading engagement; a mixed methods approach

Melanie Darmanin - Exploring digital literacy; Children’s reading and writing in the Interactive Whiteboard Revolution

Parven Akhter - Making things in their own way; A study of three multilingual households’ digital literacy practices

Sumayah Zafar - The influence of attending preschool on the literacy attainment of children in year One in Saudi Arabia