Dr Amy Farndale

Dr Amy Farndale is a member of UniSA's Centre for Research in Education and Social Inclusion (CRESI). Under her academic title of Early Childhood Language and Literacy Lecturer, she is a researcher who offers research support and consultancy (@ Tafe, CESA, DfE, and Independent schools), a course coordinator, course writer, and tutor within the Literacy/English and Early Childhood Teams specialising in cultural, linguistic and communicative diversity at UniSA. Amy is also a PhD and Masters research supervisor and is a member of several research teams investigating Family Multiliteracies and Emotional Wellbeing in Early Childhood Settings. She co-led the Sea and Vines Oral Language project to support preschoolers' quality verbal exchanges and thinking with Department for Education early childhood leader, Kelly Grear.

Research Record

Dr Farndale's research contributes to identifying culturally sustaining and culturally expanding educational responses to support diverse 0-8 year old children's ways of communicating, so to develop preschooler and school-aged chidren's multilingual and multimodal language and literacy (in collaboration with early childhood and school educators, service providers and families).

Dr Farndale's research expertise contributes to supporting diverse children's cultural and linguistic knowledge by sustaining and expanding bilingual preschoolers' language and literacy development. With educators she explores power dynamics in language use, interactions, and emotions, when supporting multilingual language learning. Her recent projets have involved exploring children's communicative capital and the creation of bilingual books with children, their families, educators and co-researchers. Amy was awarded a deLissa Scholarship to undertake research with culturally and linguistically diverse preschoolers, with Professor Pauline Harris and completed the research in 2018. Dr Farndale's case study and action research (2019), inspired by ethnographic techniques (participant observation included), explored conceptual frameworks incorporating Bourdieu's (1991) cultural and linguistic capital; social interactionist theories of Rogoff (2004); Vygotsky's SCT (1978); and Reggio Emilia principles (Rinaldi 2013); as well as culturally and linguistcially responsive and sustaining pedagogies, and Aboriginal Ways of learning. Dr Farndale additionally draws from Systemic Functional Linguistics' context of culture and situation (Halliday 2004), and diverse preschoolers' communication through promoting multiple modes (Antsey & Bull 2012). She currently explores cultural expansion where children extend their cultural and linguistic knowledge from peers and learn from one another in their community.

Amy has worked for both UniSA and the Department for Education since 2001, as well as internationally in educational settings in the UK, Kenya and France. Dr Farndale incorporates theories of emotions in her research on functional language use (Plutchik 2001; MacIntye 2002; Swain 2013)--she argues that:

         'Emotions impact on people's speech and expression. Emotions should be considered within the context of culture and situation (field, tenor and mode). Emotions act as our amplifier to speak, or not, and if we do speak, emotions impact on what we say and to whom. When educators are aware of this, they can adapt the context to encourage more opportunities for children to communicate with others.'

Balancing bilingualism is another concept explored by Dr Farndale as she argues that education should not be dominated by English, but rather should incorporate children's community, family and community languages. The term 'community languages' is preferred by Dr Farndale to 'home languages', which can suggest confining a child's family language to the home. Recently Dr Farndale has been authoring articles about Communicative Capital - to note how children who are bilingual translanguage at preschool with their community. She explores how First Nations children and all children can be encouraged to express themselves in many ways (moving bodies and props in dramatic play for instance in relation to Yunkaporta's (2009) 8 ways); and how children with Autism can express themselves through the 'moving language' to create stories with onomatopoeia. Her pedagogy highlights inclusion, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander perspectives, and recognition of children's Communicative Capital.

Dr Farndale's led a collaborative project with an undergrad student, Amelia Lambden, who received a UniSA vacation scholarship, under mentorship with Associate Professor Sue Hill and with contributions from Celia Couthard, an Adnyamathanha dual language book illustrator). Together they researched "The power in first nations children's literature". Their research questions included 'where can educators source First Nations dual language and interlingual books in South Australia for 3 to 6 year olds?' as well as "What types of tier 2 vocabulary did the books promote?". The study was presented at the Australian Literacy Educators Association (ALEA) conference in 2021.

Dr Farndale's life mission involves: acknowledging the power of children's multiple languages and understanding the contexts in which children express themselves; appreciating and promoting the multimodal ways children express themselves (through social interactions); while tuning in with how emotions affect language learning. She presented "Keeping culture and languages alive to thrive in early years settings" at the 2022 ALEA conference with Dr Gunay Aghayeva and "Professional learning fostering multilingual children’s social and emotional development" at the 2023 Early Childhood Australia conference with Professor Elspeth McInnes; Professor Victoria Whitington and Dr Bec Neill. "Co-constructing a multilingual family literacy approach with children and their families and educators through narratives" was presented at Adelaide's National ALEA conference in 2024 with Professor Pauline Harris, Professor Elspeth McInnes and Dr Gunay Aghayeva. Amy is a committee member for the Australian Literacy Educator's Association (ALEA) and Children's Week Committee.  

