Children and Childhood Research Group

2021 Summary of our Impact Case Study

A sustained, collaborative research programme has transformed curriculum and pedagogy for the under-threes, in co-production with nurseries, families, local authorities, health professionals, and arts organisations. The pioneering Birth to Three Matters framework set the national policy and training agenda and influenced the practice of every early years professional in England. It is still used by professional leaders and practitioners seeking training resources and an alternative approach to currently much narrower official curriculum guidance. Our continuing programme of research provides strongly-theorised holistic findings that support multi-sensory and culturally-appropriate work. It has improved best practice, validated caregivers’ expertise, and helped practitioners resist the narrowing of curriculum aspirations for the under-threes. 

Underpinning research

A body of high-quality work over 20 years has transformed the research base underpinning curriculum and pedagogy for the under-threes. The research team are world leaders in the development of theory and practice in early childhood and key participants in international collaborations and colloquia. In the assessment period this group has published a total of 93 journal articles, 45 book chapters, 4 books. A portfolio of ESRC-funded doctoral studentships, several held in collaboration with research users, highlights the quality of the research and prepares the next generation of research leaders for the field. Co-production methods have brought parents and practitioners into the heart of the research process, including co-publishing with the research team. The research is shaping a new and vital curriculum and pedagogic approach that is resistant to recent instrumental policy drift and a loss of focus on the specific needs of the youngest children. Key findings:

1. The 2-year old curriculum needs to be broadened and anchored more securely in children’s experiences 
2. Sensation, affect, movement and place are key dimensions of a holistic framework. They play a vital role in early development, and underpin language and literacy 
3. Museums & galleries are important sites for multi-sensory and embodied engagement with very young children 

Strand 1. Birth to Three Matters and beyond: replenishing the research base

Birth to Three Matters [1] (2001-3) developed the first national framework for effective early years practice. Linked projects addressed training and qualifications. B-3M was incorporated into the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in 2008. The original B-3M research identifies four key ‘aspects’ of successful early childhood practice: a strong child; a skilful communicator; a competent learner; a healthy child [a]. Subsequent projects have fleshed out the holistic theory underlying the four aspects with findings on embodiment and sensory experience and sense of place. Parental and practitioner voices have been strengthened through more inclusive models of co-production.

In 2015, ESRC selected B-3M as one of its 50 ‘landmark contributions’ that ‘put the care and education of children firmly on the public agenda’. There has been renewed uptake of the framework by EY professionals dissatisfied with current EYFS and non-statutory guidance for the under-threes. An Manchester Met-hosted seminar ‘Does Birth to Three Matters Still Matter?’ (29.02.20) received overwhelmingly affirmative responses (56 invited attendees; 168 respondents to a follow-up survey. Respondents valued its ethos, accessibility and competence-based approach. It was used to facilitate conversations with parents, for staff training and induction, and in undergraduate and doctoral education. B-3M “shapes every day for our youngest children in nursery. It forms the basis of what we do and our ethos” (Nursery Manager). “It shaped how we think about learning in the baby room” (Proprietor, Montessori Nursery). “We have been using it to develop a programme for our babies” (Childcare Development Manager, Commercial Nursery Chain). Nursery World subsequently commissioned an article on the contemporary significance of B-3M (Holmes, 2020). B-3M is offered as an under-three curriculum in multiple UK nurseries, commercial nursery chains, and in nurseries overseas (eg Italy, Egypt, Dubai and Denmark). It is offered as a resource on The Foundation Years website (DfE/NCB) and essential reading in the Pearson BTEC First Diploma in Children’s Care, Learning and Development. The national Early Years Coalition, which is developing alternative non-statutory guidance for the EYFS entitled Birth to Five Matters, honours B-3 Matters in its name, and invited the research team to provide specialist Birth-to-Three input across multiple working groups.

The research has shaped workforce development and accreditation. Man-Met provided EY Teacher Status accreditation for the DfE (2013-2016), and led 10 HEIs in the training of Early Years Professionals (2012–2014) and Teachers (2015-6) for the National Council for Teaching and Leadership. A total of 1,090 EYPs and EYTs were trained. Barron chaired two QAA reviews of the Early Childhood Studies Subject Benchmark Statement (2014/2019) and the additional Early Childhood Graduate Practitioner Competencies at Level 6 (2018–2019). All 50 UK UG degree courses are required to be compliant with the benchmark statement. Led by Barron, the Early Childhood Degrees Network secured the 2020 reclassification of early childhood graduates as professionals in the UK Standard Occupational Classification (SOC2020, vol 2: The Coding Index). This significant change finally recognises the competencies of EY graduates and the status of university EY degree programme.

Strand 2. Two-year-olds in the nursery

This strand addresses the often-unacknowledged needs and experiences of disadvantaged 2-year olds with funded places in nurseries and challenges a narrow focus on language skills development. The Sensory Nursery, our researcher-in-residence project with a local nursery and children’s centre, reveals the hidden significance of affective and embodied encounters in a multi-cultural nursery. Listening-2 discloses subtle processes of adult-child ‘attunement’ in sensory-motor learning. The Emergence of Literacy in Very Young Children radically reconceptualises early literacy as grounded in sensation, movement, relationality and spatiality. The international collaboration KINDKnow takes this work forward, investigating sustainability and place-based learning.  Four further projects have developed immersive activities and professional development opportunities to help practitioners draw out the educational potential inherent in movement and sensory experience. 

