Online SIG Meetings

Monday 2nd September 2024 | Online

Register to join this meeting online.

Meeting URL: https://strath.zoom.us/j/82131999863?from=addon
Meeting ID: 821 3199 9863
Password: 698119

The meeting is open to any EY practitioners and researchers interested in the work of this SIG.

Meeting agenda will be provided nearer the time.

 

About the SIG

We are a community of researchers who wish to work toward sharing and strengthening knowledge, understandings and practices of disability studies and inclusive education in the early years.

We aim to explore and develop shared values, understandings, resources, and practices that promote shared humanity through research, by:

  • Recognising, acknowledging and celebrating the full breadth of human diversity
  • Supporting belonging and meaningful participation for all children, families and communities
  • Challenging ableism, exclusion, objectification, stigma, discrimination, devaluing, dehumanising and othering
  • ‘Listening’ to lived experiences of inclusion and exclusion (e.g., “nothing about us without us”)
  • Recognising, upholding and promoting human dignity, equity, agency, rights and the valuable contribution of ALL people
  • Identifying and addressing barriers in the environment, curriculum, pedagogies, policies, research and practice

Our aims align with EECERA philosophy and ethos. Through this group we hope to contribute to increasing knowledge and understanding in this critical area for the development of quality early childhood education, with potentialities for working toward more inclusive and socially just communities.

For more information, please contact:

Zinnia Mevawalla, University of Strathclyde, UK
Kathy Cologon, Toward Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Macquarie University, Australia

https://www.eecera.org/sig/disability-studies-and-inclusive-education-in-the-early-years/

Hybrid SIG Meetings

Tuesday 3rd September 2024 | University of Brighton

These SIG meetings will take place in Brighton with an option to join online. Please expand individual meetings for more information and locations.

Where: Room 305 Edward Street building, University of Brighton

Address: 154 Edward Street, BN2 0JG

 

ABOUT

Transforming Assessment, Evaluation, and Documentation in Early Childhood Pedagogy

Keys aims of this the SIG are to:

  • examine ways of how an ecological thinking involving all stakeholders’ (early childhood educators-term used collectively to describe all who are involved in a professional capacity with children’s education, parents and children) participation, involvement, dialogic pedagogy in assessment, evaluation and documentation versus testing and laboratory tick boxes assessment processes;
  • open the discourse of the underpinning ideologies, philosophies, theory/theories, epistemologies of assessment, evaluation and documentation;
  • explore the potentiality/potentialities of innovative ways and ecological thinking to assessment , evaluation and documentation;
  • share practices of how we can develop effective and ethical ways of assessing, evaluating and documenting how children are connecting cognitive skills and transversal competences with situations that appear in everyday life, children’s unique strategies and narratives of connecting situations, how children develop skills and try to make sense of the world without trying to apply a universal approach to these processes;
  • explore alternatives on how we can move away from developmental scales focusing on academic achievements that they are the dominant discourse in many curricula approaches and reduce social stratification and inequality;
  • engage into discussions on the focus of the assessment, evaluation and documentation (i.e: singularity of the child versus universality, connectivity of situations versus testing)
  • discuss and potentially extend relevant research and experimentation of assessment, evaluation and documentation in practice and on practice.

For more information, please contact:

Elisabetta Biffi: [email protected]

Ioanna Palaiologou: [email protected]

Lucia Carriera: [email protected]

https://www.eecera.org/sig/transforming-assessment-evaluation-and-documentation-in-early-childhood-pedagogy/

Where: Room 104 Edward Street building, University of Brighton

Address: 154 Edward Street, BN2 0JG

 

ABOUT

Young Children’s Perspectives

The purpose of the SIG is to:

  • generate critical reflection on children’s perspectives and children’s rights
  • support and encourage cross-national perspectives on seeking children’s perspectives
  • support SIG members’ research in a collaborative and cooperative manner
  • share innovative and reflexive research on children’s perspectives and children’s rights.

