Dr Sabine Little

BMus, PGCE, PCHE, CiLT, Med, MA, PhD, SFHEA

School of Education

Director of Education

Senior Lecturer in Educational Studies (Languages Education)

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

s.little@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 8089

The Wave

Full contact details

Dr Sabine Little
School of Education
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH

Profile

I am interested in links between language, identity, and belonging, and the role of multilingualism in society. I work with families, schools, and wider spaces such as libraries and prisons, to explore what it means to grow up multilingual, typically foregrounding the experiences of multilingual children as they navigate the world. Within this context, I have developed and worked on a number of projects that support multilingualism at levels of policy and practice, including (nationally) the National Literacy Trust and World Book Day, and (internationally) the International Baccalaureate Organisation and the government in The Gambia.

Reading, storytelling and digital literacies have a frequent place in my work, and I am keenly interested in whose stories are being told. I have led and worked in research projects in Mexico and The Gambia, and held a visiting professorship at Khon Kaen University in Thailand in each case exploring the role of multilingualism in society from different angles.

Before joining the School of Education, I worked as a languages teacher, teaching German and French at secondary school level, and before that, I trained as an opera singer.

Research interests

My main and over-arching research interest is in the field of heritage language learners and identity - I am interested how families who speak multiple languages in the home navigate these languages, what this means for individual family members' sense of identity and well-being, and how multilingual children navigate society.

My work focuses on helping practitioners, policy-makers and families to understand issues and pressures faced by heritage language families, and to develop holistic support opportunities. As such, I regularly work with and consult for schools, libraries, education charities and local authorities to facilitate thinking around multilingual pedagogy and wider provision. Key consultations and collaborations included the re-conceptualisation of the International Baccalaureate (in collaboration with the International Baccalaureate Organisation) to facilitate additional inclusion of home and heritage languages in the IB Diploma, working with the National Literacy Trust to integrate multilingualism into the National Literacy Survey (2020), and feeding research-based content into World Book Day's core activities in 2025.

I foreground participatory research approaches, working in collaboration with teachers, community organisations, and children to conceptualise and conduct research that reflects relevant experiences and needs. My work on creating and evaluating a Multilingual Children’s Library in Sheffield was awarded the Brenda Eastwood Award for diversity and inclusion.

I am interested in hearing from prospective research students looking to work in the area of multilingualism and identity, especially in research involving children and young people/families, or the role of multilingualism in school or library contexts.

Key research and impact projects:

Growing up Multilingual with Chinese Heritage - funded by the Chinese Heritage Language and Culture Fund, 2023-2025
Traditional Tales, Untraditionally Told - working in collaboration with the School of Education Maker{Futures} team, integrating multilingual, intergenerational storytelling, making, and digital literacies
Multilingual Education in The Gambia, with King’s College London, 2021-ongoing - creating a teacher trainee toolkit to support The Gambia's multilingual education policy
Lost Wor(l)ds: On language, heritage, and forgetting, Economic and Social Research Council (Innovation Knowledge Exchange Fund), 2020-ongoing
Communities' languages, identities and belonging in participatory health care interventions in Yucatan, Mexico, Royal Academy of Engineering / Global Challenges Research Fund, 2019-2020
Children’s Multilingual Reading, Arts and Humanities Research Council, 2018-2020

Publications

Books
Journal articles
Chapters
Conference proceedings papers
Datasets

Books

Little S (2012) Staff-Student Partnerships in Higher Education. Bloomsbury Academic.
Levy P, Little S, McKinney P, Nibbs A & Wood J (2010) The Sheffield companion to inquiry-based learning. Sheffield: CILASS: The Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences. View this article in WRRO