MacRae’s work on The Sensory Nursery “brought a new level of quality in all the staff team. Being able to see, share be more reflective, thinking in a positive mind set” [room leader]. The research was featured in Nursery World (18.03.18). Listening-2 led to changes in adult-child ‘attunement’ and documentation at home and nursery [testimonials]. 90 participants attended an online Froebel Trust seminar (June 2020) on Listening-2. MacRae was interviewed by the very well-regarded website Early Years TV (10.04.20). This CPD resource was viewed by practitioners and professionals from 40 countries and had 2,104 unique views in the first week of its release. One viewer remarked “I will now view pictures and videos sent in by parents in a totally new way”. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Listening-2 maintained online contact with parents and practitioners, to help them curate their personal stories of lockdown and reflect on their engagements with their children.

Hackett’s research on the multi-sensory and embodied dimensions of early literacy in an outdoors initiative, in collaboration with Thrybergh Dalton Children’s Centre, led to significant changes in pedagogy and attainment by 1-2-year olds on EYFS language assessments [Hackett, MacLure & McMahon, 2020]. An exhibition at Clifton Park Museum (Sep-Nov 2019) for communities, families and local authority decision makers saw 7166 visitors over 8 weeks. Hackett’s place-based, relational methodology has been taken up by Rotherham Council (RMBC) Arts and Heritage services as a key element of its new approach to co-producing services and physical spaces with young people, and will form part of the Children’s Capital of Culture 2025.

The research on performance-based practice was developed into an interactive dance experience for babies, ‘Duvet Dancing’ by Anna Daley and Anne O’Connor (Primed for Life, funded by Curious Minds), touring 12 community, health and arts venues across Morecambe, Heysham and Lancaster, involving 84 participants. Duvet Dancing was presented at the People Dancing’s national event (November 2019), Penn Green Research Nursery, and children’s arts festivals. It was featured in The Visitor (Morecambe), The Lancaster Guardian, and The Lancashire Evening Telegraph, BBC Radio Lancashire, and Nursery World (07.04.20). “I am much more able to professionally articulate my interest in non-verbal performance work with early years” (Anna Daley, artist).

The ‘2-Curious’ projects led practitioners to change their attitude to habitual ways of working. “2-Curious was like an inside wake-up call. To help us look within, beneath and beyond the routines we’re so busy in” (Big Life Nursery practitioner). “The spark of enthusiasm and joy of what we did here I’ve been able to take it back to my own nursery context to explore further” (Big Life Nursery practitioner).

Strand 3. Under-threes in museums and galleries

A series of interdisciplinary collaborations with Manchester Art Gallery (MAG), Humber Museums, Z-Arts, and Curious Minds an Arts Council Bridge organisation, incorporate art, curatorial and educational practice to augment the research programme’s focus on the creative, sensory and expressive dimensions of early development and learning. The current programme builds on previous projects Young Children in the Art Gallery and The Secret Life of Objects. Listening In and Out of More-than-Human Worlds reconceptualised the role of affect and embodiment in listening, with Z-Arts. The Clore Art Studio Evaluation identified new directions for family use of the gallery space. How Do Families Experience Our Museums? formulated best practice for work with families and young children, and developed the APSE Framework and evaluation Toolkit for Humber Museums Partnership. Senior Leaders in Cultural Organisations SLiCE) developed practices to support early learning through music and movement, with nursery school heads and five cultural organisations. Affecting Space brings together the research team, health professionals, art gallery staff and SureStart practitioners to interrogate materials and matter in order to re-design the family space at MAG in collaboration with the gallery.

The museums and galleries research has transformed early years provision, curatorial and educational practice across the UK. Working with Young Children in Museums is the first book to provide such guidance for UK museums. MacRae and Hackett gave keynotes on national best practice events for the museum cultural sector including Hull (Sept, 2017), University of Cambridge (Dec 2017), Leeds (Oct 2018) and Newcastle (May 2019). They produced guidance for museum professionals working with early years audiences. The research has reshaped practitioners’ understandings of early years work in museums and influenced the design of space and activities for very young children and their families. The Humber research by Hackett, Procter & MacRae on families’ use of museums prompted North Lincolnshire Museum, Ferens Art Gallery and Sewerby Hall to develop dedicated spaces for under-fives, directly increasing the numbers of family visits 2014-2017, from 739, 348 to 1,421, 942 (documented in external evaluation report, Mair Health, 2018). Hackett (with Yamada-Rice) also developed the IVE (formerly CapeUK) Creative Families Award, a framework and resources for museums seeking to enrich the experiences of very young children and their families. The Clore Studio evaluation for Manchester Art Gallery (MAG) led to Manchester Met’s pivotal involvement in the gallery’s redesign of their strategy and flagship interactive space for 

families and practitioners. This redevelopment is expressly underpinned by the research team’s previous and concurrent museum and gallery research, at the request of Katy McCall, Family Learning Manager, “MMU’s research really informs what we do in the gallery… feeds us things that extend our thinking … developing an emerging and experimental gallery space for families and early years providers… So exciting to be part of a team, in the city. Makes us stronger in times of austerity” (Katy McCall, Family Learning Manager, Manchester Art Gallery). This collaboration is reflected in the edited publication with curators, the family learning manager, and an ESRC White Rose DTP PhD student (Holmes et al). MAG is the most visited museum in Manchester.

