Jane Read

Jane Read is a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies and specialises in the historical and philosophical background to our current services. Jane studied history at university and trained as a librarian and archivist. She was Archivist of the Froebel Archive for Childhood Studies for many years, combining this role with teaching on BA, MA and CPD programmes at Roehampton.

Jane's interest in Friedrich Froebel and the worldwide Froebel movement developed during her time as Archivist of the Froebel Archive. Following research for her MA dissertation on the nineteenth century women who promoted Froebel's ideas in the UK and who were the backbone of the movement here, Jane was asked to give conference presentations. She now has an international profile and has given papers at conferences as far afield as Seattle, Melbourne and St Louis as well as London, Dublin and Birmingham and has published numerous articles.

In 2011, Jane completed her PhD exploring the role of the Froebel movement in the development of policy for nursery education and pedagogy in nursery and infant schools from 1900-1939.

Jane is also interested in the history of special education as state special schools and schools within institutions used Froebel's learning materials with their pupils.

Jane's recent publications have adopted socio-historical perspectives to illuminate (dis)continuities in historical and current policy and practice. Her research is currently applying these perspectives to long-standing issues of professional identity and status in the early years workforce.