Dr Christina Tatham

My research is focused on the experiences of young children from linguistically and culturally diverse communities. My previous research has explored children's play in schools, and I am now researching access to play opportunities outside of school. I gained my Master’s in Teaching at Griffith University in Australia before returning to Sheffield to work as a primary school teacher in a diverse, inner-city school. My PhD research at the University of Sheffield explored the multimodal communicative practices of young children in a super-diverse, early years educational setting. I am particularly interested in how children create a third space between different discourses they are exposed to.

More recently, I undertook a yearlong project to understand the barriers refugee and asylum-seeking families with young children experienced in accessing education throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. The project explored how schools and community organisations helped families to overcome the challenges they faced.