For more information, please contact:

Jane Murray: [email protected]

Alison Moore: [email protected]

https://www.eecera.org/sig/young-childrens-perspectives/

Where: Room M2, Grand Parade building, University of Brighton

Address: 58–67 Grand Parade, BN2 0JY

 

–  Introduction by Chris Pascal and Tony Bertram

– Reflections from co-editors

– Reflections from contributing authors

– Remembering our friend and colleague, Dr. Babs Anderson

– Discussion

We cordially invite you to the book launch of ‘Resilience and Wellbeing in Young Children, Their Families and Communities: Exploring Diverse Contexts, Circumstances and Populationspart of the Towards an Ethical Praxis in Early Childhood series.

We will share reflections on core ideas, practices, realities and lived experiences that are embedded in the book and beyond. Also, we will pay special tribute to our distinguished and beloved friend and colleague, Dr. Babs Anderson. You can attend this hybrid event either in person or at: https://nova.zoom.us/j/95502173309?pwd=BYMLvNwmHLOGe97VU6tPQHovAaSl2L.1. To attend the hybrid session, kindly request the Zoom password from the co-editors, Zoi Nikiforidou: [email protected] or Wilma Robles-Melendez: [email protected].

 

About the Holistic Wellbeing SIG

The Holistic Wellbeing SIG aims to critically reflect on the concept of children’s wellbeing in a holistic, inclusive manner. This is timely due to the increased awareness and interest of practitioners, researchers and policy makers at a cross-national and global level in understanding children’s physical, mental, social, emotional, cognitive, spiritual and cultural wellbeing. It will foster research in a range of aspects including ESD in early childhood, child development, cross-cultural elements, policy, empowerment and agency and their synergy in examining children’s holistic wellbeing. The SIG welcomes international collaboration and innovative research.

The Holistic Wellbeing SIG aims to explore the following questions, amongst others:

  • What do we mean by wellbeing?
  • Why address wellbeing?
  • What do we know about wellbeing from the perspective of children’s and human rights?
  • How can we support the wellbeing of children and families in a holistic and inclusive manner?
  • Do practitioners, researchers and policy makers understand children’s physical, mental, social, emotional, cognitive, spiritual and cultural wellbeing in the same way?
  • What experiences influence children’s wellbeing?
  • How can we advocate for the wellbeing of the children and their families?
  • Are there universal measures of wellbeing?

For more information, please contact:

Zoi Nikiforidou: [email protected]

Wilma Robles-Melendez: [email protected]

Clionagh Boyle – [email protected]

https://www.eecera.org/sig/holistic-well-being/

In-person SIG Meetings

Tuesday 3rd September 2024 | University of Brighton

Please expand individual meetings for more information and locations.

Where: Room 304 Edward Street building, University of Brighton

Address: 154 Edward Street, BN2 0JG

The SIG gender balance invites to its 12th research conference. The research conference has developed as a space for discussing issues of gender equality and diversity in ECEC on a global level. It is giving room for progressing the participants’ individual research development by mutual support of well-experienced colleagues as well as early career researchers.

The SIG continues to focus on the situation and the impact of men and women, and more gender diversity, in the ECEC work force. In the past decades the network has grown and included researchers from all over the world. We include global and regional perspectives from a wide range of national contexts. At some places, men are accepted as part of the work force, but the topic of men in ECEC has been pushed in the background by discourses on gender diversity. Elsewhere, there
are still controversies about having men in the field at all. For the further development of genderrelated research in the field, it is necessary to take such contextual and cultural differences into account.

In the context of this year’s EECERA theme of “Developing sustainable early childhood education systems”, we focus on three topics: (1) strategies and policies for gender equality in ECEC and the challenges of bringing this into practice, (2) the role of researchers’ own gender for research strategies and results, and (3) children’s perspectives on gender issues in the work force.

Based on the ongoing scientific exchange in the network, we plan to develop a proposal for a special issue, following the EECERJ special issue 2015 and the Early Years special issue 2020. Every session of the conference will be finished with a brainstorming on possible content for the special issue.

The meeting is the Annual meeting of the EECERA Special Interest Group Gender Balance, and as such it is open to all interested researchers.

