Professor Kay Tisdall

Chair of Childhood Policy

  • Moray House School of Education and Sport, IECS
  • University of Edinburgh

Contact details

Address

Street

Moray House School of Education and Sport, SJ 2.01

City
University of Edinburgh (Holyrood Campus)
Post code
EH8 8AQ

Biography

Background

I am part of the energetic Childhood & Youth Studies Group (https://www.ed.ac.uk/education/rke/our-research/children-young-people/childhood-and-youth-studies-research-group). This includes the Childhood Practice (BA) (https://education-sport.ed.ac.uk/undergraduate/childhood-practice) and the MSc Education (Early Childhood Practice and Froebel) pathway (see https://www.ed.ac.uk/education/graduate-school/taught-degrees/msc-education/structure/early-childhood-practice-froebel-pathway). 

My own background is within childhood studies and particularly children's human rights. I work within and across a number of policy areas, from education to family law to child protection, on such topics as children affected by domestic abuse, children with disabilities and additional support needs, and mental health. In particular, we have a collaborative programme with children, young people, adult stakeholders and academics, on children and young people’s participation in decision-making. This includes how to involve children and young people meaningfully and ethically within research, as well as policy-making and formal decisions.  I have the opportunity to learn from work here in Scotland as well as cross-national work with colleagues in such places as Brazil, Canada, China, Eswatini, India, Norway and South Africa.

I previously worked within social policy in the School of Social & Political Science, here at the University of Edinburgh. I also have worked outside academia: from 1999-2003, for example, I held a joint post between the University and Director of Policy & Research at Children in Scotland (the national umbrella agency for organisations working with children and their families).

Qualifications

I have an undergraduate degree in social studies from Harvard University, a PhD in Social Policy from the University of Edinburgh, and a LLB from Strathclyde University.

Responsibilities & affiliations

A selection of community service includes:

  • Member of the UNCRC Strategic Implementation Board, Scottish Government (2025- )
  • Member of the Advisory Group for Challenging Justice Inequalities (Scotland) (2024- )
  • Core Action Group Member of Observatory of Children’s Human Rights Scotland (2022- )
  • Steering Committee Children's Rights European Academic Network (2010- )
  • Consultant for Council of Europe evaluation on children's rights (2026)
  • Member of Expert Committee on Competency Framework for Child Participation, International Bureau for Children’s Rights (2023-2025)
  • Member of Advisory Group for Connecting Children (Sweden) (2022-2025)
  • Member of the COVID 19 Learning and Evaluation Oversight Group (2021-2024)
  • Member of the National Child Protection Leadership Group (2017-2023)  

University of Edinburgh roles include:

  • Member of University’s Ethical Advisory Group for Engaged Research (2026-  )
  • MHSES Director of Research, Knowledge and Impact (2024- )
  • Member of the MHSES Senior Leadership Team (2025- )
  • Member of the College of Arts Humanities and Social Science Research Committee (2024- )
  • Member of the MHSES Research, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Committee (2021-2024)
  • Member of the College of Arts Humanities and Social Science Research Ethics and Integrity Committee (2018- )
  • Developed and delivered 2 courses for the MSc Education (Early Childhood Practice and Froebel Pathway)
  • Established and Lead for the Children and Young People Research Thematic Hub, working with the Hub team (2021-2024)
  • Co-Lead for the College of Arts Humanities and Social Science Childhood & Youth (2021-2024), Depute Lead (2024-2025)

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

I concentrate my supervision on PhD projects involving: children's human rights; children's participation in decision-making; and methodologies of research and consultation with children and young people.

 

Current PhD students supervised

  • Eilidh Lamb -- Creating spaces for children who are victims and witnesses of violence to be heard and supported: Exploration of the multi-dimensional use of space in Scotland’s first Barnahus (Child’s House)
  • Sara Lembrechts  - Children’s Rights in Appellate Asylum Proceedings in Belgium
  • Tao Liu -- Children’s human rights education in and through their forest kindergarten lives
  • Ewajesu Okewumi -- Children’s Participation in Public Decision-making in Nigeria: A case study of the National Children’s Parliament
  • Jennifer O’Donovan -- Experiences of Irish Language Learning among Autistic and Dyslexic Children in Ireland
  • Subhashree Pattanayak - TBC
  • Laura Weiner – Activist Skills, Knowledge, and Values: Constructions of Young People’s Competency in a Youth Activist Group
  • Yi Yan - Exploring complaint procedures for ethnic minority children in Scottish primary schools

