Dr Jane Dorrian

Professional biography

I started my career as a primary school teacher in the south Wales valleys and worked for several years in a nursery school before taking a secondment to be the LEA advisory teacher for early years. At the end of the secondment I took up a lecturing role on the Education and Early Childhood Studies degree programmes at University of Wales, Newport and during my time there I completed my doctorate. I then moved to Cardiff Metropolitan University where I worked as the Deputy Head of Department in the School of Education and Social Policy whilst contining to teach on the Early Childhood Studies and Primary Education programmes. In 2018 I became a Staff Tutor at the Open University before joining the Early Childhood team in 2022.

Research interests

My doctoral thesis looked at the professional identities of early years practitioners and this is still an area that I am interested in. I am involved in projects that explore physical literacy in the early years and have undertaken scholarship exploring how aspects of the hidden curriculum impact on student experience.

Teaching interests

My teaching interests are young children's physical literacy, early years' practitioners professioal identities and undertsking research with young children.

Impact and engagement

PRAXIS funded Scholarship project What is a tutorial? An exploration of ‘learning event literacy’ on student experience. (open.ac.uk)

Podcast exploring the implications of the new Welsh Curriculum for teacher training https://nape.org.uk/nape-podcast  

Mini-article for OU OpenLearn https://ounews.co/education-languages-health/childhood-youth/teach-your-child-through-creative-play/  

Video and mini-article for OU OpenLearn https://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/sport-fitness/how-help-your-child-become-future-olympian

External collaborations

External evaluator for the Early Years Wales 'Welsh Active Early Years' programme Welsh Active Early Years | Early Years Wales