Sophie Alcock
Qualifications
PhD Massey, MEd DipTchg BA Well, NZFKUDip WTC
Profile
Sophie has an extensive background in the field of early childhood care and education as an early childhood teacher and researcher working with infants, toddlers and young children as well as teaching in both in-service and pre-service teacher education programmes at pre and post graduate levels. Sophie is particularly interested in understanding children’s emotional lives from relational perspectives that prioritise the systemic attachment contexts within which we all live, develop, and learn. She has mainly published in the areas of play and playfulness in young children’s communication.
Current research interests
- Children’s emotional wellbeing
- Relational subjectivity and intersubjectivity
- Relational pedagogy and attachment theory
- Reconceptualising play
- Critical socio-cultural historical theory
Current projects
- Writing and researching in the area of young children’s emotional wellbeing and play, drawing on socio-cultural theory and the related field of relational psychoanalytic psychology.
- Investigating early childhood policy in relation to pedagogy in the areas of play, care, and complex understandings of child development.