Dr Christina MacRae
Research Fellow
My profile
Biography
Christina started her professional career as an early years teacher in Nursery Schools in London and Bristol. Alongside her teaching, she has an interest in art-making, and has worked as artist in collaborative projects with young children in schools. She completed her PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University with supervision from Professor Liz Jones. Her doctoral work explored the way that space is produced in an early years classroom drawing on non-representational theories to think about the embodied and materials processes at play. Recently she has been a full time teacher in an inner city Nursery School and Children’s Centre in Bradford.
Christina teaches on the MA in Social Research, in Contemporary Issues in Education, Childhood and Youth.
Supervision areas:
- Early Years
- Early Literacies
- Arts-informed practice and pedagogies
Editorial Board membership
Guest-editor of Practice.ie; a practice oriented website for artists working in schools based in Ireland.
Impact
Projects
2-Curious: More Than Words ESRC-funded 1+3 Collaborative Studentship Award with Curious Minds (Arts Council Bridge organization) MacRae, C. Hackett, A. & Holmes, R. (Sept 2017–Aug 2021)
2-Curious: Arts Pilot Project Investigating the potential of art-based practice in relation to pedagogic practice with 2-year olds. Curious Minds. MacRae, C. Hackett, A. & Holmes, R. (2018)
The Sensory Nursery Research Residency with Two Year olds at Martenscroft Nursery School and Children’s Centre. (2016-2019)
How do families experience our museums? Humber Museum Partnership. Hackett, A., Procter, L. & MacRae, C. (2016-2017)
Principal Investigator for Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Practice-Led Project: The secret life of objects: an artist residency in an early years classroom Ref. No AH/H008403/1 (2009-2010)
Research Assistant, Collaborative Action Research project funded by Manchester Museum with the Curatorial and Learning Teams at Manchester Museum, Bolton Museum, Art Gallery and Aquarium, and Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston. (2007-2008)
Research Assistant, Economic and Social Research Council funded project, Becoming a Problem: How and Why Children Acquire a Reputation as ‘Naughty’ in the Earliest Years at School. Project Researcher with Maggie MacLure, Liz Jones, Rachel Holmes. (2006-2008)
Research Assistant, Young Children in the Art Gallery. Manchester City Art Gallery, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Manchester Metropolitan University. (2006)
Research Assistant, Eureka Project. (Evaluating learning experiences of early years children in a children’s science museum) funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (2003-4)
Teaching
Subject areas
Children & Childhood
Research outputs
I am interested in early childhood, and using sensory ethnography and arts-based methodologies to give more weight to materials, relationships, and embodied ways of knowing. I think critically about the ways that linear developmental models can limit the ways we think about and respond to young children. Although this dominant model starts with the body of the infant as the location of sensory-motor knowledge, by placing the child-as-subject at the centre of agency and intentionality, it privileges a progression away from the body, towards the verbal and the reasonable. My interest is in exploring what we can learn by positively shifting our attention to the affective, material, and corporeal.
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Books (authored/edited/special issues)
Hackett, A., Holmes, R., MacRae, C. (2019) Working with young children in museums: Weaving theory and practice.
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Chapters in books
Hackett, A., Macrae, B. (2023) 'Observing What You Cannot See,.' Postdevelopmental Approaches to Childhood Research Observation.
Macrae, B.C. (2022) 'Bringing post-humanism and Froebel into conversation with schema play.' Schemas in the Early Years Exploring Beneath the Surface Through Observation and Dialogue. Routledge,
Hackett, A., MacRae, C., Holmes, R. (2019) 'Introduction to part II.' Working with Young Children in Museums: Weaving Theory and Practice. pp. 77-86.
Hackett, A., Holmes, R., MacRae, C. (2019) 'Introduction.' Working with Young Children in Museums: Weaving Theory and Practice. pp. 1-11.
Hackett, A., MacRae, C., Holmes, R. (2019) 'Introduction to part I.' Working with Young Children in Museums: Weaving Theory and Practice. pp. 15-26.
MacRae, C., Hackett, A., Holmes, R. (2019) 'Introduction to part III.' Working with Young Children in Museums: Weaving Theory and Practice. pp. 135-143.
Holmes, R., MacLure, M., Jones, L., MacRae, C. (2015) 'Silence as resistance to analysis. Or, on not opening one's mouth properly.' In Otterstad, A.M., Reinertsen, A.N., Reinertsen, A.B. (ed.) Metodefestival og øyeblikksrealisme [Method-celebration/party and moments of realism]. Norway: Fagbokforlage,
Macrae, C. (2013) 'Teacher, Researcher and Artist: Thinking About Documentary Practices.' Young Children, Pedagogy and the Arts: Ways of Seeing, New York: Routledge.
Frankham, J., MacRae, C. (2011) 'Ethnography.' Theory and methods in social research, 2nd ed. Sage Publications,
Jones, L., Holmes, R., MacRae, C., MacLure, M. (2010) ''Improper' children.' Contemporary perpectives on early childhood education. Open University Press,
Jones, L., Holmes, R., MacLure, M., MacRae, C. (2010) 'Critical politics of play.' Childhoods: a handbook. Peter Lang Publishing,
MacLure, M., Jones, L., Holmes, R., MacRae, C. (2010) 'Childhood and the construction of critical research practices.' Childhoods: a handbook. Peter Lang Publishing,
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Reports
Holmes, R., Arculus, C., Macrae, B. 2-Curious: A pilot investigation into the potential of performance-based practice in dialogue with early years practice in two funded two-year old settings.