The research has underpinned new initiatives including an outreach project with young mothers and a practitioner residency project on young children’s use of the museum and botanical gardens at the Fitzwilliam, and a new Toolkit for early years audiences at the Museum of London. These organisations are leaders in their region, meaning the research is cascaded through peer sharing (eg the early years network for London museums, and including a special issue of GEM’s Journal of Museum Education on early years audiences by the Fitzwilliam).When MAG closed in lockdown, the Affecting Space team contributed to a virtual platform to enable parents to do ‘stay and play’ activities at home, supported by the production of 100 baby activity boxes, distributed to 60 parents with babies, and 40 2-year olds, whose funded nursery provision had been halted by the pandemic (testimonial). These have now been commissioned for all babies in the city with 3000 kits to be sent out via Sure Start centres.

Key Researchers:

• Professor Emeritus Lesley Abbott
• Professor Ian Barron
• Dr Michael Gallagher
• Dr Abigail Hackett
• Professor Rachel Holmes
• Professor Emeritus Liz Jones
• Professor Maggie MacLure
• Dr Christina MacRae
• Dr Lisa Procter

Research Grants & Contracts

Research Council

AHRC Exhibition Fund: Things of the least: lively exhibition-making through the material encounters of under-3s (2023 – 2026) AH/Y005597/1 - Principal Investigator

AHRC Standard Grant Scheme: Odd: feeling different in the world of education (2018 – 2021) AH/R004994/1 - Principal Investigator

ESRC Seminar Series Award: Generating alternative discourses of childhood as a resource for educational policy making (2010-2011) ES/I003126/1 - Principal Investigator

ESRC Follow-on Funding Scheme Award: Addressing ‘problem behaviour’ in the early years: an innovative film resource (2010) ES/H035109/1- Principal Investigator

ESRC Grant Scheme Award: Becoming a Problem: How Children Acquire a Reputation as ‘Naughty’ in the Earliest Years at School (Principal Investigators Professor Maggie MacLure and Professor Liz Jones) (2006 –8) RES-062-23-0105, 2006-8 - 0.5fte Researcher

Charities & Trusts

Curious Minds: Co-laboratory for arts and early childhood: working with artists and cultural organisations to develop skills for playfulness in the early years workforce (2023-2024) – Research Lead (with Christina MacRae & Laura Trafí-Prats)

Curious Minds: SLiCE Research (2018 – 2019) – Research Lead (with Christina MacRae, Kerry Moakes & Jo McNulty)

Curious Minds (2018) - 2-Curious: Arts Pilot Project – Project Lead (with Christina MacRae & Abi Hackett)

Big Life Nurseries: 2-Curious Big Life CPD Network (2017 – 2018) – Project Advisor (Project Lead: Kerry Moakes)

Clore Art Studio Evaluation, Manchester Art Gallery (2014) – Project Evaluator

Action for Children: Evaluation of the Mother and Baby Unit, HMP Styal (2009 – 2010) – Project Co-Director

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation: consultancy to undertake strand 8/2 Primary Schools and Other Agencies. Primary Review Research Briefing, Director Professor Robin Alexander, Cambridge University (2007/08) – Research Consultant

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation: Imaginative Journeys, Eureka! Museum for Children (2006) - Project Director

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation: The Lion’s Story, Manchester Art Gallery (2004) - Project Director

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation: Birth to Three Training Matters Project (2002 – 2006) - Research team member

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation: Playgroup Project – Comparative study of UK and Northern Ireland (2001) - Research team member

Other

Bradford City Council Chattering Nineteen to the Dozen (CND) Project (2013) – Project Researcher

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and SureStart Fatherhood Project (2009 – 10) – Project Researcher

The Manchester Museum:Alchemy Enquire (2007 – 8) - Project Co-Director

DfES/SureStart: Birth to Three Matters Project. (2001 – 2002) - Core research team member

Knowledge Exchange Innovation Fund (2013) – Project Director ‘Young Children and Problem Behaviour: A Research-Informed, Cross-Professional Collaboration’ marketing Strategy (Holmes, AllenDyke)

Faculty social enterprise (2012 – 2014) – Project Director ‘Developing early years partnerships: the two-year-old agenda’ (Holmes, Jones, Moakes, Davenport and Barron)

Postgraduate teaching

• MA Social Research
• PhD Education

ESRC-funded Studentships

• Disruptive Pedagogies: alternative understandings of ADHD and inclusion in an after-school film club
• Outsiders on the inside: be(com)ing entangled with young people’s situated and affective experiences of school life in a North West Secondary Academy
• 2-Curious: More Than Words (Collaborative Award with Curious Minds)

• Affecting space: an interdisciplinary ethnography at Manchester Art Gallery (Collaborative Award with MAG)

VC Studentships

• Artist as Residency
• Women in comedy
• Young children’s relationship with food
• Young children and objects in the art gallery and museum
• Young children’s sense of belonging in the Foundation Stage