DOWNLOAD CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

Conference fee: approx. 50 € including tea/coffee & lunch, to be paid on the conference in cash, either in GBP or in €. Participation in the welcome & exchange round and in the final round is free of charge.

We are looking forward to meeting you!

This year’s SIG Gender Balance team:
David Brody (Israel) · Zhuoran Chen (China/United Kingdom) · Halah Elkarif (Egypt/Germany) · Ricardo Goncalves (Brazil/Sweden) · Charlotte Jones (United Kingdom) · Joanne McHale (Ireland) · Tim Rohrmann (Germany)

To register for this event, please fill in this form and return to Joanne McHale.

 

About SIG Gender Balance

The SIG focuses on the issue of gender balance in the ECE work force, and on the important role gender plays in adult-child-relations. Although there have been discussions about rising the proportion of male ECE workers for more than two decades, the theme remains an issue. Recently, several research projects were conducted, and in some countries governmental funded programmes have been started for bringing more men in the profession of Early Childhood Education and Care.

The members of the SIG support the aim of increasing the proportion of male workers towards a more gender-balanced ECEC work force. At the same time there is a need for a more differentiated view. Research is necessary e.g. on the significance of ECEC workers’ gender for children’s development, the interrelations of gender balance in the workforce and the promotion of gender equality, on gender-sensitive strategies for recruitment for ECE training and work, on recruitment and retention of men in the ECEC workforce, and on gender relations in ECEC in general.

The SIG focuses on the links of research, practice and policy, intends to provide an academic forum for the promotion, development and dissemination of research, and facilitates cooperation and collaboration between researchers in the field.

For more information, please contact:

Tim Rohrmann: [email protected]

Kari Emilsen: [email protected]

https://www.eecera.org/sig/gender-balance/

Where: Room 104 Edward Street building, University of Brighton

Address: 154 Edward Street, BN2 0JG

 

The members of EECERA Special Interest Group: Children from Refugee or Migrant Backgrounds warmly invite conference delegates to a SIG meeting in Brighton at 10:30am on 3rd September 2024.

Meeting agenda:

  1. Welcome
  2. Apologies
  3. Introductions
  4. Acceptance of meeting minutes from 2023 conference in Glasgow
  5. SIG activities between September 2023 to September 2024
  6. Conference provocations
  7. Future hopes and plans
  8. General discussion

 

We do hope you can join us for global sharing and comparing research and practice.

Please see registration:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vvjZoKsYC67aEle1gwhrLGTsZ4hbp6pxbkQ5mNWavKs/viewform?edit_requested=true

 

About the SIG

The purpose of the SIG is to:

  • Develop a partnership that will allow applications for various types of funding (Horizon, EEA, NordFORSK, Erasmus +) to pursue collaborative research projects to build on existing studies and further develop an emerging body of knowledge around the experiences of refugee, asylum seeking children and their families who have experienced Forced Migration from an international Early Education perspective.
  • Respond to EU and World expectation making ECEC institutions which enhance a sense of belonging specifically for children from refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant backgrounds to transform ECEC settings into quality agencies, which are culturally appropriate, safe, welcoming and inclusive societies to achieve better outcomes for refugees and migrant children and their families.
  • Expand further understandings for the Early Childhood and Education Care workforce, enhance culturally relevant pedagogy and empower ECEC as a sustainable solution for increasing migration challenges.

For more information, please contact:

Donna Gaywood: [email protected]

Jennifer Koutoulas: [email protected]

https://www.eecera.org/sig/children-from-refugee-or-migrant-backgrounds/

Where: Room 305 Edward Street building, University of Brighton

Address: 154 Edward Street, BN2 0JG

 

About the SIG

Mathematics Birth to Eight Years

The EECERA SIG Mathematics provides an academic and rigorous forum to develop and disseminate high quality research on early childhood mathematics education. It has organised stimulating and relevant symposia and other presentations at recent EECERA conferences. Some collaborative research, publication and evaluation have arisen as a result of people engaging with others at SIG meetings and during presentations. There is great potential for future collaborations, perhaps through joint publication in books and papers. The SIG Mathematics is a friendly group looking to expand in order to continue learning about early childhood mathematics education. Please join us.

