Guest post by Maria Barbara Donnici In both formal and informal educational settings, we often grapple with a central challenge: How can we truly cultivate creativity and recognize children’s inherent competences? This is the exact question that drove our recent pilot action-research project, The Questions Playground. Building on international research around learning through play (LEGO…
Guest post by Mariana Estrela and Rita Rovisco Can babies participate democratically even before they acquire verbal language? Our research suggests they can. Through a series of arts education ateliers developed in a day-care centre, we explored how babies exercise agency, communicate through their bodies, and co-construct pedagogical experiences, challenging traditional understandings of participation in…
Guest post by Wendy Briggs and Sharon Phillips Figure 1. My granddaughter building a den in the forest, immersed in the experiences, relationships and sense of place that shape her cynefin. Through exploring, creating and problem-solving in a meaningful local environment, she demonstrates how place-based pedagogy supports children’s agency, participation and belonging. Photo credit: Wendy…
Guest post by Jasmiina Leskinen & Sini Kontkanen Figure 1. Children gathering natural materials from the forest to build huts for their Bee-Bots. What happens when a small yellow robot meets pinecones, twigs, and childrens’ imagination? In our project BeeConnected, we set out to discover precisely this — how playful making with Bee-Bot robots and…
Guest post by Vanessa Neves The EnlaCEI research group is all about understanding how babies and toddlers develop culturally when they’re in collective care and education settings. Between 2017 and 2019, we followed a group of infants (aged seven to ten months) as they began their journey at a Brazilian Early Childhood Education Centre, EMEI…
What a study in Mongolian kindergartens reveals about technology, participation, and democratic learning Guest post by Tserennadmid Shagdarsuren and Tala Fig. 1. A child explores light and shadow with toy animals.* When we talk about children’s agency, we often imagine a child making an independent choice—selecting an activity, taking the lead. But what happens when…
Any views expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of their affiliated institution or EECERA. Planting Seeds of Resilience in South Africa’s ECCE through Local Hubs and Collaboration* By Sandra Bruwer, Lesley Wood and Benita Taylor- North-West University, South Africa Resilience in the face of…
One of a series of short blog posts by presenters who will be sharing their work at the upcoming annual conference in Bratislava, Slovakia. Any views expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of their affiliated institution or EECERA. How Organizational Culture Influences Burnout Among…
One of a series of short blog posts by presenters who will be sharing their work at the upcoming annual conference in Bratislava, Slovakia. Any views expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of their affiliated institution or EECERA. Adult–Child Play and Social Sustainability in…
One of a series of short blog posts by presenters who will be sharing their work at the upcoming annual conference in Bratislava, Slovakia. Any views expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of their affiliated institution or EECERA. Supporting Development Through Everyday Moments: Embedding…
One of a series of short blog posts by presenters who will be sharing their work at the upcoming annual conference in Bratislava, Slovakia. Any views expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of their affiliated institution or EECERA. Sharing Personal Stories with Preschool Children…
Christine Pascal, President of EECERA, presents the Towards an Ethical Praxis in Early Childhood book series. Texts in this series reflect a strong shift internationally towards the development of a strengthened knowledge base for practice in early childhood education and care. Researchers are also increasingly expected to demonstrate the impact of their work and its…
