Dr Lorna Arnott
Reader
Education
Personal statement
Lorna Arnott is a Reader in the Strathclyde Institute of Education, specialising in Early Childhood Lived Experiences and Play. She previously did a term as Director for Early Years within the Institute.
The majority of her work focuses on children's exepriences before the age of five and therefore much of her research and teaching focuses on nursery provision.
Lorna completed her Ph.D at the School of Education, University of Stirling in 2011, focusing on young children’s social interactions around technologies in preschool.
Internationally, Lorna is the founder and co-convener for the European Early Childhood Educational Research Association (EECERA) Digital Childhoods, Multimodality and STEM Special Interest Group. She is also Deputy Editor for the International Journal of Early Years Education and an Assistant Editor for the Journal of Early Childhood Research.
Lorna is the Editor of Digital Technology and Learning in the Early Years, SAGE, Co-Editor of Research Through Play: Participatory Methods in Early Childhood and Co-Editor of The Theory and Practice of Voice in Early Childhood: An International Exploration.
Prize And Awards
- Nomination: Best EdTech Paper presented at BERA Conference
- Recipient
- 2023
- Nomination: Strathclyde Medal (BACP Team)
- Recipient
- 2022
- Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education.
- Recipient
- 2022
- Nominated for a HASS Teaching Excellence Award, for Early Years team working on the BA Childhood Practice Programme (Education) (2022)
- Recipient
- 2022
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Recipient
- 2013
Publications
- The rights of very young children in the digital environment of the family home : findings from a UK survey of children 0–36 months and their parents
- Winter Karen, Flewitt Rosie, El Gemayel Sandra, Bunting Lisa, Arnott Lorna, Connolly Paul, Dalziell Andrew, Gillen Julia, Goodall Janet, Liu Min‐Chen, McLaughlin Katrina, Savadova Sabina, Timmins Sarah
- Children and Society (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12968
- Starting from pedagogy : supporting children’s ethical and playful involvement in early childhood research
- Arnott Lorna, Mevawalla Zinnia, Wall Kate
- International Journal of Early Years Education Vol 32, pp. 791-795 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2024.2440234
- Detective mystery play : play-based research methods for facilitating young children's critical thinking
- Martinez-lejarreta Loreain, Arnott Lorna, Wall Kate
- International Journal of Early Years Education Vol 32, pp. 871-884 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2024.2407471
- Participatory methods for understanding 0-3s' technology use in family homes
- Arnott Lorna, Mevawalla Zinnia
- Early Years Educator Vol 24, pp. 1-3 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.12968/eyed.2024.24.9.12
- Wee People Big Feelings Practical Guide for Practitioners : a Practical Guide for the Early Years workforce
- Wall Kate, Arnott Lorna
- (2023)
- Under 3s' language and literacy learning with digital tech at home : an introduction
- Flewitt R, Arnott Lorna
- (2023)
Teaching
Lorna’s teaching generally covers:
- Early Childhood Education, specifically focused on children's experiences and play.
- Qualitative research methods and those related to research with very young children.
Lorna most often teaches on the BA Childhood Practice, Master's of Education Early Years Pedagogue, PGDE Nursery and the BA Education Nursery.
Lorna is also interested in delivering research methods training, particularly in relation to qualitative approaches and contributes to both practice-based and academic research training.
Lorna currently supervises PGR students at Masters, PhD and Ed.D level.
Research Interests
Research Interests
Lorna’s research explores young children’s lived experiences and play, typically in relation to technology, creativity and social play for learning and development. Her work attempts to understand how the environments and culture, children's agency and the artefacts children use contribute to learning and development. She is interested in a broader definition of technology which moves beyond the computer towards exploring technological toys, both digital and non-screen based. Lorna has completed a wealth of research in early childhood settings but more recently have explored informal learning contexts, such as the family home.
Secondly, Lorna's other research focuses on innovative methods for consulting with children in early childhood (typically under 6 years old). She's interesting in voice work broadly with young children.
Lorna is currently Co-I and Scottish lead for an ESRC project, Toddlers, Tech and Talk.
Completed Students:
- Zainab Attar (Competed) - Innovative methods with young children and literacy. PhD.
