Dr Fiona Scott
School of Education
Lecturer
Joint Director Literacies Research Cluster
+44 114 222 8159
Full contact details
School of Education
Edgar Allen House
241 Glossop Rd
Sheffield
S10 2GW
- Research interests
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Fiona’s work is located in the field of digital literacies. Her research engages with sociomaterial theory to theorise very young children’s intra-actions with digital devices and texts. She is concerned with child and family practices in relation to the digital and, in particular, the role played by social class.
Fiona is also interested in research methods and methodologies, including the tensions associated with researching children’s lives in more-than-human contexts. Fiona’s PhD thesis, produced in collaboration with CBeebies, examined preschool children’s engagements with television and related media at home.
The thesis examined how both well-established and new verbal and non-verbal intra-actions constitute children’s unique social practices, practices that transform the meanings of materials at home and shape children’s very early experiences.
Her thesis included a new analytic framework and methodology for ‘sociomaterial nexus analysis’. Prior to beginning an academic career, Fiona worked as a Research Consultant, working on research projects for clients in the Further Education and Arts and Cultural Sectors (including the Learning and Skills Council and Arts Council). Some recent academic research projects Fiona has worked on include:
- Young Children’s engagement and learning with the AR coding app “Little Red” (with Twinkl Educational Publishing)
- Sounds of Childhood: Exploring young children’s sound perceptions to inform architecture and urban design (IIKE scheme funded project at TUoS)
- Exploring Play and Creativity in Pre-Schoolers’ Use of Apps (TUoS with CBeebies, Foundling Bird, Dubit and Monteney Primary School)
- Beyond Disorders (Interdisciplinary Research Futures funded project at TUoS)
- Energy Innovation in Deprived Communities (ERDF funded project at TUoS)
- Public Attitudes to Carbon Capture and Storage in United States and Canada (EPRI funded project at TUoS)
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Under threes’ play with tablets. Journal of Early Childhood Research. View this article in WRRO
- Guest editorial: Young children’s engagements with digital media. Media Education Research Journal, 8(2), 5-9. View this article in WRRO
- ‘Knock, knock, it’s Freddy!’: harnessing young children’s digital and media skills and interests to foster creativity and digital literacy in makerspaces. Media Education Research Journal, 8(2), 95-104. View this article in WRRO
- Play and creativity in young children's use of apps. British Journal of Educational Technology, 49(5), 870-882. View this article in WRRO
- Vibrations in Place: Sound and Language in Early Childhood Literacy Practices. Educational Studies, 54(4), 465-482.
- Digital play: a new classification. Early Years, 36(3), 242-253. View this article in WRRO
- What do people living in deprived communities in the UK think about household energy efficiency interventions?. Energy Policy, 66, 335-349. View this article in WRRO
- Natalia Kucirkova, Digital personalization in early childhood: Impact on childhood. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 146879841989573-146879841989573.
- Family mediation of preschool children’s digital media practices at home. Learning, Media and Technology, 1-16.
Chapters
- Young Children’s Playful Engagement and Learning with a Fairy-Tale Themed Augmented Reality Coding App, Children’s Creative Inquiry in STEM (pp. 327-345). Springer International Publishing
- Attending to Our Response-abilities: Diff/Reading Data Through Pedagogies of the Other-wise, Unsettling Literacies (pp. 67-81). Springer Singapore
- Vibrations in Place, Sonic Studies in Educational Foundations (pp. 129-147). Routledge
- Researching children’s play and identity in the digital age, The Routledge Handbook of Digital Literacies in Early Childhood (pp. 442-452). Routledge
- Adults Researching Pre-Schoolers in More-Than-Human Contexts, Educational Research in the Age of Anthropocene (pp. 110-143). IGI Global
- Troublesome binaries: Play and learning on screen and off In Smith P & Roopnarine J (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Play Developmental and Disciplinary Perspectives (pp. 240-257). Cambridge University Press
- Digital Literacies in Early Childhood Oxford University Press
Reports
- Promoting the Green Deal to low income communities: Initial insights from Yorkshire & The Humber View this article in WRRO
- Under threes’ play with tablets. Journal of Early Childhood Research. View this article in WRRO
- Teaching activities
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Fiona teaches across the BA Education, Culture and Childhood, MA Education, MA Early Childhood Education (Distance), MSc Psychology and Education and EdD taught programmes in the School of Education. She is currently working on producing content for a new MA course focused on digital culture and literacies, which will commence in 2020 and supervises a doctoral student in this area.
Fiona has previously taught on a broad range of courses relating to Digital Literacies, Early Childhood and Research Methods, including as a Lecturer in Early Childhood at Sheffield Hallam University.