PhD and EdDoc Supervision

• Re-narrating Neurodivergence: Zining as Research-Creation
• Exploring the Impact of Ableist Microinteractions in Primary School
• Film and School Atmospheres
• Touch
• Early Years and Philosophical Hauntings
• Drama in Education
• Rethinking Transition
• The ‘disadvantaged’ two-year-old
• Emotional worlds of education professionals working in special schools
• Teaching sculpture through multi-sensory approaches
• Decontextualised learning & teaching in critical studies in secondary art & design education
• Ways photographic imagery can reconstruct self and other(s) in terms of socio-political identity
• Teachers’ emotions

Books

Hackett, A., Holmes, R. and MacRae, C. (eds) (2020). Working with Young Children in Museums: Weaving theory and practice. London: Routledge. (25%)

Jones, L., Holmes, R. and Powell, J. (eds) (2005) Early Childhood Studies: a multiprofessional perspective. Buckingham: Open University Press. (40%)

Chapters in books

Holmes, R. & Ravetz, A. (2022). Growing in the midst of things. In T. Ingold (Ed)(2022). Knowing from the Inside: Cross-Disciplinary Experiments with Matters of Pedagogy. London: Bloomsbury.

Holmes, R. (2020). ‘Performing findings: tales of the theatrical self’. In M.R.M.Ward and S. Delamont (Eds)(2020). Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education, second edition, chapter 43, pp550 – 561.

Holmes, R., Jones, L. and Osgood, J. (2018). ‘Mundane habits, ordinary affects and methodological creations’. In A. Cutter-Mackenzie, K. Malone and E. Barratt Hacking (Eds) (2018). International Research Handbook on ChildhoodNature: Assemblages of Childhood and Nature Research. UK: Springer.

Anastasiou, T., Holmes, R., Runswick-Cole, K. (2018) ‘Becoming Monstrous’, in E. Honan, S. Riddle, D.Bright Writing (eds) Deleuze in the Academy: Creating Monsters. Springer.

Holmes, R. & Jones, L. (2016). ‘Flickering, spilling and diffusing body/knowledge in the posthuman early years’. In C. A. Taylor and C. Hughes (Eds)(2016). Posthuman Research Practices in Education. Hampshire: Palgrave, pp 108 – 127.

MacLure, M, Holmes, R, Jones, L. & Macrae, C. (2015) Silence as resistance to analysis. Or, on not opening one’s mouth properly. In A.M. Otterstad, and A.B.Reinertsen, (Eds)(2015). Metodefestival og øyeblikksrealisme [Method-celebration/party and moments of realism]. 1^st Edition. Norway: Fagbokforlaget.

Jones, L. and Holmes, R. (2014). ‘Working with New Research Practices’. In Brooker, L., Edwards, S. and Blaise, M. (eds). Handbook of Play and Learning in Early Childhood. Sage: London, pp. 128 – 140.

Holmes, R. (2012) ‘Performing Findings: the theatrical self’ in S. Delamont (ed) ‘Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education’. Edward Elgar

Jones, L., Holmes, R. and Maclure, M. (2012). ‘Disturbing cultures of incarceration: the struggle for normality and the imprisoned family’. In J. Duncan and S. Te One (eds) ‘Comparative Early Childhood Education: International Perspectives’. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Jones, L, Holmes, R, MacLure, M. and MacRae, C. (2010) ‘Improper’ children, in N.Yelland (ed) Contemporary Perspectives on Early Childhood Education. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Jones, L, Holmes, R, MacLure, M. and MacRae, C. (2010) Critical politics of play, in G. Cannella and L. D. Soto (eds) Childhoods: A Handbook. Netherlands: Peter Lang.

MacLure, M., Jones, L., Holmes, R. and MacRae, C. (2010). ‘Childhood and the Construction of Critical Research Practices’ in G. Cannella and L.D. Soto (eds) Childhoods: A Handbook. Netherlands: Peter Lang.

Holmes, R. (2006). ‘Arty Farty Nonsense? Parents in the Art Gallery’, in Abbott, L. and Langston, L. (eds) Parents Matter. Buckingham: Open University Press, pages 101 – 111.

Holmes, R. (2005). ‘Deconstructions and Reconstructions of Early Childhood’, in Holmes, R, Jones, L. and Powell, J. (eds) Early Childhood Studies: a multi-professional perspective. Buckingham: Open University Press, pages 164 – 181.

Holmes, R. (2005). ‘Rights of the Child’ in Holmes, R, Jones, L. and Powell, J. (eds) Early Childhood Studies: A multi-professional perspective. Buckingham: Open University Press, pages 26 – 39.

Holmes, R. and Barron, I. (2005) ‘Aspects Matter’ in Abbott, L. & Langston, A. (eds) Birth to Three Matters – supporting the framework of effective practice. Buckingham: Open University Press, 15 – 30.

Holmes, R. and Barron, I. (2005) ‘Constructions of Early Childhood’, in Holmes, R, Jones, L. and Powell, J. (eds) Early Childhood Studies: a multi-professional perspective. Buckingham: Open University Press, pages 151 – 163.

Holmes, R., Jones, L., Barron, I. and Powell, J. (2005). ‘Concluding Remarks’, in Holmes, R, Jones, L. and Powell, J. (eds) Early Childhood Studies: a multi-professional perspective. Buckingham: Open University Press. Pages 204 – 214.

Anthologies, Encyclopedia Entries

Holmes, R., MacLure, M. and Jones, L. (2020). ‘Postmodern Childhoods’. SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies (invited by Erica Burman).

