Ms Amy McKaughan

Amy began her career in the Southwestern United States, teaching within the Early Childhood sector in both State and Private settings along the Mexican/American border. She supported migrant families, children from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and children with developmental and speech disabilities in both English and Spanish through her work with HeadStart. During that time, she supported pre-service teachers through their undergraduate practicums, provided specialised DAP training for practitioners, and assessed setting quality based on the ECERS.

She extended her teaching career to the United Kingdom in 2007, working in Early Years specific settings, both private and maintained. She has taught within the Primary state sector in both the EYFS and KS1 of the National Curriculum before moving into the Further Education sector, where she taught levels 1, 2, and 3 on the CACHE Early Years Workforce and Early Years Educator programmes. During this time, she also provided bespoke training for education providers at levels 4 and 5.

Amy joined Canterbury Christ Church University as a Lecturer in 2016 in the Early Childhood Studies undergraduate programme, where she has focussed her teaching on the ways in which society impacts children. She was made a Senior Lecturer in 2020, and is currently working with students on the Early Childhood Studies undergraduate degree programme across levels 4, 5, and 6.

Amy's teaching is reconstructionist in nature and uses real experiences with the broader world around students to make links and connections between theory, practice, and society. It is her goal as an educator to create 'agents of change' in the world and enable students to feel capable and ready to become advocates for children.

She says,

"My passion lies in the Sociology of Early Childhood. Understanding the importance of society on the development of children is of fundamental importance to the art of working with children in any context. Understanding adult power and privilege helps us explore ideas of power, privilege, and intersectionality as they impact on children and the adults they will become. My specific area of teaching is on the journey of anti-racism in practitioners of Early Childhood in all contexts.

We are, by our most base nature, apes. I am fascinated with connecting theory and practice through the lens of our 'ape-ness', as it aids in our understanding of why we behave as we do, and gives us the power to choose to overcome it. The field of neurology connects directly to this fascination, and there is a growing understanding of the neurology of the young brain and how it processes information differently based on different neurotypes. This has a fundamental impact on how we think about children in many contexts, including policy, education, and parenting."

Amy is a qualified and inducted member of the General Teaching Council for England, a fellow of the HEA, and a member in good standing of OMEP UK and the NAEYC. She was nominated for a Golden Apple Award in 2019, and awarded the runner-up Teaching Excellence Team Award in 2022 for work on a Level 5 CRT/Anti-racism module for the Early Childhood Studies undergraduate programme.