Past PhD students supervised

Selection of past PhD supervision with:

  • Ruth Barnes --  Exploring children’s agency, wellbeing and consent in competitive sport: a case study from a rugby club
  • Boshi Liu -- Children’s participation in hobbies: a qualitative study with Chinese children
  • Xuanyi Ren -- Understandings and practices of children’s participation in the context of a Chinese private boarding high school
  • Joyce Serwaa Oppong -- Balancing the benefits against the challenges for children in the electronic waste recycling industry in Ghana
  • Alexandra Jundler - Critiquing the presence and absence of children and young people's participation in policies for looked after children in Scotland
  • Yukti Lamba -- Exploring experiences of children who migrate to Delhi: understanding gender and space
  • Laura Wright -- Play-based research approach: young researchers' conceptualisations, processes, and experiences
  • Karina Padilla Malca -- Lived citizenship in early childhood in a flood-prone area in Amazonian Peru
  • Niki Faranah Nik Azhari - The affordance of Scotland’s pre-war schools in provision of twenty-first century learning
  • Yan Zhu -- Children's friendships in rural boarding schools in China
  • Natalia Salamanca-Sarmiento - “I am who I am because of who I was” - Refiguring childhoods through Colombian former child soldiers’ stories
  • Bekkah Bernheim --  Young women’s (im)mobilities: A qualitative study in Inverness, Scotland
  • Patricio Cuevas-Parra -- Exploring child-led research: Case studies from Bangladesh, Lebanon and Jordan
  • Yi-Tao Lee -- Raised Online by Daddy: Fatherhoods and Childhoods in Taiwanese Father-run Baby blogs
  • Harla Octarra -- Making visible inter-agency working processes in children's services
  • Mary Mitchell -- Re-imagining Family Group Conferencing Outcomes
  • Carine Le Borgne -- Implementing children's participation at the community level: the practices of non-governmental organisations
  • Amelia Alias - Children's Understanding of Online Data Privacy: A Study On Scottish Primary 6 and Primary 7 Pupils
  • Siew-Pien Lee -- Children's participation in decisions regarding their nursing care
  • Sarah Morton -- Exploring and Assessing Research Impact: A case study of a research partnership’s impacts on policy and practice

 

 

Research summary

As stated above, my research interests extends across a range of human rights issues for children. I often become involved in projects because they cross policy boundaries or disciplinary divides. Such interests include: children's rights and citizenship; disability issues affecting children; education and schooling; family law; social media and children's privacy; and methodologies to involve children and young people in research and policy-making. 

 

 

Current research interests

I am currently working on projects that address such issues as: contested child contact in the contexts of domestic abuse; child and youth activism; arts-based methodologies in peace-building; and accountability for human rights.

Knowledge exchange

I am deeply interested in working with others for knowledge exchange and impact. This is a regular part of my work, from accepting speaking engagements across Scotland and different parts of the world, to undertaken research with external organisations in order to maximise impact, to contributing to policy developments in stakeholder groups and meetings. We are contributing to the Observatory on Children's Human Rights Scotland.

Affiliated research centres

Current project grants

See Childhood & Youth Studies Group for more information https://education-sport.ed.ac.uk/research/centres-groups-networks/childh...

Examples of current grants:

• Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Partnership Grant. ‘International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership’ (2021-2028) Principle Investigator Tara Collins, Toronto Metropolitan University. Part of the management team. https://www.torontomu.ca/international-canadian-child-rights-partnership/

• Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities, Ontario Research Fund. ‘International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership: Children’s Rights & Well-being in Ontario’ (2023–2028) Principle Investigator Tara Collins (Toronto Metropolitan University). Co-Investigator.

• RSE International Bilateral Visits. ‘Children's Human Rights: Lessons from Scotland and Taiwan’ (2025-2026). Principle Investigator with Dr Hung-Chieh Jessica Chang (National Taiwan University).

• Scottish Funding Council ISPF Grant. ‘Sonic art for climate justice: the potential of music and arts for centering the voices of Afrocolombian, displaced and Indigenous young people in climate action’ (2024-2025) Principle Investigator Marlies Kustatscher University of Edinburgh), Klaje Collective, Public Libraries Network Cali, District Council of Cali, the Public Policy Observatory of Cali, EAFIT University, Queen’s University Belfast. Co-Investigator.