Holmes, R. ‘Theatre of the Self: autobiography as performance’. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Vol. 22 (4), July–August 2009, 399–416, selected for inclusion in ‘Social Theory and Education Research’, edited by Mark Murphy, December 2012, London: Sage Publications (ISBN: 978-1-4462-5312-0)

Articles in refereed journals

Holmes, R. & Ravetz, A. (2024) Spitting open the sky: eruptions of difference in an early years classroom, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 37:3, 691-703, DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2023.2181445

Holmes, R. (2020). ‘Paroxysm: The Problem of the Fist’. Cultural Studies ↔  Critical Methodologies 1–14, doi.org/10.1177/1532708620911402

Macrae, B., Boycott-Garnett, R., Holmes, R., Hackett, A. and Otito Tamsho Thomas, T. (2020). ‘Bonbonnieres in the gallery: (re)presenting sugar in a family gallery space’. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 39 (4): 754-769, doi: 10.1111/jade.12320.

Holmes, R., MacRae, C. and Arculus, C. (2019). 2-Curious: the potential of performance-based Practice in dialogue with early years practice. Impact: Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching. Issue 7,  

MacRae, C. Hackett, A. Holmes, R. and Jones E. (2018) “Vibrancy, repetition, movement: Posthuman theories for reconceptualising young children in museums.” is accepted for Special Issue on Children in Museums in Children’s Geographies.

Frigerio, A., Benozzo, A., Holmes, R. and Runswick-Cole, K. (2018). ‘The Doing and Undoing of the “Autistic Child”: Cutting Together and Apart Interview-Based Empirical Materials’. Qualitative Inquiry, 24(6): 390-402.

Gallagher, M., Prior, J., Needham, M. and Holmes, R. (2017). ‘Listening differently: A pedagogy for expanded listening’. British Educational Research Journal. doi:10.1002/berj.3306.

Jones, L., Rossholt, N., Anastasiou, T. and Holmes, R. (2016). ‘Masticating ‘quality’ and spitting the bits out’. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Vol. 17(1) 26–38, Special Issue ‘Re-imagining Quality in Early Childhood’, guest editors, L. Jones, J.Osgood, M.Urban and R.Holmes.

Holmes, R. (2015). ‘My tongue on your theory: the bittersweet reminder of every-thing unnameable’. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37(5), PP. 662 – 679. Special issue ‘Fabulous monsters: alternative discourses of childhood in education’, guest editors, R. Holmes, L. Jones & M. MacLure.

Holmes, R. (2014). ‘Fresh Kills: to (de)compose data’. Qualitative Inquiry. Special Issue ‘Analysis After Coding in Qualitative Inquiry’. Guest co-editors Elizabeth St Pierre and Alicia Jackson, Qualitative Inquiry, 20 (6), pp. 784-792.

Jones, L., Osgood, J., Urban, M., Holmes, R. and MacLure, M (2014). ‘Eu(rope): (re)assembling, (re)casting and (re)aligning lines of de-and re-territorialisation of early childhood’. Special Issue ‘International Critical Childhood Policy’. Guest co-editors Gaile Cannella and Kenya Wolff. International Review of Qualitative Research, Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 2014, pp. 58–79

Holmes, R. and Jones, L. (2013). ‘Flesh, wax, horse skin and hair: the many intensities of data’. Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies. Special Issue ‘Provocations: (Re)visioning data in qualitative research’. 13(4) 357–372. Guest co-editors Mirka Koro-Ljungberg & Maggie MacLure.

Holmes, R. (2012). ‘A Fantastic decomposition: unsettling the fury of having to wait’, Qualitative Inquiry, 18 (7), 544 – 556.

Holmes, R. and Jones, L. (2013). ‘Limitless provocations of the ‘safe’, ‘secure’ and ‘healthy’ child’, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(1), pp 75 - 99.

Jones, L., MacLure, M., Holmes, R. and MacRae, C. (2011). ‘Children and objects: affection and infection’, Early Years, 32 (1), 49 – 60.

MacLure, M., Jones, L., Holmes, R. and MacRae, C. (2011). ‘Becoming a problem: behaviour and reputation in the early years classroom’. British Educational Research Journal, 38 (3), 447 – 471.

Holmes, R. ‘Risky pleasures: using the work of graffiti writers to theorise the act of ethnography’. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(10), 2010.

Holmes, R. ‘Cinemaethnographic specta(c)torship: discursive readings of what we choose to (dis)possess’. In Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies, 10(3) 221–237, 2010.

Holmes, R. ‘Theatre of the Self: autobiography as performance’. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Vol. 22 (4), July–August 2009, 399–416.

MacLure, M, Holmes, R, MacRae, C. & Jones, L. (2010). ‘Animating classroom ethnography: overcoming video-fear’. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Volume 23 Issue 5, 543 – 556.

MacLure, M, Holmes, R, Jones, L. & MacRae, C. (2010) Silence as resistance to analysis. Or, on not opening one’s mouth properly. Qualitative Inquiry, volume 16, number 6, pp. 492 – 500.

Jones, L., Holmes, R., MacLure, M. and MacRae, C. (2010) Documenting classroom life: how can I write about what I am seeing? Qualitative Research, Volume 10 Issue 4, 479-491.

Holmes, R. ‘East is East: using film to disrupt university classroom narratives around childhood and identity’. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 15(3), October 2007, 367 - 384.

