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Dr Lucy Rodriguez-Leon

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Senior Lecturer in Early Years
  • Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies
  • School of Education, Childhood, Youth & Sport
  • Education
  • lucy.rodriguez-leon

Professional biography

Dr Lucy Rodriguez Leon is a Senior Lecturer in Education (Early Childhood) at the Open University in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies. Lucy’s academic expertise is in Early Childhood Education and Care [ECEC]. After teaching at a State Maintained Nursery School for 16 years, she moved into teaching in Higher Education whilst completing her PhD.  Prior to her current role, Lucy taught on an Early Years School-Centred Initial Teacher Training programme and delivered Continuing Professional Development courses in the Early Years sector. Lucy’s research focuses on early childhood literacies; her work contributes to knowledge of how babies and young children engage with and experience literacies in their everyday lives. Her Doctoral Thesis ‘Literacy Experiences: An Exploration of Young Children’s Intentions, Identities and Affective Relations in Everyday Encounters with Text’ was awarded UKLA student research prize for Doctoral work 2021. Subsequent research work has included a study of the role of informal book talk in nurturing reading for pleasure, and a systematic review of literature on the sensory aspects of early reading.

Lucy was co-ordinator of the ‘Literacy Working Group’ on the ‘Birth to 5 Matters’ Project which produced a comprehensive document and website offering non-statutory guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage.  She also contributed to a project with early years practitioners in South Africa, evaluating the impact of the TESSA Badged Online Course, Teaching Early Reading with African Storybook.  Lucy is a trustee of the United Kingdom Literacy Association, she has led and contributed to multiple open access resources promoting broad, balanced, and equitable approaches to early literacy education. She is also a member of the Open University’s Reading for Pleasure Programme team.

Lucy is also interested in Early Years Workforce Development and was a member of a research team that undertook a systematic review of international research evidence on the impact of staff training and qualifications on the experiences of, and outcomes for children and families.

Research interests

Lucy’s doctoral research was an ethnography exploring 3-4-year-old’s experiences of literacy in their play and everyday lives. Her research drew on multiple data gathering methods and explored some innovative techniques to engage with young children’s perspectives of literacies in the world around them. Lucy has extensive knowledge of cultural-historical theory. However, her doctoral study and subsequent research papers took the bold step of bringing neo-Vygotskian concepts into dialogue with posthumanist theories. In addition, Lucy’s research work contributes to knowledge on adult-child shared book reading in the early years. She is particularly interested in issues of equality, diversity and inclusion in shared reading practices, and she is pursuing funding to explore early years practitioners' perspectives and pedagogy in this area.

Teaching interests

Lucy’s teaching interests span many aspects of early childhood education and literacy education. She is currently module co-chair on E229,’ Listening to young children: critical reflections and is a Postgraduate Research Convenor for Doctoral students in the School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport’. She recently worked on the production of E109, ‘Exploring perspectives on young children’s lives and learning’ and E320 ‘Contemporary research with children and young people’.  Lucy contributed to the popular open access course for early years practitioners entitled ‘Supporting Physical Development in Early Childhood’, funded by Public Health England, and she led the production of a badged online course, ‘Developing Reading for Pleasure: engaging young readers’.

Impact and engagement

Lucy is a trustee and member of the Executive Committee for the United Kingdom Literacy Association. She has previously been External Examiner for the University of Hull, BA Education, Society and Culture (Top up) programme and for the University of Sheffield, MA in Early Childhood Education.

Lucy is also a member of the Open University’s Safeguarding Steering Group.

Publications

Meaning, relationships, identities: An exploration of motive and intent in early childhood literacies (2024-03)
Rodriguez Leon, Lucy
Journal of Early Childhood Research, 22(1) (pp. 60-74)

Informal book talk: digging beneath the surface (2024)
Cremin, Teresa; Hendry, Helen; Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy and Hulston, Samantha Jayne
Education 3-13, 52(7) (pp. 930-945)

Tensions, assumptions and situated ethics: attuning to the unpredictability of ethics in early childhood research participation (2024)
Hendry, Helen; Teszenyi, Eleonora; Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy; Maynes, Mary-Louise; Dorrian, Jane and Edwards, Tracey
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal ((Early access))

Multisensory Reading in Early Childhood: Systematic Review with Theoretical Guidance for Human Development Studies (2023-12)
Kucirkova, Natalia and Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy
Human Development, 67(4) (pp. 193-210)

