Shannon Ludgate

• Researching young children’s experiences using touchscreen technologies in early years settings.
• Teaching on the Early Childhood Studies course

• Early years
• Early years pedagogy
• Ethics with young children
• Digital technologies in the early years
• Child development
• Research methods
• Qualitative research
• Activity Theory

• BA (Hons) Early Childhood Students – First Class
• Early Years Professional Status
• Doctor of Philosophy in Early Years (Education) - Thesis entitled ‘Exploring the affordances of touchscreen technologies in early years settings in the West Midlands’ (August 2018)
• Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (June 2015)
• Postgraduate Certificate in Research Practice (January 2015)
• BA (Hons) Early Childhood Education Studies, First Class (August 2014)

• Association for Professional Development in Early Years (TACTYC)
• British Educational Research Association (BERA)
• Digital Childhoods Special Interest Group within the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA)
• Early Childhood Studies Degree Network (ECSDN)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Level 4

• Working as a Professional
• Children and Childhood
• Observing and Assessing Young Children
• Creativity and Critical Thinking

Level 5

• The Healthy Child
• Research as a Driver for Policy, Practice and Provision
• Researching Early Years Education
• Looked After Children
• Social Justice and Inclusion
• Safeguarding and Child Protection

Level 6

• Researching Professional Practice in Early Childhood
• Contemporary Perspectives in Early Childhood

Level 7

• Dimensions of Childhood

DigiCross: Attitudes towards technology and digital competence of students and teachers on Early Childhood and Primary Teaching degrees

• This project aims to create knowledge of the workings, meaning, consequences, and future perspectives of the educational transformation of online learning. The objective is to conduct an international comparative study, focusing on the dynamics of teacher educators, teacher students and early childhood education-students’ professional digital competence (PDC) and their use of and attitudes towards digital technology in pedagogical contexts.

Technological school-readiness as a driver for technology use in early years settings

• The aim of the study is to find out how technology is used in early years settings in England to determine whether the devices are positioned to enable children to work towards or achieve ‘technological school-readiness’. The study aims will be achieved via an online survey which asks a range of questions related to practitioner views, opinions and practices on using technology with young children, and how, if at all, children are prepared to use technology when they attend school.

Hyperreality and the simulation of childhood: using Baudrillard to explore young children’s understanding of micro-celebrity content on YouTube/YouTube Kids

• This project aims to understand more about YouTube Kids and how children respond to micro-celebrity content. Of particular interest is how children perceive the content as representing real life. Guided by Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality, we explore how children interpret, resist, accept and/or make sense of micro-celebrity content on YouTube Kids.

Principle Investigator alongside Dr Jane O’Connor - Lessons from the pandemic: teacher educators’ use of digital technologies and pedagogies in Vietnam during the C-19 lockdown

• The project aims to explore the use of digital tools and pedagogies by teacher educators and secondary school teachers in Vietnam. Traditional teaching methods are slowly being complemented by digital methods in Vietnam and this transition has been accelerated due to the need for full reliance on digital methods during the 2020/2021 covid lockdown. This project aims to establish teacher and teacher educators’ use of digital tools and pedagogies pre and during lockdown and find out their opinions on the best digital tools/pedagogies to take forward in their practice post lockdown. The research will provide recommendations for best practice and software to support a blended approach to learning for education practitioners and managers based on the data collected.

Shannon is currently supervising one EdD and two PhD students:

• Nathan Douglas: Primary School Teacher Retention and Attrition in the 2020s: Neoliberal Influences on Experienced Teachers’ Professional Identity in a Dynamic Educational Climate.’
• Lara Alamad:Exploring the experiences of adolescent identical female twins in the United Kingdom
  
• Annamaria Berger-Jones: A theoretical exploration of contemporary CE philosophy and conductors’ professional identity

Publications

Arnott, L., Martinez, L., Wall, K., Blaisdell, C. and Ludgate, S. (2021) ‘Informed Consent with Children under 6 Years Old’, in Wall, K. and Arnott, L. (Eds). Researching through Play, London: SAGE Publications.

Ludgate, S., Mears, C. and Blackburn, C. (2021) Small steps and stronger relationships: Parents’ experiences of home-schooling children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs. DOI.

Early Education (2021) Birth to 5 Matters: Non-statutory guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage, St Albans: Early Education. I developed the ‘Technology’ section of the Understanding the World area of learning (pp.111-112).

Ludgate, S. (2019) Pedagogical approaches surrounding the touchscreen: The child and practitioner perspective, Global Studies of Childhood, 9(4), pp. 318-334. DOI.

Conferences

European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) Conference (online) 2021:

1. Technological School Readiness: The driver behind early years touchscreen practice in English early years settings?
2. Hyperreality and the simulation of childhood: using Baudrillard to explore young children’s understanding of micro-celebrity content on YouTube/YouTube Kids with Dr Jane O’Connor and Olga Fotokopoulou

European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece:

1. Pedagogy and Practice: Exploring the factors which impact on touchscreen play with preschool children (August 2019)

British Early Childhood Education Research Association (BECERA) Conference:

1. Making connections from the home to setting: Developing a technological pedagogy (February 2019)
2. Young children’s experiences with touchscreen technology: Early survey findings (2016)

European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) Conference in Bologna, Italy:

1. Peer interactions and the struggles for power/control over touchscreen technologies (August 2017)

TACTYC (2015):

1. Pre-School Children’s Experiences with Touchscreen Technologies: Early Findings from Survey Results.

Shannon is a tutor at the Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC) and delivers training on Digital Childhoods to SCITT trainees.

• Twitter - @ShannonLudgate
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