Lynn McNair
Biographic Data
| ID | 6155400 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lynn McNair |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lynn |
| FAMILY NAME | McNair |
| SIGNATURE | MCNAIR L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5730-0704 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Bridging Froebel and AI
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into early childhood education presents both opportunities and challenges to longstanding Froebelian pedagogies, particularly regarding child agency and nature-based play. This mixed-methods study explores this tension within the Chinese context. It examines how Chinese Froebelian practitioners perceive the alignment between AI tools and core principles and investigates the strategies they employ to…
The impact of the ‘accelerated childhood’ culture in the UK's Ecec
Slow Pedagogy has unhurriedly been making its way into early years practice. This article examines the views of early years practitioners and policy makers (N = 80) on slow pedagogical practice, during a professional development course. The participants were asked two open-ended questions: ‘Are children “hurried” today? If so in what ways?’ and ‘What does “unhurried child” mean to you?’. Thematic analysis was used to code the participants' respon…
Practitioner inquiry
In this paper, we present an argument for Practitioner Inquiry (PI). We briefly introduce PI, and we indicate how PI recasts the professional and political role of the Early Years Practitioner (practitioner). At the core of this article is the work of the early childhood pioneer, Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852). Froebel provided principles to support the continued professional development of practitioners. We draw on data from our Froebelian Future…
Child-Led Research with Young Children
Child-led research is gaining increasing attention. Such research involves children leading throughout the research process, from research design to dissemination. Child-led research has tested adult-centric research assumptions, with debates in the literature about researchers’ expertise and responsibilities. If these debates are testing for child-led research undertaken with older children and young people, they are even more so for young child…
Infants’ emotional and social experiences during and after the transition to early childhood education and care
The socio-emotional experiences of infants during transitions to early childhood education and care (ECEC) and across their first year in these out-of-home contexts are not well known. In an international project across five countries (New Zealand, Finland, Australia, Scotland and the United States), observational data, video of key moments, plus re-probing interviews with parents and teachers concerning 10 infants (six females) aged 5–13 months …
Race and the space in between
The rise of ‘Black Lives Matters’ has brought to the fore a need to unsettle early years praxis that positions race as separate from the individual, as a problem to be solved through the tokenistic provisioning of resources. In this paper, we explore how a team of early years practitioners were able to bridge the space between themselves and the multicultural community in which they worked. An interpretative onto-epistemology supported the crafti…
Conceptualising quality early childhood education
Early childhood has increasingly been acknowledged as a vital time for all children. Inclusive and quality education is part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with the further specification that all children have access to quality pre‐primary education. As early childhood education (ECE) has expanded worldwide, so have concerns about the quality of ECE provision, including whether its pedagogy is culturally meaningful and conte…
‘Why am I in all of these pictures?’ From Learning Stories to Lived Stories
In this paper, we report on Phase One of a small action research project that examined how Learning Stories were put into practice at one Scottish nursery. Specifically, the paper looks at young children’s participation rights and how they were enacted within the authorship of the stories. The project used an action research approach in which qualitative data about participants’ current experiences with the stories was used to spark reflection, e…
The Impact of the Covid‐19 Global Health Pandemic in Early Childhood Education Within Four Countries
The recent Covid‐19 global health pandemic has negatively affected the political and economic development of communities around the world. This article shares the lessons from our multi‐country project Safe, Inclusive Participative Pedagogy: Improving Early Childhood Education in Fragile Contexts (UKRI GCRF) on how children in communities in Brazil, Eswatini, South Africa, and Scotland have experienced the effects of the pandemic. This article be…
Acts of pedagogical resistance
This article highlights an action research project that sparked transformation regarding how early years practitioners documented children’s learning. The dominant discourse of standardisation and narrowing of early childhood education, encapsulated in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s International Early Learning Study, has resulted in the ‘shaping’ and ‘testing’ of young children around the globe. The OECD has become …
The relationship between young children’s transitions and power
Increasing attention to the relationships between transitions, power, spaces, and schooling, this article explores the disjuncture between seemingly liberal concepts in transition processes and hierarchical abuse of power. This ethnographic study sought to explore the perspectives of 16 children as they transitioned from one ‘early learning and childcare centre’, Lilybank, to four Scottish primary schools. Participant observations and face-to-fac…
Conceptualising quality early childhood education
Early childhood has increasingly been acknowledged as a vital time for all children. Inclusive and quality education is part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with the further specification that all children have access to quality pre‐primary education. As early childhood education (ECE) has expanded worldwide, so have concerns about the quality of ECE provision, including whether its pedagogy is culturally meaningful and conte…
The Impact of the Covid‐19 Global Health Pandemic in Early Childhood Education Within Four Countries