The EECERA SIG Mathematics aims to coordinate and disseminate international research on the discourse in the emerging early childhood mathematics education field. It creates a space for shared thinking and for creating synergies between participants from a wide range of professional and scientific contexts to encourage a clearer articulation and understanding of early childhood pedagogy, policy and practice in relation to mathematics

For more information, please contact:

Oliver Thiel: [email protected]

Maulfry Worthington: [email protected]

https://www.eecera.org/sig/mathematics-birth-to-eight-years/

Where: Room 309 Edward Street building, University of Brighton

Address: 154 Edward Street, BN2 0JG

Meeting agenda

  1. Apologies
  2. Brief introductions and new members
  3. Notes from the previous meeting 2023
  4. Brief overview of SIG activities during the year
  5. Plans for future activities
  6. AOB

 

About Outdoor Play and Learning SIG

The Outdoor Play and Learning SIG provides an academic and rigorous forum at European and international level to develop and disseminate high quality research on outdoor play and learning. It aims to coordinate and disseminate international research on the international discourse in this emerging field. It intends to create a space for shared thinking and for creating synergies between participants from a wide range of professional and scientific contexts to encourage a clearer articulation and understanding of early childhood pedagogy, policy and practice in relation to outdoor play and learning.

For more information, please contact:

Andy Schieler: [email protected]

Mehmet Mart: [email protected]

Natalie Canning: [email protected]

Georgia Gessiou: [email protected]

https://www.eecera.org/sig/outdoor-play-and-learning/

Where: Room M2, Grand Parade building, University of Brighton

Address: 58–67 Grand Parade, BN2 0JY

During EECERA 2023, we had a very lively discussion about many topics that interest us as a large SIG community around the topic of transitions. We, Co-convenors have taken this as an opportunity to plan a preconference for EECERA 2024, where there will be plenty of time and opportunities for networking. We therefore
cordially invite you to take part in the pre-conference entitled “Current aspects on transition” at EECERA 2024 in Brighton.

The pre-conference will take place on Tuesday, September 3, from 13:00 – 15:00 at the University of Brighton (room and building details TBC).

We are planning an interactive, lively format: six round tables will discuss various current topics in transition research:
1. What did we learn during Pandemic?
2. Assessments during transition
3. School readiness as a problematic concept
4. Quality standards for transition from kindergarten to primary school
5. Methodologies of transition research
6. Open round table for other topics that are important to the participants.

All discussions can have a theoretical, empirical, conceptual or policy focus. Each round table will be moderated. The 6 round tables will be offered in parallel and in two time slots. This gives everyone an opportunity to participate in two different round tables during the pre-conference.

Refreshments will be provided. 😊 At the end of the pre-conference, the topics will be bundled and considerations will be made for further joint work (for example, with a view to future digital SIG exchange formats during the year). Emergent researchers in particular can take advantage of this opportunity to exchange ideas and network with senior researchers from all over the world.

Following the pre-conference, our annual SIG meeting will take place from 15:00 – 16:00 pm (probably in the same room). We also cordially invite you to attend. Registered participants will receive or event agenda shortly before the conference. In order to plan and organize better, we kindly ask you to register for the Pre-Conference in Round Table format by June 10, 2014. Please use the following registration form: https://forms.gle/7z7253jK217aK2Y67

If you have any questions, please contact us.

We look forward to an exciting new format!

Best wishes from the SIG convenors
Helena Ackesjö, Petra Büker, Sara Margrét Ólafsdóttir, Adriana Visnjic-Jevtic

 

About the SIG

To bring together international perspectives on transitions in early childhood to:

  • Promote the wellbeing of young children and their families
  • Support, share and disseminate SIG members’ research on transitions and related aspects
  • Explore and debate emerging research, professional practices and theories in relation to transitions
  • Contribute to debates about transitions in relation to the wellbeing of children and adults
  • Strengthen understanding of transitions for children and their families.

