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Professor Jane Payler

Jane Payler

Profile summary

  • Visiting Formal Academic
  • Emeritus Professor
  • Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies
  • School of Education, Childhood, Youth & Sport
  • Education
  • jane.payler

Professional biography

Jane Payler is Emeritus Professor of Education (Early Years) at The Open University Faculty of Education and Language Studies. Jane has over 30 years experience of teaching, training, research and practice in early years education and has taught students in further and higher education at vocational, professional development, undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level.

From 2012 to Nov 2015, Jane was Chair of TACTYC: Association for Professional Development in Early Years and Vice-Chair prior to that. She was an elected member of the TACTYC Executive from 2005-2020 and contributed widely to TACTYC's development. From 2016-2020, Jane was a member of the Steering Group for the Early Childhood Forum, an umbrella group of 25 national early childhood organisations. Previous academic posts include Faculty Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange for Education, Health and Social Care at the University of Winchester and Education Research Fellow at University of Southampton’s Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning: Interprofessional Learning across the Public Sector. Jane's professional roles outside academia include NHS health education officer, health service administrator in an inner city area, crèche supervisor for birth to fives and running a preschool. Jane works voluntarily for the charity Homestart Hampshire, supporting vulnerable families with young children in their own homes. 

From 2006, Jane was closely involved in developing the National Standards for Early Years Professional Status and later Early Years Teacher Status, as well as in delivery, assessment and research of these professional statuses. She was on the invited expert reference groups advising government on the Early Years Professional Status Standards (2012) and Early Years Teacher Standards (2013). Jane co-led a BERA -TACTYC collaboration producing Phase 1 Early Years Policy Advice documents and future research agendas 2013-14, and Phase 2 a thematic review of early years research evidence in the UK 2003- 2017, BERA-TACTYC Early Childhood Research Review 2003-2017 . She was a member of the European Union Social Monitor on Early Childhood Education and Care, 2013, and jointly led the Higher Education Academy’s first webinar (2013) on early years developments.

Jane has been invited to speak in the Houses of Parliament several times on early childhood issues, and has led on and contributed to numerous government consultations in relation to early years professional development and early years pedagogy. Hear the 2023 Parliamentary reference to Jane and colleagues' research on Children and Young People with a Parent in Prison here in the Commons Estimates Day debate. 

Jane’s publications and research interests include international perspectives on ECEC, inter-professional practice, professional development and young children’s sociocultural learning experiences. She developed and co-led professional development for practitioners and early years professionals on enhancing practice with birth to threes, leading to practice changes across a local authority. More recently, Jane has been researching children and young people living through serious family illness, report available at Children and young people living through a serious family illness: structural, interpersonal and personal perspectives - Open Research Online; professional development issues in the Montessori workforce, report available at Workforce composition, qualifications and professional development in Montessori early childhood education and care settings in England. - Open Research Online; and Children and Young People with a Parent in Prison (Access the report here). 

Jane’s PhD, Thesis: Exploring Foundations: Sociocultural Influences on the Learning Processes of Four Year Old Children in a Pre-school and Reception Class, and MPhil (Research Methods), Thesis: Young Children’s Literacy Learning, were both gained at University of Southampton, funded full-time by the ESRC in open competition.

Research interests

Jane is former co-Director of the Children's Research Centre | Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (open.ac.uk) and former Deputy Associate Dean (Scholarship). Jane’s sociocultural and largely qualitative research focuses on early years professional development, sociocultural influences on learning processes, interprofessional practice in early years settings and research with young children including using video to explore children’s perspectives and the child/adult pedagogic interface. She has also researched needs and experiences of children with a parent in prison; children and young people living with serious family illness; professional development in Montessori nurseries and local instantiations of social inequalities in health.

Recent funded research and knowledge exchange include:

  • Evaluation of ‘Families First’ intervention to support children and young people who have a parent in prison, Needs of and support for children with a parent in prison: evaluation of Families First. Funded by Worcestershire CC (Jan 2020-Dec 2022). Access the report here.  
  • Researching workforce composition and qualifications in English Montessori early childhood education and care settings. Funded by Montessori St Nicholas (2020). Access the report Workforce composition, qualifications and professional development in Montessori early childhood education and care settings in England. - Open Research Online. 
  • Researching extent of need for support amongst children and young people living through a family health crisis (Hope Support 2017), launched at the Houses of Parliament, 27th March 2018. Access the research report here.
  • Young children’s curiosity and imagination: Facilitating and documenting through technology (CREET 2016, with PACEY and YMCA Fairthorne)
  • Assessment Project - Bangladesh. Baseline Study. (The British Council, Dhaka, 2016)
  • Educating for integrated care: Rapid realist evidence synthesis of interprofessional interventions with potential to support integrated care. (Advisory role; Health Education Wessex 2014)
  • Australian early childhood teachers’ preparation for and participation in interprofessional practice in early years settings. (Universities Council for the Education of Teachers, 2014)
  • Interprofessional practice as trajectories of participation in early years settings. (University of Winchester and Plymouth University, 2011-12)
  • Brilliant babies, terrific toddlers. (Dorset County Council, 2011)
  • Enhancing Practice Birth to Three. (Dorset County Council, 2011)
  • Early Years Professional Status: researching reluctance for professionalization. (Dorset County Council, 2009-10)
  • The experiences of young children with learning disabilities attending both special and inclusive preschools. (Rix, Thompson, Rothenberg Foundation, 2007)
  • Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning: Interprofessional Learning in the Public Sector. (HEFCE, 2006-7)

Jane is currently supervising the following doctoral students: 

  • Collaborative Learning in an Early Years Setting, Beryl Robinson

Doctoral completions:

Exploring features of multi-age practice and adult-child interactions: an exploratory study from hungary. Eleonora Teszenyi. 

Exploring young refugee children's funds of knowledge through documentary photography. Karen Horsley

Children's, parents' and practitioners' perspectives of transition from preschool to reception class, Vicky Preece.

Developing Literate Identities: pre-school children’s participation in literacy-related activities, Lucy Rodriguez Leon.

Observing and understanding decision-making in two year olds, Penny Lawrence.

Children as experts in infant school transitions, Megan Taddeo.

Jane has examined 18 doctorates, 14 of those externally at University College London, University of Sheffield, University of Southampton, Canterbury Christ Church University, University of Wolverhampton, University of Worcester, Liverpool Hope University, University of Wales Trinity St. David, Middlesex University. Jane welcomes the engagement with early career researchers through doctoral examination. 

Teaching interests

E109 Exploring perspectives on young children’s lives and learning (rewrite)

Badged Open Course (in progress) Promoting and supporting the physical and mental health of babies and young children aged 0-5Promoting and supporting the physical and mental health of babies and young children birth-5

E809 Frameworks for Critical Practice

E210 Extending professional practice in the early years (in presentation)

E229 Listening to young children living and learning: critical reflections (authoring and conceptual development)

E109 Exploring perspectives on young children’s lives and learning (critical review of production)

E110 Young children’s play and creativity (authoring)

E309 Comparative Studies in Primary Education (conceptual development)

KE312 Working Together for Children (refresh)

Jane is interested in contributing to early years professional development through considering mutliple perspectives, including international perspectives, and through reflective action.   

External collaborations

YSS Families First charity

Hope Support Services

TACTYC: Association for Professional Development in Early Years

British Educational Research Association Early Childhood sig

International Society of Cultural-historical Activity Research

Early Childhood Forum 

External examiner for 

  • National University of Ireland, Galway 

Former external examiner for:

  • BA (Hons) in Early Years and Childhood Studies, University College Cork, Ireland;
  • BA Early Childhood Care and Education (Singapore), University of Warwick
  • BA (Hons) and MA in Early Childhood, Leeds Metropolitan University

Publications

Surfacing complexity in shared book reading: the role of affordance, repetition and modal appropriation in children’s participation (2021-03)
Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy and Payler, Jane
Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 28, Article 100496

Proposing a model for promoting Children's Health in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings (2021)
Musgrave, Jackie and Payler, Jane
Children & Society, 35(5) (pp. 766-783)

Children and young people living through a serious family illness: structural, interpersonal and personal perspectives (2020-01)
Payler, Jane; Cooper, Victoria and Bennett, Stephanie
Children & Society, 34(1) (pp. 62-77)

Researching Children’s Curiosity and Imagination Through the Our Story Tablet App (2019-05-20)
Canning, Natalie; Horsley, Karen and Payler, Jane
BERA Research Intelligence(140) (pp. 22-23)

Positioning Children’s Voice in Clinical Trials Research: A New Model for Planning, Collaboration, and Reflection (2017-12-01)
Lees, Amanda; Payler, Jane; Ballinger, Claire; Lawrence, Penny; Faust, Saul N. and Meads, Geoffrey
Qualitative Health Research, 27(14) (pp. 2162-2176)

