1. Faculty of Social Sciences
  2. School of Education
  3. Research and expertise
  4. Centre for Early Years Education
  5. Research themes

Research themes

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Our research currently covers 5 core themes:

1. Early Years Workforce, Settings, and Pedagogies

Our research examines:

  • The knowledge, skills and needs of the early years workforce

  • Opportunities and challenges across different setting types, including childminders
  • The design and feasibility of new interventions and pedagogical approaches
  • Workforce development and continuing professional development (CPD)

 

2. Social Inequalities and the Early Years System

CEYE works with policymakers and practitioners to:

  • Understand disparities in early childhood outcomes

  • Inform strategies to reduce the attainment gap
  • Support the sector’s expanding remit beyond "childcare" towards early education, prevention and family support

 

3. Speech, Language and Communication (SLC) Development

A major strand of our current portfolio focuses on:

  • Evaluating early years speech, language and communication interventions

  • Understanding practitioner skills, training, and implementation
  • Strengthening the evidence base for language supportive practice

Our evaluations (many commissioned by the Education Endowment Foundation) have demonstrated positive impacts on children’s communication and socio emotional outcomes.


4. Deaf Education and Multilingual Communication

CEYE has internationally recognised expertise in:

  • Early support and education for deaf children and their families

  • Deaf children’s language and communication in multilingual contexts
  • Sign bilingual pedagogies and teacher development

This includes collaborative research in the UK and internationally (eg, Ghana) to understand early support, multilingual environments, and culturally responsive provision.

 

5. Parents, Home Learning Environments, and Parental Engagement

CEYE provides evidence on how:

  • Parents and caregivers support early learning at home

  • The home learning environment (HLE) affects early development
  • Early years settings and local authorities can effectively partner with families

We also support the development and testing of parenting interventions and nature-based programmes for families.

Across all strands, CEYE emphasises, interdisciplinary collaboration, co-production with practitioners and families, rigorous evaluation of evidence-based interventions and translating findings into policy and practice.

CEYE is affiliated with the Reducing Inequalities Through Education (RITE) Network [Insert link: https://lahri.leeds.ac.uk/lng/reducing-inequalities-through-education/] whose long-term aim is to improve children and young people's educational attainment and therefore their life chances through interdisciplinary research that enables inclusive, equitable, quality education.

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We are also part of the Community of Research Engaged Schools (CoRES) network whose mission is to empower educators through practitioner-led research, co-design innovative projects, and the development of activities that turn academic research into real-world benefits.

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