For more information, please contact:

Helena Ackesjö, Linnaeus University, Sweden
Sara Margrét Ólafsdóttir, University of Iceland, Iceland
Adrijana Visnjic-Jevtic, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Petra Büker, University of Paderborn, Germany

https://www.eecera.org/sig/transitions/

Where: Room 103 Edward Street building, University of Brighton

Address: 154 Edward Street, BN2 0JG

 

This SIG meeting will focus on the implications of ECCE workforce shortages on professionalism in terms of degree qualified educators, and in the early childhood profession more broadly.

No need to register to attend.

 

About the SIG

In many countries of the world, the expansion and further development of the early childhood care and education system is linked to a terminology of ‘profession’. Curricula, or national pedagogical frameworks, have been introduced as a means to foster professional practice. Qualifications, in-service training/education and an increasing number of university degrees are contributing to the notion that there is a profession in early childhood and an associated need for ‘professional’ development.

Yet (at least from our point of view), there is far less understanding about what ‘profession’ in Early Childhood is all about. Do we really understand what it means to act ‘professionally?’:

  • in a rapidly changing society where settings and situations are continuously changing, in social contexts and groups which tend to be chaotic as they organize and re-organize themselves, continuously forming patterns and relations which cannot be predicted or controlled?
  • with a broad variety of people (children and adults) who pursue various interests?
  • when we know that teachers act first as human beings with a personal history and generate their ‘actionable knowledge’ (Argyris) everyday.

The SIG on professionalism in early childhood wants to address these (and other relevant) questions. We suggest paying special attention to the development of what might be called a professional habitus. And while we find that these questions can be cross-nationally addressed and reflected upon, we must be aware that ‘acting’ as a professional can only be done in the specific local context. Under these conditions, the SIG can be a place for ‘shared thinking’ and for creating synergies rather than for producing universally valid outcomes.

For more information, please contact:

Antje Rothe, Catholic University of Applied Sciences Berlin (KHSB), Germany
Mary Moloney, Mary Immaculate College, Ireland
Marianne Fenech, University of Sydney, Australia

 

https://www.eecera.org/sig/professionalism-in-early-childhood-education-and-care/

Where: Room 307 Edward Street building, University of Brighton

Address: 154 Edward Street, BN2 0JG

 

The Multilingual Childhoods SIG invites conference delegates to an EECERA pre-conference meeting

“Developing Sustainable Early Childhood Education from a Perspective of Inclusive and Translingual Practice in Multilingual Settings”

In this SIG meeting, we focus on the overall conference theme “Developing Sustainable Early Childhood Education Systems: Comparisons, Contexts and the Cognoscenti” from a Perspective of Inclusive and Translingual Practice in Multilingual Settings. We have invited two experts (details of the sessions below) in the field who will shed light on this topic from different theoretical perspectives, research experiences and multilingual contexts.

Each researcher will give a 20-minute introduction. This session will be chaired by Martina Norling, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Örebro University. We then invite you all to a fruitful discussion on the topic “Sustainable Multilingual education” Inclusive and Translingual Practice in Multilingual Settings.

 

Young children’s language socialization to translingual practice in their small, rural, Indo-Fijian community

Alexandra Diamond, University of South Australia, Australia

Research indicates that when largely monolingual English speakers encounter “non-native” speakers of English, they tend to make meager efforts to achieve mutual understandings (Dooley, 2009). Such behaviours prevent genuine inclusion of linguistically marginalised voices in deciding actions towards a more sustainable, postcolonial world. Translingual practitioners however, habitually use specific semiotic strategies to establish shared understandings across interlocutors’ linguistic differences (Canagarajah, 2013).

This presentation explores how, prior to formal education, young children in a small, rural Indo-Fijian community (“Dovubaravi”) develop dispositions and strategies for translingual practice. It draws on qualitative, ethnographic data generated across two years by eleven young Dovubaravi children, their mothers and extended families.

