Lucie Wheeler

(she/her)

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Lucie Wheeler is a Research Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), specialising in child development, inclusion, and neurodiversity across educational contexts. Her work brings together academic research and lived experience, with a particular focus on home education and alternative pathways, areas increasingly shaped by families navigating unmet SEND needs within mainstream systems. She is currently undertaking a PhD exploring Home Educator Identity, examining how families understand, negotiate, and sustain alternative approaches to education.

Before moving into academia, Lucie spent over 12 years working across a wide range of educational settings, including parent and toddler groups, preschools, private nurseries, primary schools, and specialist SEND provision. This breadth of experience continues to inform her research, grounding it in the realities of children, families, and educators.

Alongside her academic work, Lucie is the founder of RECAP Ltd (www.recapinfo.co.uk), a platform dedicated to translating research into accessible, evidence-based guidance for families and professionals. Through RECAP, she is committed to creating a calm, trusted space where research, practice, and lived experience come together to better support children and those around them.

Experience

  • 2025–present
    Research fellow, Anglia Ruskin University
  • 2020–2025
    Education Research Assistant, Anglia Ruskin University
  • 2018–2021
    Leadership Team, Gooseberry Green Pre-School
  • 2017–2017
    Learning Support Assistant, Pioneer Special School

Education

  • 2019 
    Anglia Ruskin University, MA Early Years Education
  • 2018 
    Anglia Ruskin University, BA Early Childhood Professional Studies

Publications

  • 2026
    Neurodiversity through the educational years: Lived Experience, Research and Practice, Due 2026
  • 2026
    Homeschooling and Mothering Work., Book Chapter
  • 2025
    Ancillary staff in higher education: in/visibility and mis/recognition’, in ‘Working class people in UK Higher Education; precarities, perspectives and progress’, Book Chapter
  • 2024
    Using Literature Reviews to Research Marginalized Groups: The Case of Research on Carers in Higher Education. , Book Chapter
  • 2023
    Through a glass, darkly: Gazing into the field of carers in academia,
  • 2023
    Widening Access for Home-Educated Applicants to Higher Education Institutions in England,
  • 2023
    Teacher Perspectives on Primary - Secondary School Transition Projects During the COVID-19 Pandemic.,

Contact Lucie for

  • General
  • Media request
  • Speaking request
  • Consulting / Advising
  • Research collaboration
  • Research supervision