McCreery, E., Jones, L. and Holmes, R. ‘Why do Muslim parents want Muslim schools?’. EarlyYears: An InternationalJournal of Research and Development, Vol 27 (3), p 203 (November 2007).

Journal Special Issues (editorial role)

2017 Co-editor (with Drs Abi Hackett, Christina MacRae and Lisa Procter) Children’s Geographies Special Issue ‘Towering taxidermy and fingertips on glass cases: spatiality, materiality and embodiment in children’s museum geographies’.

2016 Co-editor (with Liz Jones, Jayne Osgood and Mathias Urban) of Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood Special Issue ‘Re-imaging Quality in Early Childhood’.

2015 Lead Editor (with Liz Jones and Maggie MacLure) of Discourse: Studies in Cultural Politics of Education Special Issue ‘Fabulous monsters: alternative discourses of childhood in education’, 37(5).

2012 Co-editor (with Professor Keri Facer and Professor Nick Lee) Global Studies of Childhood Special Issue ‘Childhood Futures: Better Childhoods’.

Refereed conference presentations

2021

Holmes, R. and Birelo, G. (2021). ‘Finding our feet’. Paper presented as part of ‘In and Out of Time at School symposium, IX Conference on Childhood Studies, Tampere University. Finland, May 2021.

2020

Holmes, R. & Ravetz, A. (2020). ‘Intimacy: The Radical Difference of New Encounters in the Classroom’. Paper accepted as part of ‘Impersonal Intimacies: Rethinking Relationality in the Ontological Turn’ symposium, AERA, San Francisco, April 2020 (cancelled due to COVID19).

Holmes, R. & Birelo, G. (2020). ‘A cluster of promises’. Paper accepted as part of ‘In and Out of Time at School’ symposium, Childhood and Time: the IX Conference on Childhood Studies, Tampere University, Finland, May 2020 (cancelled due to COVID19).

2019

Holmes, R. & Shaw, B. (2019). ‘Sensing the School’. Paper accepted as part of ‘Odd encounters: other-than-conventional relations in school’ symposium, BERA, Manchester, UK, September 2019.

Holmes, R. & Shaw, B. (2019) ‘Odd experiment #1: sensing the school’.Paper accepted as part of ‘Odd encounters: other-than-conventional relations in school’ symposium, AERA, Toronto, April 2019.

2017

Holmes, R. (2017). Screwing habitual practices: putting New Materialism to work. Paper to be given as part of a symposium ‘’Theoretical assemblages of early years’, at European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Leuven, Belgium (February 2017).

2016

Holmes, R. & Jones, L. (2016). Holmes, R. & Jones, L. (2016). ‘Screwing habitual  practices: putting New Materialism to work’, paper given as part of a symposium ‘2-Curious (Part 1): experimentations and connections, critique and creation in early childhood’, at BERA, Leeds, September 2016.

Holmes, R. (2016). ‘Biomaterial ethnographic art-efacts: creative experimentation in educational research’,paper given as part of a symposium, ‘New directions for biosocial research in education’, at BERA, Leeds, September 2016.

2015

Holmes, R. & Jones, L. (2015). ‘Flickering Alchemy: curating noisy transgenic Empirical creatures’, paper to be given as part of a symposium ‘The monstrous sense-event: Becoming imperceptible with performance-based art’ at The Dark Precursor. International Conference on Deleuze and Artistic Research, Ghent, Belgium, 9-11 November 2015.

Holmes, R. & Jones, L. (2015). ‘Flickering, spilling and diffusing gender/body/knowledge in the posthuman early years’, paper given as part of a symposium ‘Posthumanist approaches to reconfiguring gender and early childhood’ at GEA, Roehampton, June 2015

2014

Holmes, R. (2014). ‘My Tongue on Your Theory: Bittersweet ‘quality’ (in) research’, paper given as part of symposium ‘Going Beyond ‘Quality’ in Early Childhood Education’ at British Educational Research Association Conference, London, 2014.

Holmes, R. & Jones, L. (2014). ‘Cannibalising Data’, as part of ‘Reconceptualizing data sessions I and II’ at Tenth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, 21 – 26 May 2014.

Holmes, R. & Jones, L. (2014). ‘Putting affect into play: playing with affect’, paper presented as part of symposium ‘Playing with affective methodologies OR what (else) can affect do for qualitative inquiry’, at Tenth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, 21 – 26 May 2014.

Holmes, R. & Jones, L. (2014). ‘The (de)composition of Data’. Invited keynote presentation at the University of Helsinki, Finland 3 – 5 April 2014.

2013

Holmes, R. (2013). ‘Cold flames and decomposition: if objects are merely abstractions of a flux’, paper to be given in ‘Working ‘the glow’: a materialist reconceptualisation of data in qualitative research’, symposium at the American Educational Research Association Conference, San Francisco, 2013

2012

Urban, M., Jones, L., Maclure, M. Holmes, r., MacRae, C. and Osgood, J. (2012). ‘Eu(rope): (Re)assembling, (Re)casting and (Re)aligning Lines of De-and Reterritorialisation of Early Childhood’, paper given in ‘Acknowledging the Neoliberal Assemblage (Year 2):  Reports from an International Collaborative Using Critical Qualitative Research to Unmask Captialist/Emperialist Policy’, symposium at 8^th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Illinois, 2012

Holmes, R. (2012). ‘Fresh kills: the spectacle of (de)composing data’, paper given in ‘Provocations of ‘the child’ in uncertain times’, keynote symposium at the British Educational Research Association Conference, Manchester 2012.

