Dr Sabine Little

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

School of Education

Deputy Director of Learning and Teaching

Lecturer in Educational Studies (Languages Education)

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Director, MA Education, Teaching and Learning

Director, iPGCE

Faculty of Social Sciences Student Engagement Advisory Fellow

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

Edgar Allen House

Full contact details

Dr Sabine Little
School of Education
Edgar Allen House
241 Glossop Rd
Sheffield
S10 2GW

Profile: I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and have an over-arching faculty role, where I work with students across the Social Sciences to explore issues related to learning and teaching, a role which continues my work from a previous role, as Learning Development and Research Fellow for Networked Learning at the Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences (CILASS), a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, where I developed and co-facilitated (with a student) the highly acclaimed Student Ambassador Network, consisting of students and academic staff collaborating in order to develop and improve high-quality learning and teaching experiences at all levels within the institution.

Research interests

I have a number of research interests, which are multi-faceted and overlapping.

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, and what this means for individual family members' sense of identity and well-being.

Language is an integral part of identity, but is a very personal experience, even within the same family, so my work focuses on helping families and policy-makers understand issues and pressures faced by heritage language families, and to develop holistic support opportunities.

I have been involved in numerous projects, attracting funding from ERASMUS, the UK Literacy Association, Booktrust, JISC, the Society for Educational Studies, etc. I regularly lead public engagement events, sharing my research with the wider public, particularly teachers, families and children.

Research should belong to the researched, and the opportunities to feedback to participant communities and engage with those interested in research outcomes are particularly important to me.

I recently completed a research project funded by the UK Literacy Association, where she worked with heritage language families to explore how they use technology to support the heritage language. The results of the study are currently being disseminated locally, nationally and internationally.

Other aspects of my research are directly linked to my teaching, particularly looking into online learning and teacher professional development in international contexts.

In summer 2016, I was part of a successful ERASMUS bid. Together with colleagues from Germany, Spain, Ireland and Luxembourg, I am working on a project that focuses on helping children from immigrant and refugee families, by giving teachers a platform to exchange ideas and develop their skills of teaching reading in multicultural, plurilingual, and diverse classrooms.

Publications

Books
Journal articles
Chapters
Conference proceedings papers
Datasets
Other

Books

Little S (2012) Staff-Student Partnerships in Higher Education. Bloomsbury Academic.

Journal articles

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.
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. View this article in WRRO
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), 38-51. 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 (2017) Whose heritage? What inheritance?: conceptualising family language identities. International journal of bilingual education and bilingualism. 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
McKinney PA, Wood, J. & Little, S. (2009) A learning development team: three developers, one pedagogy. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education(1). 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 () Rivers of multilingual reading: exploring biliteracy experiences among 8-13-year old heritage language readers. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1-14.
Levy P, Aiyegbayo O & Little S () Designing for inquiry-based learning with the Learning Activity Management System. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 25(3), 238-251.
Little S () An un/familiar space: Children and parents as collaborators in auto-ethnographic family research. Qualitative Research. View this article in WRRO

Chapters

(2020) 13 Social media and the use of technology in home language maintenance, Handbook of Home Language Maintenance and Development (pp. 257-273). De Gruyter Mouton View this article in WRRO
Panzavecchia M & Little S (2019) Beyond words: Language hybridity in postcolonial multilingual classroom environments—Malta’s way forward In Anderson V & Johnson H (Ed.), Language, Migration and Translation: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Human Mobility and Cultural Encounters (pp. 161-173).
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) 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 (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 & 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.

Conference proceedings papers

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, 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).
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.

Other

Parry R, Little S & Bradley J () Editorial for Special Issue in Literacy Journal.

Research group: #supervisionaries - stories of brilliant doctoral supervision

Sabine is an inspirational supervisor and mentor. She takes a personal interest in her students and is always ready to share her skills, knowledge and expertise. We share a passion for education, language and communication, and our discussions are always thoroughly enriching. She believes in me and is always encouraging me to pursue various opportunities throughout the course of my PhD journey, thus enabling me to grow on both a professional and personal level. Her guidance and constructive feedback are invaluable as she has a knack for “pushing just the right buttons,” empowering me to refine my ideas and to develop my own strengths and personal attributes.

Teaching interests

Following my early career as a language teacher (German and French) in secondary school, I have taught across many of the programmes within the School of Education, ranging from the BA in Education, Culture and Childhood to the PGCE and iPGCE, multiple MA Programmes, including the Caribbean and Malta Programmes, and the EdD programme.

I enjoy working with students across all levels of study, and I gain particular pleasure from facilitating students to follow their interests - luckily, most programmes in the School of Education are designed to encourage the focus on emerging interests, and I think it is a privilege to work with students as they discover an aspect of education they feel strongly about and wish to pursue further.

I direct the iPGCE and the MA Applied Professional Studies in Education (online), both of which attract students working in international contexts.

Professional activities

Referee for multiple academic journals, including "Innovation in Learning and Teaching", "Journal of Early Childhood Research", "Language Matters", "International Journal of Educational Research" and others
Consultant for ELINET (European Literacy Policy Network) – advising on final project outputs
Membership of Research Networks: “Social and Affective Factors in Home Language Maintenance and Development” and "Learner Autonomy"
Invited expert reviewer for Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)