Natalie (Tilly) Flint is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Centre for Early Mathematics Learning (CEML) at Loughborough University. Her research looks at how young children experience mathematics in the early years. She uses qualitative approaches, including Conversation Analysis and Thematic Analysis. Her work investigates how young children learn mathematics through everyday interactions in early childhood settings.
Tilly holds a BA in English Language and Linguistics (York St John University), an MA (by Research) in Linguistics (York St John University), and a PhD in Modern Languages and Linguistics (Ulster University).
Tilly’s research focuses on how people use talk in everyday life. She specialises in Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA), and her work covers a range of settings, including:
- Early years education
- Family life and home learning
- Healthcare encounters
- Public disputes
- First-time interactions
Her current work explores how preschool children (ages 3–5) experience mathematics learning. She has also studied clinical communication through an NIHR-funded project on risk communication in epilepsy care, and her PhD investigated how family members resist authority in everyday conversations.
Three Minute Thesis (3MT). 2020. Knowledge is Power: How Teenagers Resist Parental Authority.
- Finalist of the Three Minute Thesis competition at Ulster University. For this, I have given a Three Minute talk, outlining my PhD research, highlighting the outcomes and impact of the study for non-expert audiences. Available to view online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRq0LGkkJ3Q&t=4s
ESRC Festival of Social Science 2019.
- Collaboratively built a website (TalkDeck) providing materials for attendees to be used by educators. Available at: https://www.ulster.ac.uk/faculties/arts-humanities-and-social-sciences/communication-and-media/research/cards-talkdeck/about-us
ESRC Festival of Social Science 2020.
- Collaboratively presented and contributed to a panel event online. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwDKg_k235g&t=485s
Selected Publications
Flint, N., Haugh, M., & Merrison, A. J. (2019). Modulating troubles affiliating in initial interactions: the role of remedial accounts. Pragmatics, (3), 384-409.
Flint, N., & Rhys, C. S. (2023). Teenage resistance to a parental threat: Intercepting an action-in-progress as a form of resistance. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 42(5-6), 610-629.
Tremblett, M., Douglass, T., Joyce, J., Anderson, A., Flint, N., & Spratt, T. (2023). Learning from pandemic precarity: The future of early career researchers in qualitative health research. SSM-Qualitative Research in Health, 4, 100335.
Walz, L., Joyce, J. B., & Flint, N. (2024). “Facebook’s about to know, Karen” Mobilising social media to sanction public conduct. Internet Pragmatics, 7(1), 137-160.