Chris Pascal's degree and Masters were both in social sciences, and as a very young student she worked in a residential children's home. But after a PGCE at Warwick University, she became an infant teacher in an inner city school, setting herself apart by being the only infant teacher in the city of Birmingham to undertake a part-time PhD. She paid for it herself because, as the grant-awarding official explained to her, 'Why on earth would an infant teacher want a PhD?'.
In a quest to find more positive and supportive perspectives of young children and families, Chris began linking with continental colleagues. In 1991, she and Tony Bertram joined forces with Ferre Laevers and set up a group called the European Early Childhood Education Research Association, now also the largest annual early childhood research conference in Europe. Chris has been its president since 2007. In 1993, she established what has become the foremost European early childhood research journal, the SSCI-rated EECERJ, for which she acted as co-ordinating editor until 2007.
Chris became the UK's first Professor of Early Childhood in 1991 and was awarded an OBE for Services to Early Childhood in 2001. She has contributed to numerous policy reviews and committees and is part of what Ted Wragge termed the 'early years glitterati', serving as an advisor to a succession of UK education ministers and as an early years specialist advisor to the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Employment for more than 20 years. She is a past president of British Association for Early Childhood Education and is currently patron to the London Early Years Forum. For the past six years, Chris has worked within the St Thomas Children's Centre, leaving employment in higher education to base her teaching and research work in grounded practice. Chris holds honorary professorships at the University of Wolverhampton and Birmingham City University and is an honorary senior research fellow at the University of Birmingham.
She has tutored more than 25 PhD students and is currently involved in delivering Masters courses to more than 100 part-time students. She is a director of the Centre for Research in Early Childhood and, among other activities, delivers the NPQICL across the 14 local authorities of the West Midlands.
She has produced dozens of scholarly articles and books, influenced politicians in countless countries and given hundreds of inspirational keynotes, nationally and internationally. It is a lifetime achievement award and extremely well deserved, but that title has a hint of finality to it that Chris would probably resist - she certainly hasn't finished yet.
Recent publications
- Bertram, T and Pascal, C (2012), 'Praxis, ethics and power: developing praxeology as a participatory paradigm for early childhood research', European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. Volume 20, Issue 4, December 2012
- Bertram, T and Pascal, C (2012), editorial, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. Volume 20, Issue 1, March 2012, pages 1-2
- Koshy, V and Pascal, C (2011), 'Nurturing the young shoots of talent: using action research for exploration and theory building', European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. Volume 19, Issue 4, December 2011, pages 433-450
- Pascal, C and Bertram, A (2009), 'Listening to young citizens: the struggle to make real a participatory paradigm in research with young children'. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. Volume 17, Number 2, June 2009, pages 249-262 (14)
- Pascal, C and Bertram, T (2009), 'Introducing child development' in Bruce T. (ed) Early Childhood. Second edition. London: Sage
- Bertram, AD and Pascal, C (2008), Accounting Early for Life Long Learning (AcE): a handbook for assessing young children. Birmingham: Amber
- Bertram, AD and Pascal, C (2006), Baby Effective Early Learning (BEEL): a handbook for evaluating, assuring and improving quality in settings for Birth to Three Year Olds. Birmingham: Amber.