Past project grants

See Childhood & Youth Studies Group for more information https://education-sport.ed.ac.uk/research/centres-groups-networks/childh...

Examples of previous grants include:

• UKRI Collective Fund and Economic and Social Research Council. Global Challenges Research Fund ‘Safe, Inclusive Participative Pedagogy: Improving Early Childhood Education in Fragile Contexts’. (2020-2024). PI. Project website: https://www.sipp.education.ed.ac.uk/

• Economic and Social Research Council, Innovations in Social Care. ‘Children and families affected by domestic abuse’ (CAFADA). (2019-2024) PI Jane Callaghan, University of Stirling. CI. Project website: https://cafada.stir.ac.uk/

• Frobel Trust. ‘Froebelian Futures’ (2021-2024) Principle Investigator, Lynn McNair. With Luke Addison, Simon Bateson, Kristina Konstantoni, Marlies Kustatscher, Maggie Morrison, John Ravenscroft, Cowgate Under 5s. Co-Investigator. https://www.froebel.ed.ac.uk/

• Mobile Arts for Peace, Large Grants (UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund) ‘Art-Based Intergenerational Monitoring, Evaluation and Reflexive Learning’ (2022-24) PI Laura Wright (University of Edinburgh), with a number of partners. Co-Investigator.

• RSE Network Grant. ‘Research Network on Children’s Human Rights: Mobilising expertise from research, policy and practice’ (2023-2025) PI Kay Tisdall, with Jennifer Davidson (Strathclyde University) and Fiona Morrison (University of Edinburgh)

• World Vision International. ‘National-Level Child Participation Infrastructures’ (2023-2024) with Karina Padilla. PI.

• British Academy. Global Challenges Research Fund ‘Shaping Futures: Young Livelihood options in creating inclusive cities’. (2020-2023). PI Sukanya Krishnamurthy, University of Edinburgh. CI. See https://www.ed.ac.uk/global/regional-engagement/south-asia/people/dr-suk...

• ESRC Impact Acceleration Grant. 'Making Children’s Rights Real through Implementation of the UNCRC' . (2021-22) Project website: see Observatory of Children's Human Rights Scotland https://www.ed.ac.uk/education/rke/our-research/children-young-people/ch...

• GCRF AHRC Changing the Story Large Grant. 'Cuál es la verdad? (What is the Truth?) De-constructing collective memories and imagining alternative futures with young people in Chocó through music and arts (2019-21) CI. Project website: https://changingthestory.leeds.ac.uk/cual-es-la-verdad-colombia/

• Global Child Forum. ‘Children’s Participation in Business’ (2019-20). With Tara Collins, Ryerson University.

• European Commission. ‘Improving justice in child contact’ (2018-2021) With Scottish Women’s Aid and other partners in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Portugal and Romania. PI. Project website: https://www.ed.ac.uk/education/ijcc

• RCUK Cross-Council Mental Health Network Plus Call. ‘Transdisciplinary Research for the Improvement of Youth Mental Public Health (TRIUMPH) Network’ (2018-2022). PI Lisa McDaid, University of Glasgow. CI. Project website: https://triumph.sphsu.gla.ac.uk/

• Scottish Government. ‘Theory of Change: Making Children’s Rights Real’ (2021-2022) Principle Investigator, with Matter of Focus and Public Health Scotland. Project website: https://www.ed.ac.uk/education/rke/our-research/children-young-people/ch...

• Scottish Government. ‘The views and experiences of child and adult victims and witnesses in domestic abuse court cases’ (2021-22) Principle Investigator, Claire Houghton, with Fiona Morrison and Camille Warrington (University of Edinburgh) Team member

• Scottish Government. ‘Children’s Participation in Family Actions: Probing Compliance with Children’s Human Rights’ (2018-2020). With Fiona Morrison (University of Stirling) and Clan Childlaw. CI.

• World Vision International. ‘Child activists for ending child marriage: exploring children’s experiences in Bangladesh’ (2018-19) With Patricio Cuevas-Parra (World Vision International). Academic PI.

• Carnegie Trust. ‘Language, Place and Identity: exploring children's linguistic and cognitive development in heritage and community languages’ (2018-2019) PI Antonella Sorace, Edinburgh University. Co-investigator.

• GambleAware. ‘The effect of gambling marketing and advertising on children, young people and vulnerable people’ (2018-19). Led by Ipsos MORI. Consultant on ethics and methodology.

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