An innovative methodology for capturing young children’s curiosity, imagination and voices using a free app: Our Story (2017)
Canning, Natalie; Payler, Jane; Horsley, Karen and Gomez, Chris
International Journal of Early Years Education, 25(3) (pp. 292-307)

Young children shaping interprofessional practice in early years settings: towards a conceptual framework for understanding experiences and participation (2016-03-31)
Payler, Jane; Georgeson, Jan and Wong, Sandie
Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 8 (pp. 12-24)

Editorial: The professional development of early years educators – achieving systematic, sustainable and transformative change (2015-03-12)
Waters, Jane and Payler, Jane
Professional Development in Education, 41(2) (pp. 161-168)

Early Years collaboration between TACTYC and BERA EC SIG (2014-03-21)
Payler, Jane and Wood, Elizabeth
Research Intelligence(123) (p 6)

Multiagency working in the early years: confidence, competence and context (2013-11-26)
Payler, Jane and Georgeson, Jan
Early Years: An International Research Journal, 33(4) (pp. 380-397)

Disrupting communities of practice? How ‘reluctant’ practitioners view early years workforce reform in England (2013-03-11)
Payler, Jane K. and Locke, Rachel
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 21(1) (pp. 125-137)

Personal action potency: early years practitioners participating in interprofessional practice in early years settings (2013-03-05)
Payler, Jane Katherine and Georgeson, Janet
International Journal of Early Years Education, 21(1) (pp. 39-55)

Social Constructions of Young Children in ‘Special’, ‘Inclusive’ and Home Environments (2011-09)
Nind, Melanie; Flewitt, Rosie and Payler, Jane
Children & Society, 25(5) (pp. 359-370)

The social experience of early childhood for children with learning disabilities: inclusion, competence and agency (2010-11)
Nind, Melanie; Flewitt, Rosie and Payler, Jane
British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31(6) (pp. 653-670)

`If she's left with books she'll just eat them': Considering inclusive multimodal literacy practices (2009-08)
Flewitt, Rosie; Nind, Melanie and Payler, Jane
Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 9(2) (pp. 211-233)

Pedagogy for interprofessional education – what do we know and how can we evaluate it? (2008-06)
Payler, Jane; Meyer, Edgar and Humphris, Debra
Learning in Health and Social Care, 7(2) (pp. 64-78)

Opening and closing interactive spaces: Shaping four-year-old children’s participation in two English settings (2007-10-21)
Payler, Jane
Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development, 27(3) (pp. 237-254)

Theorizing interprofessional pedagogic evaluation: framework for evaluating the impact of interprofessional continuing professional development on practice change (2007-09)
Payler, Jane; Meyer, Edgar and Humphris, Debra
Learning in Health and Social Care, 6(3) (pp. 156-169)

Beyond talk: Learning from children and young people experiencing a family health crisis (2019-06-21)
Cooper, Victoria; Payler, Jane and Bennett, Stephanie
In: Robb, Martin; Montgomery, Heather and Thompson, Rachel eds. Critical Practice with Children and Young People (2nd edition) (pp. 143-160)
ISBN : 9781447352846 | Publisher : Policy press | Published : Bristol

Social class and culture: bridging divides through learner agency (2017-08-01)
Payler, Jane and Georgeson, Jan
In: Moyles, Janet; Payler, Jane and Georgeson, Jan eds. Beginning Teaching, Beginning Learning (5th edition) (pp. 203-214)
ISBN : 9780335226962 | Publisher : Open University Press | Published : Maidenhead

Using Early Years Practitioners’ Knowledge from ‘Being Alongside’ to Support the Development of Children with Special Educational Needs (2016)
Georgeson, Jan; Røn Larsen, Maja and Payler, Jane
In: Sorzio, Paulo ed. Becoming an Expert Practitioner in the Educational Services. Competences, Transitions and Trajectories (pp. 57-68)
Publisher : Pensa MultiMedia | Published : Lecce, Italy

Work or play: how children learn to read the signals (2015)
Georgeson, Jan and Payler, Jane
In: Moyles, Janet ed. The Excellence of Play (4th edition) (pp. 159-172)
ISBN : 9780335264193 | Publisher : Open University Press | Published : Maidenhead UK

