Dr Mary-Louise Maynes
Louise has been teaching at Lincoln Bishop University since 2008, initially as a visiting tutor and as a full-time member of staff from 2012. Prior to working at Lincoln Bishop Louise worked as a primary teacher in Kent and Lincolnshire and as a museum educator, working with children and young people in a variety of museums including the Natural History Museum in London.
Louise teaches on the undergraduate Early Childhood Studies and Health and Wellbeing in Early Childhood Programmes. Her teaching interests include play, the history and sociology of childhood, early literacy, and research involving young children. She also teaches on the MA in Children’s Literacies and Literature where she teaches a module on researching with children and supervises students undertaking their final dissertation. Louise is a member of the MA Education Ethics Committee and also supervises PhD students. Louise leads the Literature and Literacies Research and Knowledge exchange unit Research & Knowledge Exchange Units - Literature and Literacies (LILI) | Lincoln Bishop University. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Louise's research for her Doctor of Education explored children's responses to poetic non-fiction picture books. Recent research interests have included the ethics of research with young children and the responses of 2-year-olds to books in an early years setting.
Louise has a particular interest in how early years settings are adapting to meet the needs of two year olds following recent changes in government policy and has been working with a nursery in Lincoln as they develop their two year old provision. She has also been involved recently with practitioners in a large nursery in Leicester to develop their creative practice in collaboration with an arts practitioner from the Children’s Charity Children’s Links. Louise is working with the International office to develop links and short courses with Chinese Nursery Headteachers. She is also working with the Literature and Literacies RKEU to develop a master's programme in Children's Literature and Literacies.
Maynes, M.L (2024) Play. In I. Palaiologou (Ed.) The early years foundation stage : theory and practice (5th edition). Sage.
Hendry, H., Teszenyi, E., Rodriguez-Leon, L., Maynes, M.-L., Dorrian, J., & Edwards, T. (2025). Tensions, assumptions and situated ethics: attuning to the unpredictability of ethics in early childhood research participation. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 33(3), 483–496
Maynes Mary-Louise. (2020). Monsters at bedtime: managing fear in bedtime picture books for children. Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00561-4
Adams, K., Bull, R. and Maynes, M-L. (2015) Early childhood spirituality in education: towards an understanding of the distinctive features of young children's spirituality. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 24 (5). pp. 760-774. ISSN 1350-293X Gilluly, S., Allison, S., Maynes, M., & Simpkins, R. (2017). Spirituality and the whole child: Interdisciplinary approaches. International Journal of Children's Spirituality, 22(1), 102-103. doi:10.1080/1364436X.2017.1279593
Related Courses
- Children’s Literature and Literacies
- English Literature (MA)
- Health & Wellbeing in Early Childhood
- Early Childhood Studies
- Psychology and Early Childhood Studies
- Early Childhood Studies with Foundation Year
- Health & Wellbeing in Early Childhood with Foundation Year
- Psychology and Early Childhood Studies with Foundation Year
Earlier this year, Bishop Grosseteste University was given permission by the Office for Students (OfS) to change its name to Lincoln Bishop University. This process of change may take a little time to work through, so while we are busy making all the necessary changes, you may find that you see both names used in our information and communications.