Fiona Mayne

Biography

Dr Fiona Mayne, Deputy Head of School (Research) at the Graduate School of Education, is a mid-career researcher whose work on young children’s rights, voice and agency in research has gained the attention of academics and practitioners. Fiona has a developing international profile, and has considerable expertise in qualitative participatory measures and methodologies for meaningful research with children. Her body of work to date has made a significant contribution to empirical, theoretical, and methodological knowledge in early years research ethics, children’s rights-based participatory research, and technology education.

Fiona's current research work in young children’s social emotional wellbeing successfully bridges the fields of Early Childhood Education and Allied Health. Her related research interests include children's voice and agency in research, developing and trialling a digital wellbeing game (MyStory) to empower young children to self-report wellbeing, and creating a measure to screen young children's subjective wellbeing in education settings towards early intervention and prevention of mental health issues.

Fiona has expertise in, and teaches into, technology education (primary), and child and adolescent development and pedagogy (primary/secondary) at the UWA Graduate School of Education.

Fiona is the author of the book entitled, The Narrative Approach to Informed Consent: Empowering Young Children’s Rights and Meaningful Participation. This book is significant as it supports the integration of child rights, agency and ethics as a living process, advocating for the transformation of the participatory experience of young children in research.

Fiona is the co-creator, with Dr Gemma Scarparolo, of the Children's VOICE initiative, a partnership between UWA and UNICEF Australia.