Professor Iram Siraj-Blatchford
- Qualifications and position:
- MA, PhD
- Professor of Early Childhood Education
- Faculty:
- Faculty of Children and Health
- Department:
- Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education
- Summary:
- I worked in the early years as a teacher for most of the 1980s and have been an academic and researcher for over 20 years, holding positions at the universities of Warwick and London. I am an international expert in research and policy in early childhood care and education, and am concerned to explore the impact of home learning, staff training, pedagogy and curriculum and assessment on young children's learning and development, particularly those from vulnerable backgrounds. I am also interested in what shapes learners' life-course trajectories over time.
- Teaching:
- MA Early Childhood Education
EdD and PhD doctoral research training programmes
- Research Projects:
- Effective Provision of Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education 3-16
Effective Provision of Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education 3-14
Evaluation of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)
Evaluation of the Graduate Leader Fund
Centre for Excellence and Outcomes (C4EO) Early Year Thematic Reviews
- Postgraduate Research:
- Lara Said - Early literacy and numeracy school effectiveness in Maltese schools
Denise Kingston - Quality in ECE, using the ECERS to improve quality
Mercedes Rivandeiro – Literacy in Chile
Mami Umayahara – ECE in Chile
Debby Pinnock – Transitions in ECE of mainstream and SEN children
Pam Holland – Leadership and the NQHT
Sarah Klaus – Roma children in Bosnia
Sian Williams – Curriculum and pedagogy intervention in the Caribbean
- Professional Activities:
- Early Education Advisory Group, Advisor to Minister for Children (England)
Ministerial Advisory Group, by appointment specialist for 0-7 (Welsh Assembly Government)
Tutors of Advanced Courses for Teachers of Young Children (TACTYC)
British Educational Research Association
American Educational Research Association
Standing Conference on Studies in Education
Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts
President of the British Association for Early Childhood Education (BAECE)
Governor, Coram Children's Centre
Hong Kong Council for National Academic Awards, Specialist Register
Visiting Professor at:
Melbourne School of Graduate Education, University of Melbourne 2009-2013
Hong Kong Institute of Education, 2009-2011
Murdoch Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children's Hospital, University of Melbourne, 2009
Macquarie University, 2009
Honorary fellow at the University of Wales, 2009 (lifetime award)
Editorial boards:
Journal of Multi-Professional Early Childhood Education, 1997 - present
International Journal of Early Years Education, 1994 - present (Editor, 1994-2008)
Multicultural Teaching, 1992 - present
Education and Effectiveness, 2008 - present
Evaluation and Research in Education, 2008 - present
- Conferences/presentations:
- Frameworks and foundations: When only the best will do, Early Learning State Conferences, Australian Council for Educational Research, March and April 2009.
Overview of 'what works' in narrowing the gap in outcomes; family-based support for early learning and integrating early years services, for the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes, 2009, in Manchester, Birmingham, Cambridge, London and Bristol.
Quality in the early years: What makes a difference? National Strategies national conference, 15 October 2008, in London.
- Personal Country Knowledge:
- Sweden, Portugal, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia, Cuba, Caribbean, USA: curriculum, policy, pedagogy and quality
Contact details
- Email: i.siraj-blatchford@ioe.ac.uk
Address:- Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education
Institute of Education University of London
20 Bedford Way
London
WC1H 0AL
Office Location:- Room 101
15 Woburn Square, WC1H 0NS
Publications
- Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2009) ''Conceptualising progression in the pedagogy of play and sustained shared thinking in early childhood education: a Vygotskian perspective' ', Educational and Child Psychology 26 (2),
- Siraj-Blatchford, I. and Manni, L. (2008) ''Would you like to tidy up now? An analysis of adult questioning in the English Foundation Stage'', Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development 28 (1), 5–22.
- Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2008) ''Understanding the relationship between curriculum, pedagogy and progression in learning in early childhood'', Hong Kong Journal of Early Childhood Education 7 (2), 3–13.
- Siraj-Blatchford, I., Sylva, K., Taggart, B., Sammons, P. and Melhuish, E. (2008) ''Towards the transformation of early childhood practice'', The Cambridge Journal of Education 38 (1), 23–36.
- Siraj-Blatchford, I., Milton, E., Sylva, K., Laugharne, J. and Charles, F. (2007) ''Developing the Foundation Phase for 3-7 year-olds in Wales'', Welsh Journal of Education 14 (1), 43–68.
- Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2007) ''Creativity, communication and collaboration: the identification of pedagogic progression in sustained shared thinking'', Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education 1 (2), 3–23.
- Sylva, K. , Siraj-Blatchford, I., Taggart , B., Sammons , P., Melhuish , E., Elliot, K. and Totsika, V. (2006), 'Capturing Quality in early childhood through environmental rating scales', Early Childhood Research Quarterly 21 (1), 76–92.
- Siraj-Blatchford, I., Sammons, P., Sylva, K., Melhuish, E. and Taggart, B. (2006) 'Educational research and evidence based policy: the mixed method approach of the EPPE Project', Evaluation and Research in Education 19 (2), 63–82.
- Siraj-Blatchford. I. and Sylva, K. (2004) ''Researching pedagogy in English pre-schools' ', British Educational Research Journal 30 (5), 713–730 .
- Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2004) ''Educational disadvantage in the early years: how do we overcome it? Some lessons from research' ', European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 12 (2), 5–20 .
