Caroline Barratt-Pugh

Caroline Barratt-Pugh is Professor of Early Childhood at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. She has been involved in teaching and research in early childhood for over three decades in the UK and Australia. She is interested in language and literacy of young children and their families, particularly with respect to literacy as social practice and how this relates to social justice in educational contexts. She has conducted national and local longitudinal studies of the impact of family literacy initiatives using a collaborative, inclusive research paradigm. Currently, she is leading the longitudinal study of ‘Better Beginnings’, a family literacy initiative for families with a new baby, and examining the design, implementation and sustainability of the program in relation to the impact on family literacy perceptions and practices. She is also leading the examination of the outcomes of a supported playgroup initiative for three-year-old Aboriginal children and their families, with particular reference to the relationship between home and school through the creation of a jointly constructed third learning space. In 2017 she won the Vice Chancellor's Award for Engagement in Research, which recognised the collaborative nature of her research. She is supervising a number of doctoral students and has published widely, her latest contribution is a chapter in the European Early Childhood Education Research Association ‘Towards an Ethical Praxis in Early Childhood: From Research into Practice’ series.