Professor Fiona Maine
Professor of Language and Literacy in Education / Director of Business, Engagement and Innovation
F.L.Maine@exeter.ac.uk
Baring Court BC102
Baring Court, University of Exeter St Luke's Campus, Heavitree Road, Exeter, EX1 2LU, UK
Overview
I joined The School of Education in September 2022 as Professor of Language and Literacy in Education. My 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.
I have a background in primary education, starting my career as a primary teacher in 1992 before becoming a literacy consultant for Wiltshire Local Authority in 2001. I joined Bath Spa University in 2004, working with teachers across the region in professional learning projects focused on talk for learning and thinking, and multimodal literacies. I spent the last ten years (2012-2022) at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, coordinating the Primary PGCE English course, and the Primary Education Masters, in addition to supervising PhD and EdD students.
I am a longstanding member of the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) and serve on their Research Committee and National Council. Additionally, I am a member of the International Literacy Association (ILA).
Research
Research interests
My PhD (awarded 2009) investigated how children can be ‘dialogic readers’ as they collaboratively make meaning from different texts, including visual and moving image texts. This interest has continued through my academic career informing my teaching and research focuses.
I enjoy research collaborations with many international partners including The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Stavanger University in Norway. I have been a visiting scholar at several universities, including University of Helsinki (2018), The Beijing Foreign Studies University (2019), and last year a ‘virtual’ residency at Monash University in Melbourne. In 2021 I was runner up for the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact and Public Engagement at the University of Cambridge.
My grant activity includes acting as principal investigator and consortium coordinator for several research projects of different sizes, for example:
2018-2022 Dialogue and Argumentation for cultural Literacy Learning in Schools (DIALLS) (European Commission Horizon 2020) and subsequently DIALLS Widening and Deepening Impact (ESRC Impact Accelerator Grant) www.dialls2020.eu
2016-2018 The role of dialogic a/symmetrical interactions among peers in diverse, multimodal reading situations (British Academy/Leverhulme) https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/programmes/dialogicinteractions/
2016-2017 Investigating children’s inference and story generation as they navigate digital narrative applications Principal Investigator (UKLA) https://ukla.org/funded_projects/playing-or-reading-childrens-encounters-with-the-story-world-of-a-digital-g/