Journal articles

Little S, Zhou Y, Heathcote S, Shi H & Lee C (2025) We Need to Talk about Racism: Co-constructing Research with Young People from Multilingual Chinese Backgrounds. Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics.
Bramley RJ, Little S & Bishop J (2025) ‘One person can’t deliver it’: exploring teachers’ agency and stance in relation to integrating an interdisciplinary subject in UK primary and secondary schools. Cogent Education, 12(1).
Little S (2025) “There’s a Sense of Pride”: The Multilingual Children's Library as Perezhivanie. Public Library Quarterly.
Little S, Raine H, Choo A, Joshi R, Qarni SJ, Sukri A, Horton G & Pakravesh S (2024) ‘The power to SAY what I want to and it gets written down’: Situating children's and adults' voices and silence in participatory research. British Educational Research Journal. View this article in WRRO
Little S & Cheng K (2023) Digital funds of identity: understanding a young child’s plurilingual development through mediagrams. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching. View this article in WRRO
Little S (2023) ‘Half of who you are’: parent and child reflections on the emotional experiences of reversing familial language shift. International Journal of Bilingualism, 27(2), 217-231.
Little S & Murray R (2022) The multilingual children’s library as physical and metaphorical ‘space’ within the community: practical and emotional considerations. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science.
Cunningham C & Little S (2022) ‘Inert benevolence’ towards languages beyond English in the discourses of English primary school teachers. Linguistics and Education. View this article in WRRO
Formosa J & Little S (2022) Prompting heritage-language engagement in English-speaking Maltese families, via a family language programme intervention. First Language.
Parry R, Taylor L, Little S & Bradley J (2022) Editorial. Literacy, 56(1), 1-2. View this article in WRRO
Facer K, Parry R, Taylor L, Bradley J & Little S (2022) Embracing the unpredictable effect of one person: an interview with Professor Keri Facer. Literacy, 56(1), 86-92. View this article in WRRO
Little S & Little T (2021) An un/familiar space: children and parents as collaborators in autoethnographic family research. Qualitative Research.
Little S (2021) Rivers of multilingual reading : exploring biliteracy experiences among 8-13-year old heritage language readers. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development.
Taylor L, Parry R, Bradley J & Little S (2020) Call for Papers for the Special Issue of Literacy: Storytelling in troubled times: multimodal, multilingual and multimedia. Literacy, 54(3), 158-159. View this article in WRRO
Panzavecchia M & Little S (2020) The language of learning : Maltese teachers’ views on bilingual and multilingual primary classrooms. EuroAmerican Journal of Applied Linguistics and Languages, 7(1), 108-123.
Little S (2019) Great Aunt Edna's vase: metaphor use in working with heritage language families. The Family Journal, 27(2), 150-155. View this article in WRRO
Little S (2019) 'Is there an app for that?' Exploring games and apps among heritage language families. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 40(3), 218-229. View this article in WRRO
Little S, Golledge M, Agarwalla H, Griffiths B & McCamlie D (2019) Global teachers as global learners : intercultural teacher training in international settings. London Review of Education, 17(1). View this article in WRRO
Little S (2018) Whose heritage? What inheritance?: Conceptualising family language identities. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(2), 198-212. View this article in WRRO
Nutbrown CE, Clough P, Levy R, Little S, Bishop J, Lamb T & Yamada-Rice D (2017) Families’ roles in children’s literacy in the UK throughout the 20th Century. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 17(4), 551-569. View this article in WRRO
Little S & Al Wahaibi S (2017) ‘We are not as they think about us’: exploring Omani EFL learners’ ‘selves’ in digital social spaces. Multicultural Education Review, 9(3), 175-187. View this article in WRRO
Little S (2017) A generational arc: early literacy practices among Pakistani and Indian heritage language families . International Journal of Early Years Education, 25(4), 424-438. View this article in WRRO
Little S (2016) Promoting a collective conscience: Designing a resilient staff-student partnership model for educational development. International Journal for Academic Development , 21(4), 273-285. View this article in WRRO
Little S (2014) Learning trajectories, violence and empowerment amongst adult basic skills learners. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 37(4), 458-459.
Wood J, Little S, Goldring L & Jenkins L (2011) 'The confidence to do things that I know nothing about’ – skills development through extra-curricular inquiry activity. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education(3). View this article in WRRO
Levy P, Aiyegbayo O & Little S (2009) Designing for inquiry-based learning with the Learning Activity Management System.. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 25, 238-251.
McKinney PA, Wood J & Little S (2009) A learning development team: three developers, one pedagogy. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education(1), 1-16. View this article in WRRO
Little S (2008) Inquiry‐based learning and technology—supporting institutional TEL within one pedagogical context. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(3), 422-432.
Little S & Zhou Y () Beyond Roots and Wings: Co-constructing a framework for heritage language children's liminal and limbotic identities. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development.
Little S & Lahmar J () Understanding parents’ pragmatic and emotional attachments to “their” language in multilingual family contexts: exploring self-assessment options for family well-being. International Journal of Multilingualism.
Little S () The role of the developer in institutional change. Proceedings of the International Conference on Networked Learning, 6, 245-252.
Levy P, Little S & Aiyegbayo O () "Before You Know Where You Are, You Have a Sequence". Proceedings of the International Conference on Networked Learning, 6, 237-244.

