AOUG Vice-Chancellor Lord Perry of Walton Award for Social Sciences

Awarded to Petra Vacková

An in-depth ethnographic work among art classes with Roma children in Czech Republic preschool settings

Originally from the Czech Republic, I am a fourth-year PhD student in Education in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education, and Language Studies with interests in social justice, early childhood education and the arts. My studies employ feminist new materialist theories to enquire differently about artmaking as a tool for social inclusion. Working in a small, disadvantaged community in the Czech Republic with young children, their families and practitioners from both Roma and non-Roma backgrounds, I have employed innovative methods framed around the concept of ‘becoming with.’ My research practice engages ethical and relational considerations of working together to develop future, sustainable practices of being and thinking with others that rest on responsiveness and openness to change. The aim of my current work is to expand understanding of the process of social inclusion and exclusion, and generate new ways of thinking around issues of just education and response-able relationships in early years education settings