The findings indicate that in Dovubaravi: i) mothers hope their children will become adept translingual practitioners, ii) speakers demonstrate translingual practice in familial interactions with and around young children, and iii) young children develop translingual dispositions and strategies by observing and actively participating in these interactions.

The presenter will facilitate discussion about how findings may be used to support teachers’ and young children’s development of translingual practice in multilingual classroom contexts, and thereby come to include multiple kinds of languagers in democratic decision-making.

 

References:

Canagarajah, A. S. (2013). Translingual practice, global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations. Routledge.

Dooley, K. (2009). Intercultural conversation: Building understanding together. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(6), 497-506.

 

Inclusive Language Pedagogy for sustainable Early Childhood Education in Sweden

Annika Åkerblom, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Increased diversity in Swedish preschools requires preschool teachers to develop pedagogical methods to facilitate successful language teaching. While preschool teachers use multilingual pedagogies to create opportunity for multilingual children’s language development, it also produces compensatory pedagogies (Harju & Åkerblom 2020), and exclusion for the children (Åkerblom & Harju 2021). If we wish to generate educational opportunities for diversified populations, there is an urgent need to educate preschool teachers to facilitate sustainable language development in ECE.

 

This presentation asks, how language development is negotiated for children in preschool, and how everyday language practices provide opportunity and/or constraint for children to participate and acquire language in a way that is socially just and sustainable.

The analysis draws from theories of translanguaging (Li 2018), which has proven historically significant for scientific efforts to understand how learners’ language acquisition and learning is tied up with negotiations of language pedagogy in institutions.

Through social engagement in the multilingual, pedagogical environment in which these children are participating on an everyday basis, it is understood to have a potentially profound and sustainable effect on the development of their language. The children are viewed as agents and participants in everyday institutional activities and the ways these children position themselves, are taken into account.

References

Åkerblom, A., & Harju, A. (2021). The becoming of a Swedish preschool child? Migrant children and everyday nationalism. Children’s Geographies, 2021, Vol. 19, Iss. 5, 19(5), Children’s Geographies, 2021, Vol. 19, Iss. 5.

Harju, A., & Åkerblom, A. (2020). Opening up new spaces for languaging practice in early childhood education for migrant children. International Journal Of Early Years Education, 2020, Vol. 28, Iss. 2, Pp. 151-.161, 28(2), 151–161.

Li, W. (2018). Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language. Applied Linguistics, 39(1), 9–30.

 

This meeting is open to all delegates and earlier registration is not required.

Martina Norling & Gunhild Tomter Alstad  (SIG Convenors)

EECERA Multilingual Childhoods SIG

 

About the SIG

The Multilingual Childhoods SIG was launched at the 2015 EECERA conference in Barcelona. It has been set up with a view to bringing together researchers who are investigating the learning of two or more languages in the home, school or community by children from birth to the age of 6 years old – this includes aspects of L1 and L2 language development in contexts of awareness of languages, additional languages, foreign languages, second languages, bilingual education, and immersion.

More information about this SIG can be found on the Multiligual Childhoods SIG website: https://multilingualchildhoods.wordpress.com/

To bridge the areas of multilingualism and early years education;

  • To promote and disseminate research in early years multilingualism and its implementation in policy and practice;
  • To create opportunities for informed and constructive discussion and debate;
  • To foster possibilities for cross-national collaboration and interaction.

For more information, please contact:

Gunhild Tomter Alstad: [email protected]

Martina Norling: [email protected]

https://www.eecera.org/sig/multilingual-childhoods/

Where: Room 105 Edward Street building, University of Brighton

Address: 154 Edward Street, BN2 0JG

 

About the SIG

The aim of this SIG is to develop a space for networking and to encourage cross-national research and perspectives in the field of early childhood education for sustainability. The research agenda focuses on ways of understanding how young children are recognised as, and learn to be, active citizens for sustainability. Sustainability refers here to the interlinked social, economic, natural and political dimensions defined by UNESCO (2010), and these must underpin all decision-making for equitable global futures.

