Jocelyn "Joce" Grace Nuttall is a New Zealand education academic, and is a full professor at the University of Canterbury, specialising in teacher education, early childhood curriculum policy and workforce capacity-building.
Nuttall qualified as a teacher at the Dunedin College of Education and the University of Otago, and taught in primary schools in New Zealand and Australia before moving into early childhood education.[1] She was appointed as a senior lecturer at Christchurch College of Education in 1990.[1] Nuttall completed a master's degree in education in 1992 titled Women, capitalism and feminisation: workers' experiences in private and non-profit childcare centres at the University of Canterbury.[2] In 2004 she completed a PhD at Victoria University of Wellington, with a thesis titled Why don't you ask someone who cares?.[3] Nuttall first worked at Monash University before moving to the Australian Catholic University in 2011, where she was Research Director of Teacher Education.[1] Nuttall then joined the faculty of the University of Canterbury, rising to full professor. As of 2024 Nuttall is Executive Dean for the School of Education at Canterbury.[4]
Nuttall's research focuses on the education of teachers and educational leaders. She is also interested in how to develop workforce capacity-building in early childhood education, and in early childhood curriculum policy.[4][5]
Nuttall edited the first two editions ofWeaving te Whāriki: Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum document in theory and practice, a series of critical reflections on the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, and was joined by Alexandra Gunn for the third edition.[6]
Nuttall was elected a Distinguished Member of the Australian Teachers Education Association in 2019.[1][4] She was awarded the Australian Catholic University Vice-Chancellor’s Medal for Research Excellence in 2018.[4]