Rethinking Agency in Literacies: Malawian children’s and teachers’ perspectives (2023)
Kucirkova, Natalia; Rodriguez Leon, Lucy and Chinula, Neema Mwenda
International Journal of Early Years Education ((Early access))

Disrupting language of instruction policy at a classroom level: oracy examples from South Africa and Zambia (2022-09-05)
Chamberlain, Liz; Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy and Woodward, Clare
Literacy, 56(3) (pp. 264-274)

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

Sensing and configuring the world with text: bringing neo-Vygotskian thinking into dialogue with more-than-human literacies in early childhood (2021)
Rodriguez Leon, Lucy
Discourse: Studies in the cultural politics of education, 44(2) (pp. 253-268)

Reading Teachers: Nurturing Reading for Pleasure (2023)
Cremin, Teresa; Hendry, Helen; Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy and Kucirkova, Natalia
ISBN : 9781032105024 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon

Play and physical development in early childhood (2024)
Rodriguez Leon, Lucy
In: Musgrave, Jackie; Dorrian, Jane; Josephidou, Joanne; Langdown, Ben and Rodriguez Leon, Lucy eds. Promoting Physical Development and Activity in Early Childhood: Practical Ideas for Early Years Settings. Little Minds Matter (94 -115)
ISBN : 9781032479545, 9781003386728 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, UK

Body systems, senses and physical development (2024)
Josephidou, Joanne and Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy
In: Musgrave, Jackie; Dorrian, Jane; Josephidou, Joanne; Langdown, Ben and Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy eds. Promoting Physical Development and Activity in Early Childhood: Practical Ideas for Early Years Settings. Little Minds Matter (pp. 26-47)
ISBN : 978-1-032-47954-5 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, UK

Informal book talk and reader recommendations (2023)
Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy and Biddle, Jon
In: Cremin, Teresa; Hendry, Helen; Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy and Kucirkova, Natalia eds. Reading Teachers: Nurturing Reading for Pleasure (pp. 87-100)
ISBN : 9781003215615 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London

Reflections on the rights of the reader (2023)
Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy
In: Cremin, Teresa; Hendry, Helen; Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy and Kucirkova, Natalia eds. Reading Teachers: Nurturing Reading for Pleasure (pp. 127-130)
ISBN : 9781003215615 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London

Conclusion : Reading Teachers of tomorrow (2023)
Cremin, Teresa; Hendry, Helen; Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy and Kucirkova, Natalia
In: Cremin, Teresa; Hendry, Helen; Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy and Kucirkova, Natalia eds. Reading Teachers (pp. 193-197)
ISBN : 9781003215615 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon

Promoting Physical Development and Activity in Early Childhood: Practical Ideas for Early Years Settings (2024)
Musgrave, Jackie; Dorrian, Jane; Josephidou, Jo; Langdown, Ben and Rodriguez Leon, Lucy eds.
Little Minds Matter
ISBN : 978-1-032-47954-5 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, Oxon

Disrupting language of instruction policy at a classroom level: oracy examples from South Africa and Zambia (2022)
Chamberlain, Liz; Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy and Woodward, Clare
In : The 57th UKLA International Conference - Reaching out through literacy: Enabling advantage for all (1-3 Jul 2022, Birmingham, UK)

Literacy Experiences: An Exploration Of Young Children's Orientations, Identities, And Affective Relations With Text (2020-04-23)
Rodriguez León, Lucy Jane
PhD thesis The Open University

The Early Childhood Student Journey (Phase 1) (2024-10)
Josephidou, Joanne; Teszenyi, Eleonora; Buck, Julie; Dorrian, Jane; Plowright-Pepper, Linda and Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy
The Open University

Where measurement stops: A review of systematic reviews exploring international research evidence on the impact of staff qualification levels in ECEC on the experiences of, and outcomes for, children and families. (2022-01-31)
Josephidou, Joanne; Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy; Bennett, Stephanie; Bolshaw, Polly; Musgrave, Jackie and Rix, Jonathan
TACTYC, United Kingdom.

Supporting the teaching of early reading: An evaluation of the TESSA: Teaching Early Reading with African Storybook Badged Online Course (BOC) (2020-04)
Stutchbury, Kris; Chamberlain, Liz and Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy
The Open University, Milton Keynes.