Overview
Nicola Yelland is the Professor of Early Childhood Studies in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her teaching and research interests are related to transformative pedagogies and the use of new technologies in school and community contexts. She has worked in East Asia and examined the culture and curriculum of school settings. Nicola’s work engages with educational issues with regard to varying social, economic and political conditions and thus requires multidisciplinary perspectives. Nicola effectively links research with practice so that her audience are able to critically explore the nexus of theory and practice.
Professor Yelland has conducted a number of research studies related to global childhoods including her ARC Project entitled: Global childhoods in the Asian Century: Connecting policy, educational experiences and everyday lifeworlds of children in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. This project investigates how everyday lifeworlds of Year 4 (9-10 year of age) students in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore shape children’s orientations to educational success. Situated in the global cities of Melbourne, Hong Kong and Singapore, the study explores connections between policy contexts, school experiences and everyday activities of children growing up in the Asian Century. Findings will advance knowledge of factors that contribute to children’s understandings of how their experiences in and out of school prepare them for futures in a global world. This will enable policy-makers, educators and parents to provide improved learning opportunities in children’s lives. This project enables policy-makers, educators and parents to better understand how everyday experiences shape children’s orientations to educational success. Australia’s capacity to maintain a strong position in the global economy depends upon its ability to learn from and share knowledge with its regional neighbours. This research impacts Australia’s knowledge of educational and cultural practices in four major global cities, producing social and economic benefits for Australia’s future. Prof Yelland is also the Editor in Chief of the international Journal - Global Studies of Childhood and Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood published by SAGE and the Series Editor of Changing Images of Childhood with Routledge in New York
Publications
Bartholomaeus, C. & Yelland, N.J. (forthcoming). Children’s lifeworlds in a global city: Melbourne. Singapore: Springer.
Lee, I.F., Saltmarsh, S. & Yelland, N.J. (Eds.) (forthcoming). Childhood, learning & everyday life in three Asia Pacific Cities. Singapore: Springer.
Yelland, N.J., Peters, L., Fairchild, N., Tesar, M., & Perez, M. (Eds.) (2021). The SAGE handbook of Global Childhoods. London, UK: Sage