Natalia Kucirkova

Academic workDisciplineEducationInstitutions

Natalia Kucirkova (born 25 October, 1985) is an academic in the field of children's literacies. She is a professor of reading and children's development at The Open University, UK and professor of early childhood and development at the University of Stavanger, Norway.^[1][2]

Biography

Kucirkova received her bachelor's degree from University of Bath and her Ph.D. in education and educational technology from The Open University. Her pre-doctoral fellowship was at Harvard University.^[3]

She founded and directs the International Collective of Children's Digital Books and the Children's Digital Book Award, which involve designers, researchers and teachers to support digital literacies for young children.^[4] In addition to her research on children's use of e-books and apps, Kucirkova is also an expert on personalization and use of children's personal data.^[5] Her research has been supported by funding from national agencies, including the Economic Social and Research Council, the Norwegian Research Council, and the Daiwa Foundation. Kucirkova is co-editor of the journal Literacy and serves on many advisory boards for organizations devoted to children's wellbeing and social justice.

Awards and honors

• Jacobs Foundation Fellowship^[6]
• Emerald Real Impact Award for Developing a Focus on Lifecycle Approaches to Impact^[7]
• Olga Camm Award for an inter-disciplinary approach to early literacy research^[8]

Publications

Books (selection)

• 2016. Jumpstart Apps: Creative learning games and activities for ages 7-11, Natalia Kucirkova, Liz Chamberlain and Jon Audain Kucirkova, London: Routledge.
• 2017. Digital Personalization in Early Childhood: Impact on Childhood, Natalia Kucirkova, London: Bloomsbury.
• 2018. How and why to read and create digital books: A guide for primary practitioners. Natalia Kucirkova, London: UCL Press.
• 2020. Children Reading for Pleasure in the Digital Age, Raising the next generation of readers. Natalia Kucirkova and Teresa Cremin London: Sage.
• 2021. The Fragmented and Amplified Self: Understanding personalization in childhood and beyond Natalia Kucirkova, London: Emerald.

Articles (selection)

• Kucirkova, N. "Children’s reading with digital books: past moving quickly to the future" Child Development Perspectives (2019).
• Kucirkova, N. "Children’s agency by design: Design parameters for personalization in story-making apps" International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction (2019).
• Kucirkova, N. "How could children’s storybooks promote empathy? A conceptual framework based on developmental psychology and literary theory" Frontiers in Psychology (2019).
• Kucirkova, N. "Children’s agency and reading with story-apps: considerations of design, behavioural and social dimensions" Qualitative Research in Psychology (2018).
• Kucirkova, N., Littleton, K., & Cremin, T. (2017) "Young children’s reading for pleasure with digital books: six key facets of engagement" Cambridge Journal of Education, 47(1), 67–84.
• Kucirkova, N. & Littleton, K. (2017) "Developing personalised education for personal mobile technologies with the pluralisation agenda" Oxford Review of Education, 43(3), 276–288.
• Kucirkova, N. (2017) "An integrative framework for studying, designing and conceptualising interactivity in children’s digital books" British Educational Research Journal, 43(6), 1168–1185.
• Kucirkova, N., Dale, P. & Sylva, K. (2016) "Parents reading with their 10-month-old babies: key predictors for high-quality reading styles" Early Child Development and Care, 188(2), 195–207.
• Kucirkova, N. (2016) "Personalisation: a theoretical possibility to reinvigorate children’s interest in storybook reading and facilitate greater book diversity" Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 17, 1–16.

References

External links

• Natalia Kucirkova Ph.D.
• Dr Natalia Kucirkova