Cathy Nutbrown

Professor Cathy Nutbrown is currently Head of The School of Education. She teaches and researches in the field of Early Childhood Education. Cathy began her career as a teacher of young children and has since worked in a range of settings and roles with children, parents, teachers, and other early childhood educators. Cathy is committed to finding ways of working 'with respect' with young children, and sees the concept of quality in the context of what it means to develop curriculum and pedagogy in the early years with the ambition of working in a climate of 'respectful education'.

She established the University of Sheffield MA in Early Childhood Education in 1998 and a Doctoral Programme in Early Childhood Education in 2008. In 2010 she contributed to the Tickell Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage and served on the Ofqual Advisory Group on Early Years Assessment 2010-2012. In June 2012 she reported on year long independent review of Early Education and Childcare Qualifications for the government. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Sage Journal of Early Childhood Research.

In May 2013 Cathy was awarded the ESRC prize for Research with Outstanding Impact on Society for her family literacy work.

Cathy´s work on children´s rights and curriculum development has led her to explore aspects of inclusion in the early years. Her work has included work on the preschool educators´ beliefs and practices around inclusion and has looked at work in Europe and the UK. Cathy´s interest in inclusion extends to ways of developing inclusive practices where the voices of children, parents and practitioners are heard and their roles and perspectives valued.