Lucie Wheeler

Lucie is a researcher with qualifications in child development and early years education. Her specialist areas are in home and alternative forms of education, and she is currently studying for a PhD on the Home Educator Identity.

Follow Lucie on X

[email protected]

Background

Before joining ARU, Lucie spent over 12 years working in various educational settings such as parent and toddler groups, preschools, private nurseries, primary schools and SEND schools, where she gained a wealth of experience in the classrooms. In 2020, Lucie joined ARU as a research assistant because she wanted to be instrumental in researching how to improve the challenges she found working in education. With a passion for problem solving and a keen interest in social justice and policy change, Lucie has worked to build a research portfolio based around her interests in home and alternative forms of education, child development, inequalities, carers and identities.

Lucie is also a home educating parent of a teenager, an author of two fiction books raising awareness around parenting and SEND and is currently studying for a PhD looking at the multi-faceted identity of the Home Educator.

Research interests

• Home and Alternative Education
• Early Years Education
• Child Development
• Caring Responsibilities
• Identities
• Child Voice and Participation

Lucie is a keen advocate for finding the best ways to educate children and a firm believer that every child deserves to receive their education in the best way for them, as individuals. With her background qualifications in child development and early years education, Lucie understands the importance of identifying and embracing that every child is unique and will therefore learn in an individualised way. Because of this, Lucie’s main research interests centre around finding alternative ways to deliver education and how to best support both the children, and the parent/carers.

Teaching

• BA Hons Early Childhood Studies
• Distance Learning Tutor

Qualifications

• PhD – currently studying, ARU
• MA Early Childhood Education, ARU
• BA (hons) Early Childhood Professional Studies, ARU

Memberships, editorial boards

• Member, Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE)
• Member, Mothers at Home Matter (MAHM)
• Member, British Educational Research Association (BERA)
• Member, Education Otherwise
• Member, Early Education
• Home Education Roundtable, Member

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

• Principal Investigator (PI), Exploring the experiences of home-educated families’ access to GCSE level qualifications and the barriers they face. Safe and Inclusive Communities funding, ARU. (2022-2023)
• Principal Investigator (PI), Widening Access for Home-Educated Applicants to Higher Education Institutions in England. Safe and Inclusive Communities funding, ARU. (2021-2022)

Selected recent publications

Tsegay, S., Wheeler, L., Kirkman, P., & Pratt-Adams, S. (2023) Teacher Perspectives on Primary - Secondary School Transition Projects During the COVID-19 Pandemic. SAGE Open. 13(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231181382

Wheeler, L. (2023). Widening Access for Home-Educated Applicants to Higher Education Institutions in England. International Journal of Educational and Life Transitions, 2(1): 11, pp. 1–12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/ijelt.54

Moreau, M.P. & Wheeler, L. (2023) Through a glass, darkly: Gazing into the field of carers in academia, Review of Education. 11(1), DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3387

Recent presentations and conferences

Wheeler, L & Moreau, M.P. Making Connections between research and ancillary staff experiences in higher education: a literature review. SRHE International Research Conference. December 2023.

Wheeler, L & Moreau, M.P. Doing the Dirty Work of academia? Ancillary staff in UK Higher Education. SRHE International Research Conference. December 2023.

Wheeler, L., 'Home Education: Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges' presented at the ARU annual research conference: Research and Public Value. May 2023.

Wheeler, L., 'Safe and Inclusive Communities: Collaborations for the future'. Safe and Inclusive Community event, Anglia Ruskin University. 8th March 2023.

Wheeler, L., ‘Widening Access for Home-Educated Applicants to Higher Education Institutions in England.’ Chelmsford Science Festival, Anglia Ruskin University. 12 October 2022.

Media experience

Wheeler, L. ‘GCSEs and Homeschooling’ Teachers Talk Podcast. 10 June 2023.

Wheeler, L. ‘Home Education: The what, why and how’, Teachers Talk Radio Podcast. 10 February 2023.