Dr Zinnia Mevawalla is a Lecturer in Early Years Education at the University of Strathclyde. She has had the privilege of learning, teaching and researching with children, families, practitioners, and diverse communities across the world, including Australia, Cambodia, India, Timor Leste, and the United Kingdom. Zinnia’s work spans participatory, play-based and arts-informed methodologies, and her research explores critical consciousness, disability equity education, inclusive pedagogies, and the rights of children in the early years. She is Principal Investigator on the Changing Hearts and Minds Programme for Inclusive Education in the Early Years (CHAMP) working with local council colleagues and international collaborators, to reimagine inclusive education as a shared process of transformation.

Zinnia is interested in understanding how initiatives and practices in the early childhood can foster social inclusion for children, families/caregivers and communities. Using critical and resistance theories, her work focuses on listening to children, families/caregivers and community stakeholders who experience systematic exclusion in diverse international contexts. Her focus is on research which examines barriers and the potential for inclusion, equity, participation and transformative resistance. Zinnia is also interested in research which explores how educators, transdisciplinary professionals and community stakeholders work across early childhood contexts to support children and families/caregivers who experience social exclusion.

Zinnia teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programs in early years, childhood practice and inclusive education in the Strathclyde Institute of Education. She is also involved in the supervision of PGR students.

• PhD in Early Childhood Education - Macquarie University, Australia
• Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood Education)(Hons)(1st class) - Macquarie University, Australia