- Loreain Martinez Lejarreta (completed) Developing young children's critical thinking skills through teacher-children interactions in Early Childhood Education and Care settings. PhD
- Marion Burns (Completed) Early education with a specific focus on transitions. Ed.D
- Jennifer Zike (Completed) Using Pupil Views Templates to investigate the development of thinking across children at point of school entry in Scotland. Ph.D
- Charlotte Allan (Completed) - Shared Experience: How attending Theatre for Early Years influences early attachment and bonding. MPhil.
Professional Activities
- International Journal of Qualitative Methods (Journal)
- Guest editor
- 2024
- Participatory approaches and practitioner enquiry in early childhood
- Invited speaker
- 11/2023
- I've got plenty to say, you just need to 'listen': Exploring babies, toddlers and very young children's voices in research and practice.
- Invited speaker
- 10/2023
- EECERA online event
- Chair
- 20/9/2023
- EECERA Digital Childhoods, Multimodality and STEM SIG Annual Meeting (Hybrid)
- Chair
- 30/8/2023
- 31st European Early Childhood Education Research Association Conference
- Member of programme committee
- 8/2023
Projects
- 0-3-year-old Children's language And Literacy Learning at Home in a Digital Age (0-3s, Tech and Talk)
- Arnott, Lorna (Principal Investigator)
- Full project FEC: £850,442, Funded Contribution £688,654); Strathclyde element £83,601.00.
- 06-Jan-2022 - 05-Jan-2024
- Early Years and Early Primary Science and Technology through Exploration
- Moore, Iain (Principal Investigator) Arnott, Lorna (Co-investigator) Gray, Laura (Co-investigator)
- A project looking to increase the confidence of early years and early level primary practitioners in the delivery of science.
- 01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2023
- Renfrewshire Council Research Academy for Teacher Practitioners
- Wall, Kate (Co-investigator) Arnott, Lorna (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 01-Jan-2022
- Wee People, Big Feelings Research and KE Grant
- Wall, Kate (Co-investigator) Arnott, Lorna (Co-investigator)
- £6000 funding
- 01-Jan-2021 - 01-Jan-2022
- Socially Innovative Interventions to Foster and to Advance Young Children’s Inclusion and Agency in Society through Voice and Story
- Beaton, Mhairi (Principal Investigator) Wall, Kate (Visiting Academic) Arnott, Lorna (Visiting Academic) Cassidy, Claire (Visiting Academic)
- The AdVoSt -project will take into practice the theoretical guiding principles for facilitating and enhancing young children’s voice in specific contexts (Wall et al., 2017). This will be done in close cooperation with practitioners working with indigenous children in Finland, marginalized, indigenous, and immigrant children in Canada, and children with diverse ethnical and cultural backgrounds in the UK. Previous literature indicates that young children are often viewed as ‘becomings’ rather than ‘beings’ within their communities. This is especially the case with children from non-mainstream communities, where ‘becoming’ might also mean to become a mainstream citizen, meaning simultaneously compromising identity, culture and language (e.g. von Benzon & van Blerk 2017; Sköld & Vehkalahti 2016). The AdVoSt-project will enhance educators' knowledge of multiple storytelling pedagogies including perspectives of land-based learning. The research-based development of composing narratives with young learners through art, writing, photography, performance and digital representations privilege young children’s voice enabling their full citizenship. These research-based initiatives will contribute to the development of child centred learning that is focused in land-based pedagogy and play. Play helps children to gain positive learning experiences (Tang & Adams 2010). Children’s varied play engagements often use culturally relevant toys and ephemera which help them to narrate their stories and facilitate hearing the voices of young children. However, educators, administration, local communities and parents do not always know how to promote such play to enhance children’s literacy engagements. Additionally, the digital delivery of early childhood education with distance management sets diverse challenges for educational activities. The AdVoSt-project recognizes the challenges concerning minority and indigenous children and will facilitate knowledge sharing between the participating countries and beyond. Using a community-based qualitative, comparative case study approach, the project will ensure that local cultural contexts play a key role in all research activities.
- 01-Jan-2020
- Capita PhD Studentship Application Awarded: Open World Gaming for Young Children's Creative Play
- Arnott, Lorna (Academic) Levine, John (Academic)
- 01-Jan-2015 - 01-Jan-2019