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Prof Louise Tracey

  • Position: Professor of Early Years Education
  • Areas of expertise: Early Years; parental engagement; professional development; speech, language and communication; literacy; evaluation; randomised controlled trials
  • Email: L.C.Tracey@leeds.ac.uk
  • Phone: +44(0)113 343 2365
  • Location: 1.16 Hillary Place
  • Website: Twitter | LinkedIn | ORCID

Profile

I joined the School of Education in 2023 as Research Centre Lead for Inclusion, Childhood and Youth. Prior to that I worked as a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Education, University of York. I have nearly 20 years experience of education research. Primarily I conduct large-scale evaluations of educational interventions with a particular focus on closing the attainment gap for children from disadvantaged and underserved populations. I have worked across the range of age groups from Early Years through to Primary, Secondary and Further Education settings and across a number of different subject specialisms including literacy, maths, science as well as children’s socio-emotional wellbeing.

Responsibilities

  • ICY Research Centre Lead

Research interests

I am particularly interested in Early Years education, professional development, parental engagement and emergent literacy. I am currently working on a number of early years randomised controlled trials funded by the Education Endowment Foundation working with the Stronger Practice Hubs as part of the Department for Education’s (DfE) Early Years Recovery Programme. These include leading on the efficacy trial of the Communication Friendly Settings programme, leading the implementation and process evaluation of the efficacy trial of Concept Cat, and co-PI on the pilot study of the Communication Friendly Home-Based settings programme. Alongside this I am also the lead on the 5Rs programme evaluation aiming to improve outcomes for young people re-taking GCSE maths. 

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://essl.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

  • PhD, University of Leeds
  • MA, University of Warwick
  • BA (Hons), University of Liverpool

Student education

I teach at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, primarily in Childhood Studies. I also supervise PhD students. 

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>The school welcomes enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>