Holmes, R., Jones, L. and Maclure, M. (2012).’Objects as incitements to theory and practice in early childhood education’, paper to be given in‘‘Objects, Spaces and Learning’ symposium at the British EducationalResearch Association Conference, Manchester 2012.

Holmes, R. (2012). ‘Mixing theory? Generating alternative discourses of childhood’, paper given in ‘mixed methods, mixing methods, mixing theories: what’s new about mixed methods research in education?’, symposium at the British Educational Research Association Conference, Manchester 2012.

2011

Jones, L. and Holmes, R. (2011). ‘Imprisoned mothers and a politics of care’, paper given in ‘Provoking knowledge(s), love and solidarity’ symposium at the 19^th Reconceptualising Early Childhood Education Conference, University of East London, 2011

2010

Jones, E. and Holmes, R. (2010). ‘The discipline of objects’, paper to be given in ‘Object Lessons’ symposium at the Sixth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Illinois, 2010

MacLure, M., Holmes, R. and Jones, E. (2010). ‘Ungrounded Theory and Unfounded Practice: Making a Nuisance of New Sense with Philosophies and Practices of Difference’. Pre-conference workshop, the Sixth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Illinois, 2010.

Holmes, R. and Jones, L. ‘Framing childhood: disrupting mind sets, learning to stutter’, paper given at the European Early Childhood Education Association conference. Birmingham, UK, 2010.

Holmes, R. and Jones, E. (2010) Limit-less Provocations of the ‘Safe’, ‘Secure’ and ‘Healthy’ child. Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, Denver, May.

2009

Jones, L. & MacRae, C. (2009) Inter-viewing a dance. Paper presented to the Gender and Education Association Conference, University of London Institute of Education, March.

Jones, L. & MacLure, M. (2009) ‘Dissimulation, Ruse and Perfidy’: the veil of writing. Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, April.

Holmes, R. (2009) Cinematic/Ethnographic Spectatorship: Caricatures and Deprivation. Paper presented presented to the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, San Diego, April.

Holmes, R. & MacLure, M. (2009) (En)gendered impotencies and the (in)tolerant gaze. Paper presented to the Gender and Education Association Conference, Institute of Education, London, March.

MacLure, M, Holmes, R, Jones, L. & MacRae, C. (2009) Video: Opening up Images of the Classroom. Paper presented to the 5th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Illinois, May. 

MacLure, M. (2009) The offence of theory. Paper presented the Annual Meeting of the British Educational Research Association (Keynote Symposium), University of Manchester, September.

MacLure, M, & Holmes, R. (2009) Ungrounded theory and unfounded practice:making a nuisance of new sense with philosophies and practices of difference. Workshop presentation to the 5th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Illinois, May.

2008

Holmes, R. & MacLure, M. (2008) Specta(c)ting children: using ethnographic film to interrogate and mobilize narratives of the child. Paper presented to the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, September.

Holmes, R. and Naib, H. (2008). ‘The Breathing TV’. International Society for Education for Art (InSEA) World Congress Research Conference in Osaka, Japan.

Holmes, R. (2008). ‘Theatre of the self: subjectivity as performance’. International Conference in Critical Psychology,
Cultural Studies and Social Theory, Cardiff University, UK.

2007

Holmes, R, Jones, L, MacRae, C and MacLure, M. (2007) What counts as evidence when examining notions of ‘naughtiness’: am I seeing what you are seeing? Paper presented to the International Congress of Qualitative Research, Urban-Champaign, Illinois, May.

Holmes, R, Jones, L, MacLure, M and MacRae, C. (2007) Becoming a ‘problem’: how children acquire a bad reputation in the earliest years at school. Paper presented to the British Educational Research Association Conference, University of London Institute of Education, September.

MacLure, M, Holmes, R, Jones, L and MacRae, C. (2007) Silence and humour as resistance to analysis. Paper Presented to the Annual Meeting of the Americal Educational Research Association, Chicago, April.

Holmes, R, Jones, L, MacLure, M and MacRae, C. (2007) Pathologising difference: occupying non-conformity in an early years classroom. Paper presented to the British Educational Research Association Conference, London, September.

Jones, L., McCreery, E. and Holmes, R. (2007) Why do Muslim parents want Muslim schools? 6th Discourse, Power and Resistance, Manchester Metropolitan University.

2006

McCreery, E., Jones, L. and Holmes, R. (2006). ‘Faith Schools’ Association of University Lecturers in Religion & Education (UK) ‘Religion and Schools in the 21^st Century - Challenges and Opportunities’ at Stranmillis University College, Belfast.

Holmes, R., Johnson, B. and Griffin, B. (2006). ‘Imaginative Journeys’ Early Childhood  European Educational Research Association, Iceland.

2004

Holmes, R. and Griffin, B. (2004). ‘Young children in the Art Gallery’ Early Childhood European Educational Research Association, Malta 2004.

Holmes, R. (2004) ‘Creating Emotional Spaces for Young Children’ FICE, Edinburgh

Symposia

‘Odd encounters: other-than-conventional relations in school’, AERA, Toronto, April 2019 and BERA, Manchester September 2019.

