Celebrating the Inclusive and Developmental Ethos of EECERA
Posted 21st November 2019
As we prepare for the 30th EECERA Conference, and to coincide with the call for proposals, Professor Chris Pascal, EECERA President, reminds us about the Association’s commitment to the generation and development of original and innovative research into early childhood education and care.
Dear EECERA colleagues,
The Association has always been an open and inclusive space where new, ongoing, and completed research work can be shared, contested, and further developed to enhance its quality through respectful, democratic, and critical dialogues.
Our research community provides a space for new, early career, and established researchers, wherever they are located, to come together, network, and share their ideas and work. The supportive, developmental, and critical ethos of our community is one we are very proud of and one that we nurture very carefully.
EECERA is very conscious of its commitment to support the next generation of researchers in our field and our annual conference is an important event where new and emerging knowledge is tried out and shared, whether that be from an established researcher in the field or a newer entrant.
All are welcome, acknowledged, and given space.
Networking – Thessaloniki 2019 EECERA Awards Ceremony – Bologna 2017
Given this commitment, we are very aware that the contribution of delegates is central to the success of our annual conference and our mission.
The objective of EECERA and that of the Conference Scientific Committee is to ensure that all those who submit a paper (of the required standard) should be able to participate, in order to maintain our inclusive and developmental approach.
We would, therefore, encourage proposals for the conference which reflect this ethos; whether you have a study that is being shaped, is in progress, or has recently been completed, we would welcome it!
The call for papers provides clear guidance on the criteria we will use to establish that it meets our conference standards for presentation.
Poster Symposium – Thessaloniki 2019
We are particularly pleased to promote the theme of the conference in 2020, which reflects our concern to ensure that we support the development of Democratic Early Childhood Pedagogies and our wish to celebrate Paulo Freire’s book ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ (1968) 50th anniversary.
It is also the 30th anniversary of the EECERA conference series, and so is an important milestone in the journey of the Association.
We hope you will agree that it is, therefore, timely that we revisit themes that have become more relevant in the current global climate.
In the field of education, where some governments demand an increasing emphasis on a defined curriculum and measured outcomes, we can see that retaining appropriate pedagogical approaches can be challenging.
We know that our understanding and interpretation of pedagogy in action depends on our world view, our values, and our beliefs. We also believe it depends on the professionalism of practitioners and the commitment to transformation of teacher educators.
EECERA has a deep commitment to promoting democratic pedagogies where respect and participation is not a given gift, but a mutual process demanding daily transformation to create a relational day to day form of living.
The characteristics of different pedagogies, their contexts and realisations, and their research, will, therefore, be the theme of the 2020 EECERA conference and we hope that all members of our EECERA research community will be inspired by this theme and bring their ideas, inspirations, and thinking to conference to share.
So, whether you are just starting out on a piece of research, have a project underway, or are concluding work that is relevant to this theme, we hope you will submit your proposal and we look forward to dialoguing with you about it in Zagreb!
Warmest
Chris Pascal
President
Useful links:
More about EECERA 2020
Submit a proposal for presentation
EECERA 2019 Video Playlist
EECERA 2019 in pictures