EECERA President’s New Year’s Message 2026
Posted 8th January 2026
As many of our colleagues and members return to work this week after the Christmas break, EECERA President, Prof Dr Chris Pascal OBE, shares her New Year’s message for the EECERA scientific community.
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
As the new year of 2026 begins I am writing as President of EECERA and on behalf of the whole Trustees Board to thank each of you for your valued contribution and membership of the EECERA scientific community and your work on behalf of the early childhood sector around the world. Your active membership is the beating heart of our organization and ensures EECERA has life, energy, relevance and capacity for affirmative action for young children and families. It is important to remind ourselves that together we create a context for dialogue, debate, passion, knowledge generation and positive action which holds early childhood policy, practice and research together in a synergetic relationship. These relationships allow us, in all of our individual societal locations, to view the future with a determination to continue to make progress in developing high-quality provision and programmes for our youngest children and their families which promotes children’s rights and agency. In this time of clear threats to our democratic beliefs and continued economic uncertainty, our passion, shared intelligence, and collaborative intent becomes even more important.
Our work is now set in a time of extraordinary crisis within Europe and the wider world. We are living through a period of historic changes and accelerating conflicts which have upended previously stable systems of governance and life, creating enormous demands on, and deep concerns for, the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities and societies, and for us at EECERA, at the centre of these concerns are the wellbeing and life chances of children. It is children who we know suffer most in these difficult times and for whom we need to speak out in ever stronger terms to those who deny their human rights and inflict inhumane suffering. It is a time for all of us to re-think and re-state the mission and functioning of our European-based Association to make it more effective and active in responding to these challenges which are re-shaping many aspects of contemporary life.
This re-thinking has been a major task for the Trustees over the last 12 months and our re-stated mission, aims and principles are available to view on the EECERA website which I hope you will all visit. We are committed to ensuring EECERA adjusts to this changed world and in doing so I believe and hope EECERA can play an active and visionary part in creating what comes next. I am hoping that each of you will follow the Trustees lead and in the spirit of mutuality look deep and hard at EECERA’s reframed mission, aims and principles and consider how we might more effectively work together and actively contribute to creating a world which enables all children to thrive and flourish wherever they are growing up. This is the vital work for us all in this New Year! I wish you joy, peace and fulfilment in this shared endeavour.
With warm regards,
Professor Dr Christine Pascal
EECERA President
Looking back over 2025
At the start of a new year, it is useful to look back over what the Association has achieved over the last year and then to look ahead to our continued collaboration and activity in 2026. It is important to be fully aware of what we are currently doing and to identify what is working well and can be built upon as we look ahead. We are now in the 34th year of EECERA’s life and I believe the Association has reached this landmark in good health and with much to celebrate. Our mission statement which commits the Association to the promotion of research that supports the development of high-quality early education for all children, remains, I believe, as relevant and vital as ever even though the context has changed.
Key EECERA events over the last year include the very successful 33rd EECERA Conference in Bratislava, Slovakia, created in collaboration with the University Comenius, Faculty of Education with the theme of Inclusive Education (defined as Education for All). It was an enormously stimulating and affirming event which attracted over 800 delegates from our global community who expressed a high level of satisfaction and pleasure in the programme. We also extended the use of an app in place of a printed programme, led by our Sustainable Development Goals, with an EECERA position paper on Sustainability published and the number of ‘at cost’ PhD places increased from 50 to 75 to support engagement of early career researchers.
An EECERA Working Group has also updated the 2015 EECERA Ethical Code and Guidance with new revised guidelines published in the EECERJ. In particular, it was felt the Ethical Code needed review with regard to:
- Children’s rights
- The development of AI, social media and digital technologies
- Secondary and desk-based research
- Global sustainability goals
The new revised EECERA Ethical Code is published and freely available to download. Please do download it and use it as much as you can.
The Board of Trustees has also undergone renewal via a new appointment process and I am delighted to inform you that, following an application, shortlisting and interview process the following appointments have been made to our Board of Trustees:
New Appointments:
- Dr Gillian Lake (Ireland) – 5 year term
- Dr Donna Gaywood (UK) – 5 year term
Re-appointments:
- Prof Dr Julia Formosinho (Portugal) – 5 year term
Appointment as Active Emeritus Trustee:
- Prof Dr Johanna Einarsdottir (Iceland) – 3 year term
More information on these Trustee appointments, full biographies and photos will be added to our website shortly. I’m sure that you will join me in congratulating these successful new Trustees and for committing their future time and energy to supporting our Association. Thank you to all those who agreed to stand and submitted themselves to what was a very stringent selection process. Our Trustees do a sterling job all year round to keep the organisation running smoothly and I thank each of them for their dedicated voluntary work on our behalf. I also want to say a special thank you to Prof Eleni Loizou who stood down from the Board at the end of last year after serving two full terms of office – she brought great energy and insight to the Board and her contributions will be sorely missed.
