Mallika Kanyal

Mallika has experience in both teaching and research. Here at ARU, she works as a senior lecturer and teaches on early childhood courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

mallika.kanyal@aru.ac.uk

Background

Mallika has been in the field of higher education since 2000 and has teaching and research experience within the UK and India in the subject of early childhood. Her academic experience has been that of a senior lecturer and course leader for BA (Hons) Early Years Education and BA (Hons) Early Years Professional Practice courses.

Mallika also has training experience as a head instructor for Integrated Child Development Services training center, in Rajasthan, India.

Research interests

• Participatory research in education
• Children's rights
• Children's voice and their participation
• Children's socio-emotional development
• Children's peer relations

Mallika's current research interest is around the usefulness of participatory research and its place as an alternative approach to conventional research in education contexts. Her research focuses around the pedagogical use of participatory approaches in early years as well as in higher education. She has published this work under the strand of children's participatory rights in early years and students' voice in higher education. Her other research interest is around children's socio-emotional development and the importance of peer relationship in early years.

Teaching

Mallika's main teaching is around children's rights, childhood research, early years practitioners professional development, the broader contexts of early years practice and specialist studies. She teaches both face-to-face and online groups, as well as on the modules that run across regional institutions. Part of her role is also supporting the undergraduate and postgraduate students in their major projects.

Qualifications

• MSc, Human Development and Family Studies, Haryana Agriculture University, India
• Postgraduate Certificate in Education, University of Greenwich, UK
• Postgraduate Certificate, Anglia Ruskin University, UK
• BSc, Home Science, Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University, India

Memberships, editorial boards

• Guest editor for Journal of Management in Education (Autumn 2014), Special Edition, Early Childhood Education: Participation in Policy and Practice, Sage
• Member of the Early Childhood Research Group, Anglia Ruskin University
• Member (and Convenor- Chelmsford) of the Children and Youth Voice Research Group, Anglia Ruskin University
• Member of the Comparative Education Society of India (CESI), India

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

Knowledge exchange

• January 2015. Children’s Rights. Seminar presentation at Liverpool Hope University

Research grants

• 2011-12. Principal researcher. Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education Scholarship and Research Support Fund. Collaborative writing to publish a commissioned book. £750
• 2011 and 2010. Principal researcher. Research fund for students’ research taster placement
• 2011: Children’s Rights: Young Children’s Participation in their Education. £1600
• 2010: Young children’s perceptions of their school experience: a qualitative study in England and India. £1600
• 2010-11. Co-researcher. INSPIRE, ARU. Using Virtual Learning Environment as a pedagogical tool to promote students learning at Higher Education. £3,500
• 2009-10. Principal researcher. Deputy Vice Chancellor Research and Scholarship fund, ARU. Young children’s perceptions of their school environment- insights from a primary school in England and India. £4,500

Selected recent publications

Kanyal, M. (2014). Early Childhood Studies students’ participation in the development of a learning space in a higher education institution. Management in Education, 28(4): 149–155

Kanyal, M. (ed). (2014). Children’s Rights: promoting participation in education and care. London: David Fulton.

Kanyal, M. (2014). Childhood and children’s participation- a socio-cultural perspective. In: M. Kanyal. Children’s Rights: promoting participation in education and care. London: David Fulton.

Kanyal, M. and Gibbs, J. (2014). Children’s participation- why and how. In: M. Kanyal. Children’s Rights: promoting participation in education and care. London: David Fulton.

Kanyal, M. (2014). Models of participation. In: M. Kanyal. Children’s Rights: promoting participation in education and care. London: David Fulton.

Kanyal, M., Luff, P., Cooper, L. and Webster, L. (2014). Participatory approaches in research involving children. In: M. Kanyal. Children's Rights: promoting participation in education and care. London: David Fulton.

Kanyal, M. (2014). Children’s drawings to understand their perceptions of the school environment in a school in north India. In: Johnson, V., Hart. R. and Colwell, J. (eds). Steps to engaging young children in research (Volume 1): the Guide. Education Research Centre, University of Brighton (Funded by Bernard van Leer Foundation).

Kanyal, M. (2014). Making interviews more engaging. In: Johnson, V., Hart. R. and Colwell, J. (eds). Steps to engaging young children in research (Volume 2): the Researcher toolkit. Education Research Centre, University of Brighton (Funded by Bernard van Leer Foundation

Kanyal, M. (2013). Indian children's perceptions of their school environment. In: S. Knigt, (ed). International perspectives on forest school. London: Sage

Kanyal, M. (2012). Promoting children’s participation in education: developing a culture of participation. In: B. Bastick-Boufoy, (ed). Cultures of Teacher Education: Comparative international issues in curriculum, pedagogy and attainment, Strasbourg, France: Analytrics.

Kanyal, M. and Cooper, L. (2011). Young children’s perceptions of their classroom environment: perspectives from England and India. In: T. Papatheodorou and J. Moyles, ed. 2012. Cross cultural perspectives in early childhood, London: Sage

Kanyal, M., Luff, P. and Lithari, E. (2012). Exploring and exploiting the potential of the tools available on the sharepoint virtual learning environment to support first year students’ learning experience. Networks (15), Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Recent presentations and conferences

Kanyal, M., Luff, P., Such, C. and Cooper, L. (2014). Children’s perceptions of school experiences in India and England: a comparative analysis. Paper presentation at the international conference of the Comparative Education Society of India, 2014, at University of Delhi, India

Kanyal, M. and Luff, P. (2013). Exploring optimal ways of engaging students in the development of a participatory research project. Paper presentation at annual British Education Research Association, 2013, at University of Sussex, UK.

Luff. P., Kanyal, M. and Webster, C. (2012). Pedagogical documentation: ways of seeing and knowing. Paper presentation at annual British Education Research Association, 2013, at University of Manchester, UK

Kanyal, M., Luff, P. and Lithari, E. (2011). Exploring and exploiting the potential of the tools available on the sharepoint virtual learning environment to support first year students’ learning experience. Paper presentation at Annual Learning and Teaching conference, Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Kanyal, M. (2010). Children’s perceptions of their school experience, Virtual presentation at the 2nd Paris International Conference on Education, Economy & Society.

Kanyal, M. and Cooper, L. (2010). Young children’s perceptions of their school experience: a comparative study between England and India, paper presented at the ‘World Conference on Educational Sciences Bahcesehir University, Istanbul – Turkey’, February, 2010

Kanyal, M. And Cooper, L. (2010). Learning to attend to children’s voices: determining more responsive learning environments? Paper presented at the International conference: Early Childhood Curriculum, Policy and Pedagogy In The 21st Century, Anglia Ruskin University