In the last 10 years, the field of early childhood education for sustainability has strongly emerged as evident in the chronology listed by Davis and Elliott (2014). The need for formal places and spaces for researchers to meet and collaborate has become increasingly evident. As EECERA is an international organisation gathering researchers in the field of Early Childhood Education we are confident that by seeking a platform within EECERA, research initiatives in sustainability will be further developed. Increased research opportunities in various forms such as joint conference presentations, international research collaborations and co-authored publications are envisaged. A key aspect to consolidating this field of research is to broaden the theoretical and methodological perspectives shared and to incorporate multiple international socio-cultural lenses. A SIG platform within EECERA creates opportunities to progress this broader agenda and engage others. We share these organisational priorities at a time when global climate change is increasing and cannot be ignored as a compelling issue for children’s futures. Actions to mitigate climate change through both early childhood education research and practice are much needed. Aligned international policies with import for early childhood education and education for sustainability are The UN Global Action Programme (GAP) and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) (UNESCO, 2017). These policies are integrated with the dimensions of sustainability and offer a global action plan for developing a sustainable world. The SDG’s, in particular, are far reaching and highlight that global sustainability is not to be achieved by an environmental or human poverty focus alone. The GAP and SDG’s are integral to a globally transformative agenda and the SIG collaborative research and publication initiatives will strongly support this agenda.

For more information, please contact:

Eva Ärlemalm-Hagsér: [email protected]

Sule Alici: [email protected]

Sue Elliott: [email protected]

Fabio Dovigo: [email protected]

https://www.eecera.org/sig/sustainability-in-early-childhood-education/

Where: Room 308 Edward Street building, University of Brighton

Address: 154 Edward Street, BN2 0JG

 

About the SIG

In the context of EECERA Rethinking Play has to be thought provoking and reflecting on issues that relate to developments at scientific, social, educational and policy level; multidisciplinary and open for theoretical and practice-based research; sensitive to issues of diversity, and rights and lived experiences of children.

The SIG Rethinking Play discusses several issues including:

  • Cultural differences in the concept of play and the valuation of the role of play in young children’s learning and education. Consequences for exchange of ideas with non-western colleagues and the implementation of play-based programmes in non-western countries.
  • The role of the teacher in supporting and stimulating young children’s play and learning, including the discussion of educational preschool programmes.
  • Play and learning of children under 3 years old in day care centres

For more information, please contact:

Sofia Avgitidou, University of Western Macedonia, Greece
Mandy Andrews, University of Plymouth, UK
Annerieke Boland, iPabo University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands

 

https://www.eecera.org/sig/rethinking-play/

Wednesday 4th September 2024 | University of Brighton

Where: Room 103 Edward Street building, University of Brighton

Address: 154 Edward Street, BN2 0JG

 

About the SIG

The purpose of the SIG is to:

  • share international research, experiences and understandings of the role of the family in early childhood education
  • discuss, reflect and challenge the power relationships between families and workers in research studies and work with parents and families.
  • provide a forum for the voice of parents and families in educational research
  • support the development of appropriate methodologies for research with parents and families to investigate how families support their children’s growth and development.
  • explore workforce issues that arise through the development of different ways of working with parents and families across a number of disciplines e.g. early childhood education and family work

For more information, please contact:

Krystyna Heland-Kurzak, The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Poland
Ute Ward, University of Hertfordshire (retired), UK

 

https://www.eecera.org/sig/working-with-parents-and-families/

Where: Room 309 Edward Street building, University of Brighton

Address: 154 Edward Street, BN2 0JG

 

About the SIG

Our SIG is an inclusive group of academics, teachers, practitioners and students who are interested in the researching Digital Childhoods. We have an eclectic mix of members from across the world who are all interested in how technologies are shaping and being shaped, by children. We accept a broad definition of ‘technologies’ to explore how digital devices not only contribute to children’s cognitive development but also have a central place in play, life and leisure activities. We welcome members with a variety of experience and we seek to support new academics who are emerging in the field.

For more information, please contact:

Lorna Arnott, University of Strathclyde, UK
Maria Dardanou, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Sarika Kewalramani, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

 

https://www.eecera.org/sig/digital-childhoods/