‘Ordinary Lives’, 14th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Illinois, May, 2018.

‘Theoretical assemblages of early years’, European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Leuven, Belgium February 2017.

‘ 2-Curious (Part 1): experimentations and connections, critique and creation in early childhood’, BERA, Leeds, September 2016.

‘New directions for biosocial research in education’, BERA, Leeds, September 2016.

‘The monstrous sense-event: Becoming imperceptible with performance-based art’, ‘The Dark Precursor’ International Conference on Deleuze and Artistic Research, Ghent, Belgium, 9-11 November 2015

‘Posthumanist approaches to reconfiguring gender and early childhood’ GEA, Roehampton, June 2015

‘Going Beyond ‘Quality’ in Early Childhood Education’, BERA, London, September 2014.

‘Working ‘the Glow’: Reconceptualising Data with/as the Deleuzian Event’, AERA, San Francisco, April 2013.

‘Dis-affected Bodies: The Workings of Affect in Research with Children and Young Adults’, 8^th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Illinois, 2012.

‘Acknowledging the Neoliberal Assemblage (Year 2):  Reports from an International Collaborative Using Critical Qualitative Research to Unmask Captialist/Emperialist Policy’, 8^th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Illinois, 2012.

‘Provocations of ‘the child’ in uncertain times’, keynote symposium at British Educational Research Association Conference, Manchester 2012.

‘Objects, Spaces and Learning’, British EducationalResearch Association Conference, Manchester 2012.

‘Mixed methods, mixing methods, mixing theories: what’s new about mixed methods research in education?’, British Educational Research Association Conference, Manchester 2012.

‘Provoking knowledge(s), love and solidarity’. Reconceptualising Early Childhood Education, London, UK, 2011.

‘Provocations: Encounters between Art and Qualitative Inquiry’. American Educational Research Association Conference, Denver USA, 2010.

‘Object Lessons’. Symposium. Sixth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Illinois, May 2010.

‘The Complexities of Voice’. Symposium European Early Childhood Education Association Conference, Birmingham, UK, September 2010.

Symposia convened by the ESRC ‘Becoming a Problem: How Children Acquire a Reputation as ‘Naughty’ in the Earliest Years at School’ project team

(Professor Maggie MacLure, Professor Liz Jones, Dr Rachel Holmes and Dr Christina MacRae)

‘Deconstructing Early Childhood Education’, Keynote Symposium, British Educational Research Association Conference, 2008.

‘It’s a Frame-up: Opening Up What it Means to Know the Child’, Gender and Education Association Conference, 2009.

‘Framing the Child: Opening up Methodology in Early Childhood Research’, Qualitative Research SIG, American Educational Research Association Conference, 2009.

Technical reports to sponsors

MacRae, C. & Holmes, R. (2024). Co-laboratory for arts and early childhood: working with artists and cultural organisations to develop skills for playfulness in the early years workforce. Curious Minds.

MacRae, C., Holmes, R. & Arculus, C. (2018). 2-Curious: Art Project, Curious Minds, June 2018.

Jones, L., Holmes, R. & van Gaalen, N. (2014). Evaluation of the Clore Art Studio: a continuous swirling line, vibrant colour and humble objects, Manchester art gallery, 2014.

Jones, L. Holmes, R. and Davenport, H. (2013). ‘Chattering Nineteen to the Dozen’. End of Project Report to Bradford City Council, April 2013.

Holmes, R. (2013). ‘Generating Alternative Discourses of Childhood as a Resource for Educational Policy Making’ Impact Report to ESRC, 2013.

Holmes, R. (2011). ‘Generating Alternative Discourses of Childhood as a Resource for Educational Policy Making’ End of Award Report to ESRC, 2011.

Holmes, R. and MacLure, M. (2010). ‘Addressing Problem Behaviour in the Early Years: An Innovative Film Resource. End of Award Report to ESRC, 2010.

Holmes, R., Jones, E., MacLure, M. and Browne, K. (2010). An Evaluation of the Mother and Baby Unit at HM Prison Styal. Action for Children.

Holmes, R. and L. Jones (2009) ‘Phases 1 and 2: Hit the Ground Crawling’. Evaluation of Phases 1 and 2, Provision of Fatherhood Institute training. Stockport Sure Start.

MacLure, M., Jones, L., Holmes, R. and MacRae, C. Becoming a ‘Problem’: How Children Acquire a Reputation as ‘Naughty’ in the Earliest Years at School. End of Award Report to ESRC, 2008.

Jones, L., Holmes, R. and MacRae, C. (2008) Evaluation of the Alchemy Enquire Initiative, The Manchester Museum.

MacLure, M., Holmes, R.,Barron, I. and Runswick-Cole, K. (2007) Primary Schools and Other Agencies (Primary Review Research Survey 8/2), Cambridge: University of Cambridge Faculty of Education.

David, T, Abbott, L., Barron, I, Holmes, R., Ackers, J., Johnson, M. (2002). Birth to Three Matters: a literature review. DfES.

Holmes, R. and Johnson, B. (2006). Imaginative journeys: evaluation of early years enablers work at Eureka!. The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Holmes, R. and Sohel, J. (2004). The Lion’s Story: an evaluation of young children in the art gallery. The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.