Field of work
Francesca Vaghi is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the BARNkunne - Senter for barnehageforskning (KINDknow - Kindergarten Knowledge Centre for Systemic Research and Sustainable Futures) at Høgskulen på Vestlandet, researching 'responsible economic sustainability' in early childhood education and care.
Francesca has a background in medical anthropology, the anthropology of policy, and childhood studies. She completed her PhD in 2019 at SOAS, University of London, titled: 'Food, Policy and Practice in Early Years Education and Care: children, practitioners and parents in a London nursery'. For her doctoral research, Francesca conducted ethnographic fieldwork in a state-run nursery in London over a 12-month period, developing a child-centred methodological approach to meaningfully involve children in research. Aside from investigating how children create self and peer identities through food and eating practices, her work explores how children’s food policy fits into family intervention policies in the context of Britain’s mixed economy of welfare, and how notions of ‘good food’ and ‘good parenting’ (particularly mothering) are interlinked.
Francesca is interested in advancing critical approaches in public health, specifically looking at how dominant policy discourses (re)create and seek to address 'problems' that have particular implications for working class and ethnic minority families, particularly in matters related to food insecurity, childhood poverty, and childcare policy. In her new project with BARNkunne, Francesca hopes to build on her previous work by advancing progressive approaches in examining social inequality, applying critical theories and methodologies. While the first year of the project will focus on exploring and defining what ‘responsible economic sustainability’ in ECEC is, within academic literature and for ECEC professionals, the second year of the project aims to understand what ‘responsible economic sustainability’ means in practice by using food as a case-study.
Publications
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Between dissatisfaction and support: justificatory repertoires in public feedback on emergency healthcare in the United Kingdom National Health Service
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Food Policy and Practice in Early Childhood Education and Care: Children, Practitioners, and Parents in an English Nursery
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Online qualitative research with disabled children and young people in Scotland: A reflection on its advantages and disadvantages, and how limitations were addressed
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Scottish Food Practices: Household food practices and the use of dietary information
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Towards empowerment for food and eating in ECEC