Qualifications and quality in the Early Years Foundation Stage (2014)
Payler, Jane and Georgeson, Jan
In: Moyles, Jan; Payler, Jane and Georgeson, Jan eds. Early years foundations: Critical issues (second edition) (pp. 52-64)
ISBN : 9780335262649 | Publisher : Open University Press | Published : Maidenhead UK

Early childhood education and care in the UK: piecemeal development through philanthropy, propagation, pluralism and pragmatism (2013)
Payler, Jane; Georgeson, Jan and Wickett, Karen
In: Georgeson, Jan and Payler, Jane eds. International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Care (pp. 257-274)
ISBN : 9780335245918 | Publisher : Open University Press | Published : Maidenhead UK

The importance of international perspectives (2013)
Georgeson, Jan; Payler, Jane and Campbell-Barr, Verity
In: Georgeson, Jan and Payler, Jane eds. International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Care (pp. 3-8)
ISBN : 9780335245918 | Publisher : Open University Press | Published : Maidenhead UK

Co-constructing meaning: ways of supporting learning (2009)
Payler, Jane
In: Moyles, Janet and Papatheodorou, Theodora eds. Learning Together in the Early Years: Exploring Relational Pedagogy (pp. 120-138)
ISBN : 9781134031269 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London UK

Beginning Teaching, Beginning Learning: In Early Years And Primary Education (5th edition) (2017-06-16)
Moyles, Janet; Georgeson, Jan and Payler, Jane eds.
ISBN : 9780335226962 | Publisher : Open University Press | Published : Maidenhead

Early years foundations: Critical issues (second edition) (2014-04)
Moyles, Janet; Payler, Jane and Georgeson, Jan eds.
ISBN : 9780335262649 | Publisher : Open University Press | Published : Maidenhead, UK

International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Care (2013)
Georgeson, Jan and Payler, Jane eds.
ISBN : 9780335245918 | Publisher : Open University Press | Published : Maidenhead UK

Beginning Teaching, Beginning Learning: In Early Years and Primary Education (4th edition) (2011)
Moyles, Janet; Georgeson, Jan and Payler, Jane eds.
ISBN : 9780335244126 | Publisher : Open University Press | Published : Maidenhead UK

BERA-TACTYC Early Childhood Education and Care Review 2004-2015 (2017-05)
Payler, Jane; Davis, Geraldine; Jarvis, Pam; Georgeson, Jan; Wood, Elizabeth and Lloyd, Eva
In : BERA Annual Conference 2016 (13-15 Sep 2016, University of Leeds)

Positioning children in research: continuum of children’s engagement with research (2016-09)
Payler, Jane
In : European Early Childhood Education Research Association Conference 2016 (31 Aug - 03 Sep 2016, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland)

Children’s imagination and curiosity: Facilitating and documenting through technology (2016)
Canning, Natalie; Payler, Jane and Horsley, Karen
In : 26th EECERA (European Early Childhood Education Research Association) Conference, 2016 (31 Aug - 03 Sep 2016, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland)

Professional learning and development: trends, developments and impact in the UK since 2003 (2016)
Davis, Geraldine and Payler, Jane
In : 26th EECERA (European Early Childhood Education Research Association) Conference, 2016 (31 Aug - 03 Sep 2016, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland)

From arrest to release, helping families feel less alone: An evaluation of a Worcestershire pilot support project for families affected by parental imprisonment (2023)
Cooper, Victoria; Payler, Jane; Bennett, Stephanie Jane and Taylor, Lottie
The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Workforce composition, qualifications and professional development in Montessori early childhood education and care settings in England. (2020-09-21)
Payler, Jane and Bennett, Stephanie
Montessori St. Nicholas Charity and The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

Providing Hope: Supporting Children and Young People living with a loved one who is seriously ill (2018)
Cooper, Victoria and Payler, Jane
Children and Young People Today, UK.

BERA-TACTYC Early Childhood Research Review 2003-2017 (2017-05-23)
Payler, Jane; Wood, Elizabeth; Georgeson, Jan; Davis, Geraldine; Jarvis, Pamela; Rose, Janet; Gilbert, Louise; Hood, Philip; Mitchell, Helena and Chesworth, Liz
BERA, London.

The need for support: Young people living through a family health crisis (2017)
Bennett, Stephanie; Cooper, Victoria and Payler, Jane
Hope support services, UK.

English Speaking and Listening Assessment Project - Baseline. Bangladesh (2016-03)
Power, Tom; Cullen, Jane; Woodward, Clare; Mathew, Rama; Payler, Jane and McCormick, Robert
The British Council, Dhaka.