Fiona Maine&refresh | School of Education

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/

Publications

Books

Maine F, Vrikki M (2021). Dialogue for Intercultural Understanding Placing Cultural Literacy at the Heart of Learning., Springer. Abstract.

Maine F (2016). Teaching Comprehension Through Reading and Responding to Film.

Maine F (2015). Dialogic readers: Children talking and thinking together about visual texts. Abstract.

Journal articles

Maine F (In Press). The role of provisional language in Dialogic Space. Theory into Practice Abstract.

Zimmermann M, Mayweg-Paus E, Ruwe T, Maine F (2023). Teacher evaluations of open educational resources designed to support dialogic cultural literacy learning in schools. European Journal of Open Distance and E-Learning, 25(1), 136-147.

Cook V, Maine F, Čermáková A (2022). Enacting cultural literacy as a dialogic social practice: the role of provisional language in classroom talk. London Review of Education, 20(1). Abstract.

Maine F, Čermáková A (2022). Thinking aloud: the role of epistemic modality in reasoning in primary education classrooms. Language and Education Abstract.

Maine F, Brummernhenrich B, Chatzianastasi M, Juškienė V, Lähdesmäki T, Luna J, Peck J (2021). Children's exploration of the concepts of home and belonging: Capturing views from five European countries. International Journal of Educational Research, 110, 101876-101876.

Maine F, Cermakova A (2021). Using linguistic ethnography as a tool to analyse dialogic teaching in upper primary classrooms. LEARNING CULTURE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION, 29 Author URL.

Maine F, Rojas-Drummond S, Hofmann R, Barrera MJ (2020). Symmetries and asymmetries in children’s peer-group reading discussions. The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 43(1), 17-32.

Maine F, Rojas-Drummond S, Hofmann R, Barrera M-J (2020). Symmetries and asymmetries in children’s peer-group reading discussions. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy

Maine F, Cook V, Lähdesmäki T (2019). Reconceptualizing cultural literacy as a dialogic practice. London Review of Education, 17(3), 383-392. Abstract.

Rojas-Drummond S, Maine F, Alarcon M, Laura Trigo A, Jose Barrera M, Mazon N, Velez M, Hofmann R (2017). Dialogic literacy: Talking, reading and writing among primary school children. LEARNING CULTURE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION, 12, 45-62. Author URL.

Maine F (2017). The bothersome crow people and the silent princess: exploring the orientations of children as they play a digital narrative game. LITERACY, 51(3), 138-146. Author URL.

Hennessy S, Rojas-Drummond S, Higham R, Maria Marquez A, Maine F, Maria Rios R, Garcia-Carrion R, Torreblanca O, Jose Barrera M (2016). Developing a coding scheme for analysing classroom dialogue across educational contexts. LEARNING CULTURE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION, 9, 16-44. Author URL.

Maine F, Hofmann R (2016). Talking for meaning: the dialogic engagement of teachers and children in a small group reading context. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, 75, 45-56. Author URL.

Maine F, Shields R (2015). Developing reading comprehension with moving image narratives. CAMBRIDGE JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, 45(4), 519-535. Author URL.

Maine F (2014). 'I wonder if they are going up or down': children's co-constructive talk across the primary years. Education 3-13, 42(3), 298-312. Abstract.

Maine F (2013). How children talk together to make meaning from texts: a dialogic perspective on reading comprehension strategies. LITERACY, 47(3), 150-156. Author URL.

Maine F (2012). Consulting the Experts: Martha and Alex Talk about Books and Reading. Bookbird a Journal of International Children's Literature, 50(3), 60-65.

Maine F, Waller A (2011). Swallows and Amazons Forever: How Adults and Children Engage in Reading a Classic Text. Children's Literature in Education, 42(4), 354-371. Abstract.

Chapters

Maine F, Wegerif R (2023). Dialogism. In (Ed) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible, Springer Nature, 395-400.

Cook V, Maine F, Fozzard L, McCaughran B (2022). Building cultural literacy through dialogue. In (Ed) Unleashing Children's Voices in New Democratic Primary Education, Taylor & Francis, 145-159.

Maine F, Vrikki M (2021). An introduction to dialogue for intercultural understanding: placing cultural literacy at the heart of learning. In (Ed) Dialogue for intercultural understanding: Placing cultural literacy at the heart of learning.

Maine F, Wegerif R (2021). Dialogism. In (Ed) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible, Springer Nature, 1-6.

Maine F, McCaughran B (2021). Using wordless picturebooks as stimuli for dialogic engagement. In (Ed) Dialogue for intercultural understanding: Placing cultural literacy at the heart of learning.

Maine F (2019). Reading as a transaction of meaning making. In (Ed) The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Dialogic Education, Taylor & Francis, 336-347.

Maine F (2019). Reading as a transaction of meaning making exploring the dialogic space between texts and readers. In (Ed) The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Dialogic Education, 336-347. Abstract.

Maine F (2019). Section Introduction. In (Ed) The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Dialogic Education, Taylor & Francis, 289-291.

Maine F (2019). Section introduction: Dialogic education for literacy and language. In (Ed) The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Dialogic Education, 289-291. Abstract.

Maine F (2017). Collaborative and dialogic meaning-making: How children engage and immerse in the storyworld of a mobile game. In (Ed) The Case of the iPad: Mobile Literacies in Education, 211-225.

Rojas-Drummond S, Márquez AM, Hofmann R, Maine F, Rubio L, Hernández J, Guzmán K (2016). Oracy and Literacy in the Making. In (Ed) Open Spaces for Interactions and Learning Diversities, Springer Nature, 69-108.

Rojas-Drummond S, Márquez AM, Hofmann R, Maine F, Rubio AL, Hernández J, Guzmán K (2016). Oracy and literacy in the making: Collaborative talk and writing in grade 6 Mexican classrooms. In (Ed) Open Spaces for Interactions and Learning Diversities, 69-108. Abstract.

Edit Profile