Hackett, A., Procter, L., Macrae, B. (2017) How do families with under fives experience museums? A reserach report for Humber Museums Partnership. Manchester Metropolitan University.
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Journal articles
Rousell, D., Cary, C., Kik, A., Robertson, C., Macrae, B. (2022) 'A Pedagogy of Suspensions: Infrathin Variations between London and Manchester.' Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, 13(3) pp. 46-63.
Arculus, C., Macrae, B. (2022) 'Clowns, fools, and the more-than-Adult toddler.' Global Studies of Childhood, 12(3) pp. 209-223.
Tesar, M., Duhn, I., Nordstrom, S.N., Koro, M., Sparrman, A., Orrmalm, A., Boycott-Garnett, R., MacRae, C., Hackett, A., Kuntz, A.M., Trafi-Prats, L., Boldt, G., Rautio, P., Ulmer, J.B., Taguchi, H.L., Murris, K., Kohan, W.O., Gibbons, A., Arndt, S., Malone, K. (2021) 'Infantmethodologies.' Educational Philosophy and Theory,
Macrae, B., Maclure, M. (2021) 'Folding Froebel with Deleuze: rethinking the significance of imitation in early childhood.' Global Education Review, 9(1) pp. 54-68.
Macrae, B., Maclure, M. (2021) 'Watching two-year olds jump: video method becomes ‘haptic’.' Ethnography and Education, 16(3) pp. 263-278.
Boycott-Garnett, R., Macrae, B., Hackett, A., Otito Tamsho-Thomas, T., Holmes, R. (2020) 'Bonbonnieres in the gallery: (re)presenting sugar in a family gallery space.' The International Journal of Art & Design Education, 39(4) pp. 754-769.
MacRae, C., Jones, L. (2020) 'A philosophical reflection on the “Leuven Scale” and young children’s expressions of involvement.' International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 36(2) pp. 234-246.
Macrae, B., Barron, I., Taylor, L. (2020) 'Seeking space for entanglements with young children in immanent material relationality.' Early Years: an international journal of research and development, 42(4-5) pp. 543-556.
MacRae, C., Arculus, C. (2020) 'Complicité: Resisting the Tyranny of Talk in Early Childhood.' Global Education Review, 7(2)
MacRae, C. (2020) 'Tactful hands and vibrant mattering in the sand tray.' Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 20(1) pp. 90-110.
MacRae, C. (2019) '‘Grace Taking Form’.' Video Journal of Education and Pedagogy, 4(1) pp. 151-166.
MacRae, C. (2019) 'The Red Blanket: a dance of animacy.' Global Studies of Childhood, 12(4) pp. 348-358.
Hackett, A.C., MacRae, C., McCall, K., Penfold, L., Wallis, N., Bates, E., Cooke, L. (2018) 'Coda: posthumous conversations. A reading group to discuss the work of Dr Elee Kirk.' Children's Geographies, 16(5) pp. 571-577.
Hackett, A., Holmes, R., MacRae, C., Procter, L. (2018) 'Editorial: Young children’s museum geographies: spatial, material and bodily ways of knowing.' Children's Geographies, 16(5) pp. 481-488.
Macrae, B.C., Hackett, A., Holmes, R., Jones, L. (2017) 'Vibrancy, repetition, movement: posthuman theories for reconceptualising young children in museums.' Children's Geographies, 16(5) pp. 503-515.
MacRae, C. (2012) 'Encounters with a life(less) baby doll: rethinking relations of agency through a collectively lived moment.' Contemporary issues in early childhood, 13(2) pp. 120-131.
MacLure, M., Jones, L., Holmes, R., MacRae, C. (2012) 'Becoming a problem: behaviour and reputation in the early years classroom.' British educational research journal, 38(3) pp. 447-471.
Jones, L., MacLure, M., Holmes, R., MacRae, C. (2011) 'Children and objects: affection and infection.' Early years: an international research journal, 32(1) pp. 49-60.
MacRae, C. (2011) 'Framing children through observation practices: using art theory to re-think ways of looking at children.' Reconceptualising educational research methodology, 2(1) pp. 34-48.
MacRae, C. (2011) 'Making Payton's Rocket: heterotopia and lines of flight.' International Journal of Art & Design Education, 30(1) pp. 102-112.
MacLure, M., Holmes, R., MacRae, C., Jones, L. (2010) 'Animating classroom ethnography: overcoming video‐fear.' International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 23(5) pp. 543-556.
Jones, L., Holmes, R., MacRae, C., MacLure, M. (2010) 'Documenting classroom life: how can I write about what I am seeing?.' Qualitative Research, 10(4) pp. 479-491.
MacLure, M., Holmes, R., Jones, L., MacRae, C. (2010) 'Silence as resistance to analysis: or, on not opening one's mouth properly.' Qualitative Inquiry, 16(6) pp. 492-500.
MacRae, C. (2008) 'Representing space: Katie’s horse and the recalcitrant object.' Contemporary issues in early childhood, 9(4) pp. 275-286.
MacRae, C. (2007) 'Using sense to make sense of art: young children in art galleries.' Early years, 27(2) pp. 159-170.