Summary

I am and Associate Professor in Creative Methodologies and Education in the School of Education, Languages and Lingusitics.

I am also the institutional lead for the Education Unit of Assessment REF2029 entry.

Research interests

I am an Associate Professor in Creative Methodologies and Education in the School of Education, Languages and Linguistics, ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú.

My research is theoretically informed by critical feminist materialist and posthumanist theory-praxis and I regularly practise writing as a method of inquiry. 

My research has two bifurcations:

  • the first employs research-creation and creative methodologies to challenging normative views of method/ology and knowledge production in conference/workshop spaces. 

  • the second focuses on creative ways to activate-entangle relationality with gender, place-spaces, time, temporality, childhoods and education to explore impacts on bodies. 

Both these bifurcations utilise working with feminist materialist, posthumanist, research-creation, undisciplined post- philosophies and qualitative modes of knowledge production.

My research interests have been driven by my background in ECEC and teaching. I have shifted towards a posthuman, feminist materialist theoretical position as it enables me to have a new purchase on events and their connections to place-space. My scholarship seeks to broaden current views and aims to produce a more generative, relational, connected, ethical and political way to enact research. My research is theoretical, but has been empirically applied in the development of my concepts place-space and feminist materialist relational time. It includes projects which has given me the opportunity to explore posthuman subjectivity and places-spaces in ECEC classrooms and gardens. These will be included in my forthcoming book Place-Space Methodologies in Early Childhood Education and Care.

I am a founder member of an International research collaboration, the CG Collective, exploring research-creation, post-qualitative method/ology and knowledge production at/in conference spaces. We have engaged in numerous workshops and have produced academic articles and our book Knowledge Production in Material Spaces: Disturbing Conferences and Composing Events.

I review for a range of education and gender focussed journals and various national and international grant funding bodies. I am an Associate Editor for the Journal of Posthumanism and am on the Editorial Boards of Gender and Education, and Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. I am also a Steering Group Member of the European Network of Qualitative Inquiry.

I have worked closely with ECEC organisations such as the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Special Interest Group in ECEC and the Early Childhood Studies Degrees Network where I was part of the development of the Graduate Practitioner Competencies and as Co-Vice Chair of Research and Knowledge Exchange.

My previous roles include a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chichester, a Deputy Manager of a Montessori ECEC setting in the UK and I have had various leadership roles in the private sector.

Teaching responsibilities

Teaching

I teach on our Professional Doctorate in Education and lead two modules - Publication, dissemination and impact and Reserch proposal.

EdD/PhD students

I am happy to consider EdD/PhD inquiries from students who wish explore proposals in Early Childhood Education and Care.

Research outputs

2024

Fairchild, N., Taylor, C. A.

20 Sep 2024, In: Qualitative Inquiry

Fairchild, N.

17 Jun 2024, In: Qualitative Inquiry. 30, 6, p. 493-501, 9p.

Albin-Clark, J., Benozzo, A., Carey, N., Caterina-Knorr, T., Fairchild, N., Hannes, K., Koro, M., Maynard, E., Taylor, A. J., Taylor, C. A., Zarabadi, S.

1 Jun 2024, In: Culture and Organization. 30, 3, p. 263-289

Fairchild, N., Gravett, K., Taylor, C. A.

18 Mar 2024, In: Teaching in Higher Education. 29, 2, p. 388–403, 16p.

Fairchild, N., Mikuska, E.

19 Feb 2024, In: British Educational Research Journal

2023

Fairchild, N., Maynard, E., Sims-Schouten, W., Warhurst, A.

1 Nov 2023, In: Families, Relationships and Society. 12, 4, p. 519-536

Barton, S., Fairchild, N., Mikuska, E., Sabine, A. J. W.

7 Sep 2023, In: International Journal of Early Years Education, 15p.

Fairchild, N., Maynard, E., Warhurst, A.

1 Jul 2023, In: Pastoral Care in Education. 41, 3, p. 325-345, 21p.

Barton, S., Fairchild, N., Mikuska, E., Sabine, A. J. W.

20 Jan 2023, In: Early Years Educator, 33p.