An Interview with Early Education Expert Shaddai Tembo

Recently Blossom interviewed Shaddai Tembo, lecturer in Early Education and Childhood Practice at Perth College UHI. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in LGBTQ+ inequalities in Early Education.

Hi all,

It's very exciting for me to have an actual chapter in an actual book!

The intention for this chapter is to serve as a corrective to the lack of attention to equalities and diversity in the early childhood field, both within this book and more broadly within the Scottish context as a whole. To issue a corrective is recognise that something was incorrect before and I am incredibly grateful for the invitation to write this chapter.

Happy New year all,

A short piece of writing on my hopes and dreams for 2021 is now available in Nursery World. It's always nice to be asked and I feel as if I could probably write an essay on all my hopes for the early years profession!

This is a piece of writing by Liz Pemberton and myself that considers the need to address racial equalities as part of the broader equalities drive within the forthcoming alternative EYFS guidance. I enjoyed writing this with Liz, it feels fair and well-balanced.

It was nice to be interviewed by Freddie and Hannah this month, some great questions were put to me. I've pasted the transcript below and you can see the original tweet release here.

I was interviewed for a piece in Nursery World recently on 'Diversity - In the minority'. You can read the full article online here. Here's a snippet below:

Hi all,

My latest journal article is available here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1468796820963960

Here’s the abstract:

Hi all,

I'm very excited to share details of my first journal article. You can access it within the Journal of Early Childhood Research here.

Here is the abstract:

I wrote a short piece for Early Years Scotland on 'Keeping LGBT+ Inequality on the Agenda' in their Spring 2020 Magazine for Early Years Professionals. You can subscribe to the magazine here and read my piece below.

In September this year, I delivered a talk at the Men in Early Years Seminar. This was part of Scotland’s Gender Action Plan, which includes supporting more men to work in childcare as part of an aim to challenge gender stereotypes and promote gender diversity in Scottish early learning and childcare and the wider society.

This piece talks about the discussion around racism in education and argues the need to recognize the early years as a critical site in the production, and disruption, of racism in later life.

This is a slightly rejigged version of an article I wrote in early 2018 in Early Years Educator. It discusses why we need more men and what we can do about it.

Cultural capital has been subject of increased interest over the past few months, following Ofsted’s decision to include the term within their revised inspection framework. I have seen articles written for and against the term across social media in recent weeks, each offering different perspectives on the value of using Bourdieu’s concept in the educational context.  

Shaddai Tembo introduces himself and talks about his research degree at the University of the West of Scotland, in partnership with Early Years Scotland