We have also had a hugely busy year with EECERA publications. We have completed our 33rd Volume of the EECERJ with subscriptions to the Journal holding up in the tough economic climate and downloads continuing to expand. The inclusion of our Journal, EECERJ, in the Social Science Citation Index, as one of only few ECEC journals worldwide being accorded this top scientific status, gives our journal real status and scientific significance and I am pleased to report that this year our citation index rating is a real achievement. It means our Journal is providing our research community with a high status, dedicated academic forum for publishing their work which meets the highest international standards of scholarship and scientific rigour. Paper submissions to the journal have increased exponentially since we were citation listed and we are now publishing 6 issues a year, usually with two being special issues on a particular theme. The Journal is led by Professor Dr Tony Bertram and the Special Issues by Professor Dr Júlia Formosinho.
We have also firmly established the EECERA Praxis Book Series and now have 19 published titles and 4 other titles under development, and the EECERA Collection series is expanding and will be re-launched this year as a peer reviewed Research Monograph Collection with 6 published titles and 2 more underway. Please do submit your book proposals to us.
With our EECERA website we are developing new ways for members to be interactive and one of those is through writing and responding to our increasing blog output. We are welcoming blog contributions and have one new series underway and another in the pipeline. For more information:
Our SIG networks continue to be productive and create an inclusive and rich forum for focused development of our academic and scholarly discipline, with 16 established SIGs and 2 new SIG networks: one on Creative Young Children’s Arts and Cultural Experiences, and one on Home-based/Family Childcare. I hope you will join in SIG networking or even propose a new SIG if you can identify a need. The continued development and activity of EECERA Special Interest Groups (SIGs) is a particular strength of our Association. Most SIGs now meet annually at Conference and also run their own self-organised symposium at Conference as a first step towards developing their work for publication as a themed journal or an edited book. If you wish to join one of the existing SIGs, or would like to start a new one, please contact Trustee Professor Dr Jóhanna Einarsdóttir.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the work of our growing global network of EECERA Country Coordinators who work hard to establish a network of EECERA members in their countries by supporting and coordinating activities that might be beneficial to EECERA. If you are interested in this role then please contact Trustee Maelis Karlsson Lohmander.
All of this activity we should celebrate and use as a platform to build our next steps on.
Looking ahead to 2026
The 34th EECERA Conference will be hosted by the University of Madeira and the Portuguese Association of Early Childhood Professionals (APEI). It is organised by APEI in conjunction with Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC).The conference will be co-chaired by Prof Júlia Oliveira Formosinho and Dr Ana Maria França Freitas Kot Kotecki from the University of Madeira. The theme is The Development of Agency, Participation and Democracy in the Digital Age, recognising that children are not passive recipients of knowledge but are active participants in shaping their own learning and social worlds. In a digital age, their capacity to exercise agency — to make choices, express their perspectives, and take action — must be nurtured through intentional and ethical educational practices. Similarly, children’s participation in both digital and physical communities should reflect democratic ideals, where their voices are heard, respected, and acted upon. We hope this theme sparks rich dialogue and collaborative learning around how early childhood education can remain a site of agency, participation, and democracy — even, and especially, in the digital age. Together, we will envision futures where all children are empowered to shape their worlds with confidence, creativity, and care. The call for papers is now open and we hope to see you in Madeira in August!
And speaking of digital technologies, 2026 will see the roll out of a new membership management system and website which we hope will increase functionality and opportunities for interaction and knowledge sharing. More details on this will follow soon.
Finally I would like to particularly thank all of the EECERA community who have committed to renewing their membership or to becoming a member this year. Your support is much appreciated and ensures the strength and continuity of our Association. January is a great time to join or renew your membership and I am pleased to announce that member’s benefits have been expanded and now include:
- Free subscription to the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal (EECERJ) now published by Taylor and Francis, posted to the Member’s home address (online only can be requested);
- Free online access to EECERJ (including the full, historical archive) via the Taylor and Francis website;
- FREE ACCESS to 3 more Early Years Journals:
- International Journal of Early Years Education
- International Journal of Play
- Early Childhood Development and Care
- Free E-Book for Members from the Towards an Ethical Praxis in Early Childhood series;
- Opportunity to attend or present a symposium research paper at the EECERA Annual Conference, which takes place in a different European city each year;
- Opportunity to join and/or establish an EECERA Special Interest Groups on a range of topics;
- International research networking and bid collaboration opportunities;
- Access to support for writing and publication of scholarly articles and themed journals;
- Regular discounts on Routledge books;
- Representation on EECERA Board of Trustees, and/or the Electoral College and the opportunity to become part of the executive of the organisation;
- Opportunity to shape EECERA policy and activity;
- A reduced fee at the EECERA annual conference.
This summary of the work of EECERA illustrates the scope and scale of our lively and vibrant Association. It pays tribute to the hard work of the Trustees, the Editorial Board and the active members of our EECERA global community who make all of this happen. It is with great humility and respect for this enormous commitment that I thank you all and look forward to seeing you at our next annual conference in Madeira in August, where I am sure the sun will shine on us!