Speakers

Dr Jane Dorrian started her career as a primary school teacher in the south Wales valleys, working for several years in a nursery school before taking a secondment as advisory teacher for early years. At the end of the secondment she took up a lecturing role on the Education and Early Childhood Studies degree programmes at University of Wales, Newport and during her time there she completed her doctorate. She then moved to Cardiff Metropolitan University as the Deputy Head of Department in the School of Education and Social Policy whilst continuing to teach on the Early Childhood Studies and Primary Education programmes. In 2018 she became a Staff Tutor at the Open University and is currently Programme Leader for Early Childhood. Her doctoral thesis looked at the professional identities of early years practitioners and this is still an area she is interested in. Her recent work has explored physical literacy in the early years, with a particular focus on supporting movement and physical activity with babies, and looking at the impact that getting active with young children has on parents.