My research relates to my substantive areas of interest in Early Years, Primary and Higher Education, and my methodological and theoretical interests sit within in a range of qualitative  and post-qualitiative approaches. These encompass a focus on: qualitative methodologies and ethics; ideas of subjectivity and subjectification; 'voice' and participation; creative and provocative approaches to pedagogies and practices of education (for all age-groups in contexts of formal and informal education).

My approaches relate to observation and ethnography, particularly, in contexts in which I can apply qualitative researcher sensibilities to educational projects that are also inter-disciplinary and inter-sectional, within the local and/or the international.

My theoretical concerns are broadly focused on social constructionism, post-structuralism and post-humanism: critical and post-qualitative ideas of working with difficulty, contingency, uncertainty and 'not knowing'. I am always excited to work with colleagues and post-graduate researchers at doctoral level who are interested in problematising 'taken-for-granted' educational discourses whether in the nursery, the school, the HE institution or in informal contexts of education for change. My doctoral work, and subsequent publications, draw on theoretical resources which are inspired by the philosophical work of Foucault; Butler; Rancière, Malaguzzi, Barad and Biesta.

I have recently contributed to:

Kirby, P. and Webb, R. (2023) Opening spaces of uncertainty in the researching and practices of education, Facultat de Ciències de l'Educació - UAB Barcelona, lecture and seminar, July 2023.

Webb, R. (2023) Collaboration, serendipity and interdisciplinarity, presentation at SSRP (early-career) stories: sustainability research with impact at Sussex, presentation, April 2023.

Webb, R. (2022) Pedagogies of Uncertainty, presentation at Youth in times of uncertainty: An age of uncertainty - working with young people in precarious times, hosted by the Anna-Lindh foundation, presentation, November 2022.

Webb, R. and Kirby, P. (2022) Pedagogies of Uncertainty, presentation at a global staff meeting for PASTRES Programme, on exploring pedagogies for educating pastoralists living with uncertainty, presentation, October 2022.

Parry, J., Webb, R. and Kirby, P. (2022) CTLR Pedagogy Plus Higher Education series, presentation : 'Embedding Sustainability in the Higher Education Curriculum: Panel Reflections on Current Practice and Future Possibilities', presentation, October 2022.


Currently, I have research foci in the following areas:

Research collaboration with Dr. Sandra Lyndon (University of Chichester), Dr Carla Solvason (University of Worcester), as Co-investigator, Exploring the role and perceived impact of school-based family support. This small research study, April 2022 – June 2023, builds on previous TACTYC research with Maintained Nursery Schools (Solvason, Webb and Sutton-Tsang, 2020) and is an interview-based study with children and parents in a Primary Academy in the south of England, exploring the impact of the deployment of a ‘well-being leader’ in the early years department.

Co-investigator for ‘A Better Start (ABS) Strategic Evaluation’ consortium partnership research evaluation, funded by the National Lottery Programme, which also compromises NatCen Social Research, Research in Practice (RiP), the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) and RSM Partners. My role is to develop qualitative longitudinal research with families, working alongside the Sussex PI, Prof. Janet Boddy. I will advise on all research activities with young children.

Knowledge Exchange and impact work:

With Kirby, P., (Lead, Education) and Jonik, M., (Media, Arts, Humanities) Parry, J. (Education), Thompson, S. (Education), I have been part of a HEIF-funded project, 2023: Creating with uncertainty II: scaling education for net zero. The focus has been on extending existing work undertaken to reconfigure schooling in ways that embrace a creative engagement with uncertainty within sustainability education. It has enabled the team to work at a larger scale and extend its impact, as part of a multi-year KE strategy to embed work as a cornerstone of sustainability education across all curricula areas, as well as to refine a CPD strategy. It has resulted in an an University of Sussex Pressbooks, open access education resource [to be launched on 12 July 2023] with seven accompanying films. It pulls together the work of teachers, academics and children undertaken under the auspices of ESRC IAA/HEIF 2022, ESRC Festival of Science over the last three years.

I am the lead supervisor for the following PhD researchers:

2024, Karen Marwick, full-time PhD, Shaping youth subjectivities in schooling systems for the realisation of 'self-worth'

2023, Tim Coxon, full-time MSc+PhD, Exploring material-discursive spaces in UK cliimate education for navigating loss, grief and compromised hope

2020, Fliss Bull, part-time PhD, Voices from the rupture: an exploration of the way in which school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic have interrupted mainstream educational discourse in the UK
2018, Hayley Preston-Smith: MSc and PhD, full-time: Interrogating Discourses of ‘Quality’ in Early Years Education 
2017, Kathleen Bailey, part-time PhD: The Early Years Child and Nature