OMEP Ireland Conference 2021

Dr Jools Page

Dr Jools Page is a Senior Early Years Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Brighton and co-leader of the Children and Young People’s Voice and Education Research and Enterprise Group. Before taking up her academic role, Jools was employed in both early years policy and practice roles. For over three decades she worked closely with young children and their families and it is from these humble beginnings that Jools maintains she first gained her unique insight into the importance of fostering careful, respectful, reciprocal and genuine relationships between children and their key adults in professional early years contexts.   Jools is committed to research and practice that places the rights of babies, toddlers at the centre and it is this view of young children which inspired her academic research on attachment-based relationships between adults and children under three years in group day care provision. In a life history study which sought the views of mothers on going back to work when their baby was under a year old, Jools coined the phrase ‘Professional Love’ to explain the attachment-based relationships between infants and their professional adult caregivers. ‘Professional Love’ provided a useful term to debate the discourse on non-familial love at a point in time when love was rarely discussed in professional roles with young children. It is her characterisation of ‘Professional Love’ which is gaining worldwide traction, capturing the interest of contemporary scholars and educators alike and which has brought her both national and international recognition.

Due to her vast knowledge and understanding of babies and toddlers, Jools’ expertise is much sought after, and she sits on a range of advisory panels with organisations in the UK and overseas. She has been a visiting scholar at the University of Huddersfield where her work on ‘Professional Love’ inspired colleagues to engage with her ideas and to interrogate the boundaries of love and professionalism within the context of childhood studies and youth. Jools is regularly invited to give keynote talks, seminars and workshop sessions based on her substantive area of research on attachment and love.  In February 2019 she was invited to join the editorial board of An Leanbh Óg: The OMEP Ireland Journal of Early Childhood Studies – a peer-reviewed journal, published annually and in March 2019, she was the invited international keynote speaker at the Ser Bebé conferences held consecutively in Porto and Lisbon where she addressed over 800 Portuguese delegates about her concept of ‘Professional Love’.

For further details about Jools research and publications please see her web profile: https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/jools-page