Dr Kerryn Dixon
Associate Professor in Education
School of Education, University of Nottingham
About
Kerryn Dixon is a critical language and literacy scholar whose primary interest is in early literacy. Her work has focused on the ways in which critical approaches to language and literacy can be harnessed in teacher education. She is particularly interested in the ways in which children make meaning of their worlds. At the heart of her work is an interest in the ways in which histories of regulation, power, oppression, and resistance shape literacy and schooling. Her work has a strong social justice orientation, and she believes that we need to acknowledge children's abilities to navigate and make meaning of the complex terrain of their childhoods. She works with a range of theories and methodologies that are attuned to tracing the circulation of power relations.
Research Focus
Research Focus
Education
Education
- PhD — University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (2008)
- Masters in English Education — University of the Witwatersrand (2001)
- Higher Diploma in Education — University of the Witwatersrand (1999)
- BA Honours (English Literature) — University of the Witwatersrand (1998)
- BA (English, History, isiZulu) — University of the Witwatersrand (1997)
Academic Appointments
Academic Appointments
Current: Associate Professor in Education, School of Education, University of Nottingham (2021–present)
- Associate Professor in Primary Literacy — University of Queensland, Australia (2020–2022)
- Associate Professor, Foundation Studies — University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa (2017–2020)
- Senior Lecturer, Foundation Studies — University of the Witwatersrand (2013–2017)
- Lecturer — Departments of Applied English Language Studies & English Education, Wits (2008–2012)
- Visiting Scholar — University of South Carolina (2018–2019)
- B2 Rated Researcher — National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa
Publications
Publications
Books
Dixon, K., Murris, K., Peers, J., Giorza, T., & Lawrence, C. (2024). Postdigital Play and Global Education: Reconfiguring Research. Routledge.
Mendelowitz, B., Ferreira, A., & Dixon, K. (2023). Language Narratives and Shifting Multilingual Pedagogies: English Teaching from the South. Bloomsbury. 🏆 UKLA Academic Book Award 2024.
Janks, H., Dixon, K., Ferreira, A., Granville, S., & Newfield, D. (2014). Doing Critical Literacy: Texts and Activities for Students and Teachers. Routledge.
Dixon, K. (2011). Literacy, Power, and the Schooled Body: Learning in Time and Space. Routledge.
Journal Articles (Peer-Reviewed)
Lehner-Mear, R., Dixon, K., Xu, Y., Gripton, C., & Cooker, L. (2025). Gender as an issue of curricular (in)justice: A review of national early childhood education curriculum documents in England from 1996 to 2021. The Curriculum Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.326
McIntyre, J., Dixon, K., & Walton, E. (2023). Refugee education: a critical visual analysis. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2023.2274111
Murris, K., Scott, F., Stjerne Thomsen, B., Dixon, K., Giorza, T., Peers, J., & Lawrence, C. (2023). Researching digital inequalities in children's play with technology in South Africa. Learning, Media and Technology, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2022.2095570
Scott, F., Marsh, J., Murris, K., Ng'ambi, D., Thomsen, B. S., Bannister, C., Bishop, J., Dixon, K., Giorza, T., Hetherington, A., Lawrence, C., Nutbrown, B., Parry, B., Peers, J., & Scholey, E. (2023). An ecological perspective on children's play with digital technologies in South Africa and the United Kingdom. International Journal of Play, 12(3), 349–374. https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2235466
Walton, E., & Dixon, K. (2020). Googling inclusion: a critical visual analysis. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2020.1819203
Biesman-Simons, C., Dixon, K., Pretorius, L., & Reed, Y. (2020). Pitfalls and possibilities in literacy research: lessons from an analysis of South African studies, 2004–2018. Reading and Writing, 11(1), a238. https://doi.org/10.4102/rw.v11i1.238
Book Chapters
Dixon, K. (2023). Transnational digital literacies and transitory opportunities: a perspective from the global south. In C. Brock, B. Exley, & I. Rigney (Eds.), International Perspectives on Literacies, Diversities, and Opportunities for Learning: Critical Conversations (pp. 95–109). Routledge.
Dixon, K. (2020). Searching for mermaids: Access, capital, and the digital divide in a rural South African primary school. In E. Morrell & J. Rowsell (Eds.), Stories from Inequity to Justice in Literacy Education: Confronting Digital Divides (pp. 15–33). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367031138
Dixon, K. (2020). Formative assessment in a teacher education course: teaching critical literacy to young children for the first time. In C. Martin, D. Polly, & R. Lambert (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Formative Assessment in Pre-K through Elementary Classrooms (pp. 71–88). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-0323-2
Dixon, K., & Janks, H. (2020). 'I didn't know how to take it a step further': teachers and young children becoming critical. In A. Woods & B. Exley (Eds.), Literacies in Early Childhood: Foundations for Equity and Quality (pp. 16–33). Oxford University Press.
Research Projects
Research Projects
Children, Technology and Play (CTAP)
Funder: LEGO Foundation
Role: Co-Investigator
Exploring how digital technologies shape children's play and learning across diverse contexts in South Africa and the UK, with a focus on equity and adult mediation of digital play.