Robert Lecusay
About me
I am an associate professor of education, and senior lecturer in child and youth studies with a focus on preschool education. I am also a project researcher at Malmö university (see research projects below) and affiliated researcher with the University Helsinki’s Cultural-Historical approaches to Children’s Learning and Development group. Prior to moving to Sweden I was a doctoral student (Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Communication & Cognitive Science) and lecturer at the University of California, San Diego’s Department of Communication and Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition. I remain an affiliate researcher at LCHC, participating in the Regenerating CHAT project and its utopian offshoots.
Teaching
I teach in the undergraduate preschool teacher education program as well as in the master’s program in preschool didactics (which I also direct). In addition to supervising independent research projects at the undergraduate and graduate levels, I teach courses in play, early childhood education policy (with a focus on international perspectives), and research methods.
Research
My current research centers on the study of play, teaching, and education for sustainability in Swedish preschool, with particular focus on how preschool pedagogues understand and negotiate tensions stemming from the combination of these activities in preschool. These interests are rooted in a more general concern with exploring the relationship between formal and informal learning and education.
Ongoing research projects.
- From proof-of-concept to scale in the study of aesthetic literacy-events for cognitive language-development and equal and inclusive early childhood education and care: Designing a research program. (2024-2028) Research project grant – Swedish Research Council (Liselott Mariett Olsson – PI)
Completed research projects.
- Educational Common Spaces: Passing through enclosures and reversing inequalities (2021-2024). Research Project - Horizon 2020 European Union Research and Innovation Grants (Ioannis Pechtelidis- PI; Liselott Mariett Olsson – PI, Swedish team).
- Transforming Early Childhood Education and Care in the Baltic and Eastern European Region: Revitalizing pedagogical perspectives from Serbian, Finnish and Swedish Scholarship and Practice in the Field (2022-2023). Research Network grant – Östersjöstiftelsen.
- Teaching, Play and Education for Sustainability in the era of Schoolification in Swedish Preschool: Case studies of the integration of the Playworld pedagogy in Reggio-inspired preschools (2021-2022). Research Project - Södertörns Högskola – Lärarutbildning Forskningsbidrag.
- Early Childhood Education for Sustainable Development in the Era of “Teaching” in Swedish Preschool. Examining Children’s Pretend and Exploratory Play in a Preschool Forest Garden Intervention (2017-2019). Research Project - Learning Practices in and out of School Research Environment Seed Grant.
- Mångfunktionella utomhusmiljöer som främjar hälsa och hållbarhet: en studie av samverkansprocesser för stärkta ekosystemtjänster i staden. (2017 – 2022). Research Project – FORMAS - Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Tobias Samuelsson – PI)
- Documenting and Assessing Learning in Informal and Media-Rich Environment: State of the art review (2011 – 2015). Research Project - John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Research projects
Publications
For a complete list of publications visit my Google Scholar, Researchgate or Web of Science pages (SU's research publication database only displays my research from 2023 or later).