Dr Farndale's supervisory interests lie in supporting researchers of translanguaging and the topic of literacy in the early years of education. Her current PhD candidate, Natalie Natsias, is exploring multilingual support for preschoolers. Amy also co-supervisors Ed.D students Glenn Saxby (focusing on graphic novels in primary school settings), Mirielle Flesch (focusing on the cultural diversity of Non verbal behaviours in primary school settings) and Belle Nui (focusing on tertiary students learning English communicative competence through dance using VR equiptment). 

Dr Farndale's view of literacy draws from the Early Years Learning Framework (2023, p.66) in that 'Language and Literacy: in the early years, literacy includes a range of modes of communication including music, movement, gesture, dance, song,drama, storytelling, visual arts, digital literacies,and media, as well as listening, talking, signing,viewing, reading and writing' ... [in many languages].

Amy is a member of the UniSA literacy team and Early Childhood de Lissa Research Group. She teaches in the Bachelor of Education program where she co-coordinates English Curriculum: Language classes, while also tutoring in English Curriculum: Reading. Amy has experience leading classes in the Masters of Education program for Curriculum Specialisation (literacy focus) and the ECE literacy intensive Birth to 5 course.

Preparing pre-service teachers for supporting culturally and linguistically diverse learners is Amy's specialty. She continues to consider herself a preschool teacher for life (and volunteers to read books to children at Ronald McDonald House Charity - where children are receiving medical care from the Women and Children's hospital). She is also participating in research 'Brighter with books: Co-designing a reading intervention to improve emotional wellbeing in children with cancer'. She works for UniSA full-time as an academic (drawing attention to the injustice of an English only curriculum and combatting deficit approaches to children's langauge learning when English monolingual focus can be of detriment). Reducing English language dominance and de-colonizing the curriculum are goals Amy sets herself in her teaching/tutoring/lecturing and her research. Amy enjoys regularly making supervision visits to local preschools to liaise with undergraduates who are on professional experience with educators in the field as well.

Personal life

Amy parents a 16 year old daughter who loves musical theatre - dancing, singing, and acting - communicating in multimodal ways expressing her culturally diverse British, German, Irish, Kenyan, Australian heritage. Amy has taught Swahili at the Kenyan Ethnic Schools Association; she learned Bahasa Indonesian in her own schooling (and recently co-created a Bahasa Indonesian children's book in a project funded by SCANLON as well as a Mandarin/Chinese and Persian Families' bilingual book). Amy previously self-taught some French during her working travels nannying and teaching bilingual children in Paris. Being curious and demonstrating cultural humility and sensitivity is part of Amy's identity. Amy also dances and performs Brazilian Zouk and Angolan Kizomba interstate and loves nature, hikes and camping. She merges expression via movement (non-verbals) with verbals (and loves to sing with children) to combine semiotic systems to communicate ideas - this is the niche that Dr Amy Farndale works and lives in - communicative capital and expanding cultural and linguistic knowledge.

University of South Australia

Department for Education and Child Development,

Australian Literacy Educators Association (ALEA) Committee (SA)

Children's Week Committee (SA)

TESOL Research Group UniSA,

de Lissa Research Group, UniSA, School of Education UniSA

Translanguaging Research Group

West Torrens Partnership DfE

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy University of South Australia

• Master of Education (Early Childhood Education) University of South Australia

• Bachelor of Early Childhod Education with Honours University of South Australia

Work history

Current

Early Years Language and Literacy Lecturer -

UniSA and Academic Teacher/Researcher at UniSA (ongoing .9 load) 

2023-2025

Coordinator of English Curriculum: Language (and course writer)

2015-2025

Tutor of Studies in English Education 1 (English Curriculum: Reading)

2014-2019

Preschool Teacher and Acting-Director at Kurralta Park Community Kindergarten, DECD/DfE

2012-2018 

Case Study Researcher - Bilingual preschoolers' social interactions, emotional challenges and functional language use while learning English as an additional language.

2008-2010

New Arrivals Program Teacher / Intensive English Language Classroom Teacher at Richmond Primary, DECD

2002-2018

Early Years Teacher in various metropolitan and country locations for the DECD

2007-2008

Volunteer Teacher - library project coordinator in Kenya.

2006

English Tutor/nanny in Paris, France

2001 & 2005

Key stage 1 teacher in England