The recent Covid‐19 global health pandemic has negatively affected the political and economic development of communities around the world. This article shares the lessons from our multi‐country project Safe, Inclusive Participative Pedagogy: Improving Early Childhood Education in Fragile Contexts (UKRI GCRF) on how children in communities in Brazil, Eswatini, South Africa, and Scotland have experienced the effects of the pandemic. This article be…
The relationship between young children’s transitions and power
Increasing attention to the relationships between transitions, power, spaces, and schooling, this article explores the disjuncture between seemingly liberal concepts in transition processes and hierarchical abuse of power. This ethnographic study sought to explore the perspectives of 16 children as they transitioned from one ‘early learning and childcare centre’, Lilybank, to four Scottish primary schools. Participant observations and face-to-fac…
Acts of pedagogical resistance
This article highlights an action research project that sparked transformation regarding how early years practitioners documented children’s learning. The dominant discourse of standardisation and narrowing of early childhood education, encapsulated in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s International Early Learning Study, has resulted in the ‘shaping’ and ‘testing’ of young children around the globe. The OECD has become …
The relationship between young children’s transitions and power
Increasing attention to the relationships between transitions, power, spaces, and schooling, this article explores the disjuncture between seemingly liberal concepts in transition processes and hierarchical abuse of power. This ethnographic study sought to explore the perspectives of 16 children as they transitioned from one ‘early learning and childcare centre’, Lilybank, to four Scottish primary schools. Participant observations and face-to-fac…
‘Why am I in all of these pictures?’ From Learning Stories to Lived Stories
In this paper, we report on Phase One of a small action research project that examined how Learning Stories were put into practice at one Scottish nursery. Specifically, the paper looks at young children’s participation rights and how they were enacted within the authorship of the stories. The project used an action research approach in which qualitative data about participants’ current experiences with the stories was used to spark reflection, e…
The Impact of the Covid‐19 Global Health Pandemic in Early Childhood Education Within Four Countries
The recent Covid‐19 global health pandemic has negatively affected the political and economic development of communities around the world. This article shares the lessons from our multi‐country project Safe, Inclusive Participative Pedagogy: Improving Early Childhood Education in Fragile Contexts (UKRI GCRF) on how children in communities in Brazil, Eswatini, South Africa, and Scotland have experienced the effects of the pandemic. This article be…
Child-Led Research with Young Children
Child-led research is gaining increasing attention. Such research involves children leading throughout the research process, from research design to dissemination. Child-led research has tested adult-centric research assumptions, with debates in the literature about researchers’ expertise and responsibilities. If these debates are testing for child-led research undertaken with older children and young people, they are even more so for young child…
Infants’ emotional and social experiences during and after the transition to early childhood education and care
The socio-emotional experiences of infants during transitions to early childhood education and care (ECEC) and across their first year in these out-of-home contexts are not well known. In an international project across five countries (New Zealand, Finland, Australia, Scotland and the United States), observational data, video of key moments, plus re-probing interviews with parents and teachers concerning 10 infants (six females) aged 5–13 months …
Race and the space in between
The rise of ‘Black Lives Matters’ has brought to the fore a need to unsettle early years praxis that positions race as separate from the individual, as a problem to be solved through the tokenistic provisioning of resources. In this paper, we explore how a team of early years practitioners were able to bridge the space between themselves and the multicultural community in which they worked. An interpretative onto-epistemology supported the crafti…
Conceptualising quality early childhood education
Early childhood has increasingly been acknowledged as a vital time for all children. Inclusive and quality education is part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with the further specification that all children have access to quality pre‐primary education. As early childhood education (ECE) has expanded worldwide, so have concerns about the quality of ECE provision, including whether its pedagogy is culturally meaningful and conte…
Practitioner inquiry
In this paper, we present an argument for Practitioner Inquiry (PI). We briefly introduce PI, and we indicate how PI recasts the professional and political role of the Early Years Practitioner (practitioner). At the core of this article is the work of the early childhood pioneer, Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852). Froebel provided principles to support the continued professional development of practitioners. We draw on data from our Froebelian Future…
The impact of the ‘accelerated childhood’ culture in the UK's Ecec
Slow Pedagogy has unhurriedly been making its way into early years practice. This article examines the views of early years practitioners and policy makers (N = 80) on slow pedagogical practice, during a professional development course. The participants were asked two open-ended questions: ‘Are children “hurried” today? If so in what ways?’ and ‘What does “unhurried child” mean to you?’. Thematic analysis was used to code the participants' respon…
Bridging Froebel and AI
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into early childhood education presents both opportunities and challenges to longstanding Froebelian pedagogies, particularly regarding child agency and nature-based play. This mixed-methods study explores this tension within the Chinese context. It examines how Chinese Froebelian practitioners perceive the alignment between AI tools and core principles and investigates the strategies they employ to…
Early Childhood Education and Development (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Pedagogy (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Children's Rights and Participation (7 works) · Developmental psychology (6 works) · Early childhood education (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Early childhood (5 works) · Medicine (4 works)