Chapters

Little S (2020) Social media and the use of technology in home language maintenance In Schalley AC & Eisenchlas SA (Ed.), Handbook of Home Language Maintenance and Development: Social and Affective Factors (pp. 257-273). De Gruyter Mouton View this article in WRRO
Panzavecchia M & Little S (2019) Beyond words, Migration, Education and Translation (pp. 161-173). Routledge
Little S (2018) Drawn in all directions: Heritage language families’ use of technology In Mascheroni G, Ponte C & Jorge A (Ed.), Digital Parenting: The Challenges for Families in the Digital Age (pp. 61-68). Goteborg: Nordicom. View this article in WRRO
Little S & Lamb T (2016) Assessment for Autonomy, Assessment for Learning, and Learner Motivation: Fostering Learner Identities In Tsagari D (Ed.), Classroom-based Assessment in L2 Contexts
Levy P, Little S & Whelan N (2011) Perspectives on staff-student partnership in learning, research and educational enhancement In Little S (Ed.), Staff-Student Partnerships in Higher Education (pp. 1-16). London: Continuum.
Little S, Sharp H, Stanley L, Hayward M, Gannon-Leary P, O'Neill P & Williams J (2011) Collaborating for Staff-Student Partnerships: Experiences and Observations In Little S (Ed.), Staff-Student Partnerships in Higher Education (pp. 215-226). London: Continuum.
Little S (2009) "Oily Rag" or "Winged Messenger", Applied E-Learning and E-Teaching in Higher Education (pp. 1-17). IGI Global
Little S (2008) Linking collaboration to learner autonomy: peer cognizance in action In Lamb T & Jimenez-Raya M (Ed.), Pedagogy for autonomy in modern languages education: theory, practice, and teacher education Dublin: Authentik.
Little S (2008) Supporting a dispersed community: CoP development in the Caribbean In Kimble C & Hildreth P (Ed.), Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators (Volume 2) (pp. 105-124). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Little S & Lamb T (2006) Identitätsbildung im Fremdsprachenunterricht (‘Creation of identity in the foreign language classroom’) In Jung U (Ed.), Praktische Handreichung für Fremdsprachenlehrer (pp. 381-385). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Little S () "Oily Rag" or "Winged Messenger", Applied E-Learning and E-Teaching in Higher Education IGI Global

Conference proceedings papers

Varela-Silva MI, Castillo-Burguete MT, Azcorra H & Little S (2021) 113 Podium Mexico: Communication challenges and sociocultural experiences in bilingual context: Health outcomes' (mis) perceptions in a rural Maya community in Mexico. American Journal of Human Biology, Vol. 33(S1) (pp e23593-e23593). Virtual, 29 March 2021 - 29 March 2021. View this article in WRRO
Little S (2006) Networked learning in the Caribbean: A case study from a developing world. Proceedings of the International Conference on e-Learning, ICEL, Vol. 2006-January (pp 267-275)

Datasets

Marsh J, Arnseth DHC, Beech A, Bishop J, Blum-Ross DA, Chesworth E, Dýrfjörð K, Ellis H, Erstad PO, Fashanu C , Hjartarson DT et al Makerspaces in the Early Years: Current Perceptions and Practices of Early Years Practitioners, Library and Museum Educators and Makerspace Staff - A Survey.
Marsh J, Beech A, Bishop J, Chesworth E, Ellis H, Fashanu C, Hyatt D, Kay L, Kontopodis M, Ktenidis A , Lahmar J et al UK (Sheffield) (Makerspaces in the Early Years).

Research group

I co-lead the institutional Hub for Heritage Languages and Multilingualism, working to raise the profile of research in multilingual contexts within and beyond the institution.

In the wider local context, I co-lead the Sheffield City of Languages initiative, bringing together universities, schools, the local council, hospital, and heritage language schools, in an effort to improve provision for multilingual children, and raise the profile of multilingualism in society.

Teaching interests: My teaching is mainly focused on multilingualism, identity and belonging, and the role of multilingualism in public spaces, and I am teaching both within the School of Education and beyond, at all levels from Foundation Year through to doctoral study.

Professional activities and memberships

Senior Editor Cogent Education/Languages Education
Editorial Board for three journals: "Education Sciences", "The Reading Teacher", and "Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching"
Member of UK Literacy Association, including member of Brenda Eastwood Award Panel, Research Committee, and Co-Chair of Wiley Research in Literacy Education Award
Visiting Professorship, Khon Kaen University, Thailand (2022)
Member of "Committee for Linguistics in Education", a national committee bringing together experts across all language and literacy-focused organisations in the country