Professor Fiona Maine

Fiona joined The School of Education in September 2022 as Professor of Language and Literacy in Education. She co-leads the Centre for Research in Language and Literacies. Her specialisms are in primary literacy, particularly concerning the development of children’s language, reading, critical and creative thinking and the role that dialogue can play in their learning. Central to her work is children's dialogic engagement with visual and multimodal texts, and how their interpretations of ambiguous and complex texts can be shared and explored. Fiona is keen to accept PhD proposals in these L1 areas, but please note that she is not an expert in the study or teaching of English as a second language. She is the Director for Post-Graduate Research in the School of Education.

Fiona has a background in primary education, starting her career as a primary teacher. She has extensive experience supporting teachers to enhance their literacy teaching practices. Prior to her appointment at Exeter, she worked as a lecturer and then associate proferssor for 10 years at the  Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. She is a longstanding member of the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) and serves on their Research Committee and National Council.