OU wins ESRC fellowship to transform how children read stories

The Open University (OU) has secured a £124,955 Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship to explore how young children engage with stories beyond words on the page. The 12-month project, led by Dr Samantha Jayne Hulston, begins in October 2025 and will investigate how children use play, movement and embodied responses to make meaning from storybooks.

Dr Hulston’s PhD research, completed at the University of Cambridge with ESRC support, revealed that children’s bodies play a vital role in how they interpret and respond to stories. Her work has already won national recognition, receiving the United Kingdom Literacy Association’s annual doctoral thesis prize.

Dr Hulston said: “My research shows that young children make meaning with their whole selves, not just through talk. By recognising embodied engagement as a valid reading practice, we can open up richer and fairer opportunities for children with diverse communicative strengths. This fellowship gives me the chance to maximise the impact of my work, bridging research and classroom practice.”

The fellowship will consolidate Dr Hulston’s doctoral research and extend its reach through a range of activities. Co-mentored by Professor Teresa Cremin and Dr Helen Hendry, Dr Hulston will produce a monograph that expands beyond traditional talk-based understandings of reading, highlighting the value of embodied engagement as an inclusive practice. She will also share her findings with academics at three major European conferences, ensuring the research has international reach.

At the same time, Dr Hulston will work closely with teachers through a workshop series hosted with the OU’s Centre for Literacy and Social Justice (CLSJ). These sessions will explore how embodied reading practices can be embedded in classrooms, with resources created for practitioners to use more widely. The fellowship will also feed directly into teaching and learning at the OU, with new materials designed to highlight the benefits of embodied approaches to reading.

The project aims to reshape how reading is taught and experienced, with the long-term goal of embedding play- and movement-based activities - into classroom literacy practices across the UK.

Professor Teresa Cremin, co-mentor of the fellowship and Director of the CLSJ, said, “This fellowship reflects both the academic excellence of Dr Hulston’s research and its transformative potential for education. By reframing what counts as reading, her work has the power to reshape classroom practice and expand opportunities for all children.”

The fellowship underlines the OU’s reputation for pioneering research with real-world impact, bridging the gap between cutting-edge scholarship and everyday teaching practice.