Guest post by Maija Kulinska and Liga Aboltina What kind of digital support helps five-year-olds become genuine agents of their own learning — and when does “helpful” technology quietly take the thinking away from the child? A randomised study of 100 children in Latvia offers evidence, and some of it surprised us. The three seconds…
Guest post by Cecilia Wong and Natasha Tania Stansilas Image by Google. (2026). Gemini (July 2026 version) Child-centred, participatory practice is now widely endorsed. Yet in real classrooms, participatory practice stays uneven, often squeezed out by institutional pressures and daily behaviour-management demands. Singapore preschools operate under stringent government guidelines and quality-assurance frameworks. Educators often face…
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 Jie Gao, Ziyi Wan, Junqing Zhai Children’s social-emotional learning (SEL) has long been a central concern of early childhood education worldwide. Yet, in an increasingly digital age, discussions of SEL often remain confined to classrooms, focusing on structured interventions, emotional literacy programmes, and behaviour-management strategies. This risks overlooking an important dimension of…
Guest post by Deniece Toh For many educators, supporting children with diverse learning needs is not a question of commitment but of capacity. Inclusive practice can easily become another expectation layered onto an already demanding role. Yet inclusion need not be experienced as additional workload. When it is intentionally embedded into curriculum design, responsive teaching…
Guest blog post by Nina Hogrebe and Solvei Wiederhold, TU Dortmund University, Germany Photo by Solvei Wiederhold “We’re being told: ‘Please work in a highly professional way.’ But in the end – to put it very bluntly – you still only get your babysitter pay.” This statement from a German home-based childcare provider captures a…
Guest post by Sharmin Heena Quality pre-primary education (PPE) is now seen as essential for children’s lifelong learning and well-being. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.2 highlights the importance of quality early childhood education for building literacy, numeracy, social-emotional skills, and school readiness. While many countries have expanded access to PPE, ensuring consistently high-quality learning environments…
Guest post by Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Jen Duncan-Bendix and Ruben Fukkink What does it mean to have a good childhood? In Nordic countries there is a shared ideological framework related to a good childhood (GC), en god barndom in Danish, based on the idea that children have fundamental rights to a high quality of life, including…
Guest post by Gisselle Tur Porres What this blog is about? This blog traces how an autobiographical reflective exercise during a Currere Cymru retreat in Powys (January 2025) revealed curriculum as something lived rather than simply designed. It explores how currere (as an autobiographical inquiry and reflective methodology) supports early childhood/practitioners to develop democratic, agentic…
Guest post by Lauren Henderson While participation rights apply equally to infants and young children (United Nations 1989; CRC 2009), compared to school-aged children we know relatively little about how babies, toddlers, and young children experience those rights in practice. It was this gap that motivated my doctoral research exploring how children aged 0-5 experience…
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…
How social scaffolding and blended pedagogy are shaping quality early childhood education for the digital age. Guest post by Yasotha Veerappa Educators providing social scaffolding during an interactive, technology-aided language learning session with a diverse group of preschool children. Image created via Google AI Image Generation. The Evolving Landscape of Early Literacy As digital technologies…
Guest post by Debi Keyte-Hartland Over the past two decades, I have had the privilege of working alongside educators in nurseries, schools, and international settings as a pedagogical coach-mentor. Across these diverse contexts, I have noticed a recurring pattern. Meaningful pedagogical change rarely begins with a new framework, policy document, or instruction to do something…
Guest post by Dr Amelia Ruscoe What does engagement look like in early childhood education, and how can we recognise it more meaningfully? This blog explores an international research collaboration into children’s engagement, visual learning environments, the power of dialogic drawing, and the emerging concept of viscourse—highlighting how children’s own perspectives can help educators design…
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 Christiane Schulte Physical activity is recognised worldwide as essential for young children’s health, learning and development. Yet what factors shape its everyday implementation in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings remains an important question. This question became the starting point for my doctoral research. While physical activity is widely recognised as…
Guest post by Janey Maxwell For early childhood practitioners (ECPs), the voice is the main mode of communication between themselves and the children in their care. So, what help is provided during and after initial training, to ensure ECPs have a voice that enables them to engage with young children in a safe, healthy and…
Guest pot by Margareth Eilifsen Picture Credit: Bergsjø, et al., 2025 A digital society Children grow up in a world where digital technologies are not separate from everyday life, but woven into play, communication, family practices, learning environments and social participation. In early childhood education, this raises an important professional question: how can kindergarten teachers…
Guest post by Alessandra Pimentel and Mônica Appezzato Pinazza The PALUDICON Research Group (Program of Playful Activities in Different Contexts), originally created as a university extension program, aims to promote professional development through playfulness, grounded in Historical-Cultural Theory (HCT) and the Reggio Emilia Approach. Between 2022 and 2025, the program was carried out by a…
Guest post by Shuolin He Photo by Robo Wunderkind on Unsplash Digital technology is now part of many young children’s everyday lives, both at home and in educational settings. In early childhood education, however, its use remains a complex and sometimes contested issue. While digital tools may support communication, documentation, literacy, creativity and home-school links,…
