EECERJ Call for Papers – Special Issue on Early Education for All: Celebrating Diversity and Seeking Inclusion

There is an urgent need to think and act collectively to transform existing education systems and promote those that that respect diverse needs, abilities and characteristics and eliminate all forms of discrimination in the learning environment.  To support these transformations, the EECERJ Editorial Team is seeking research papers which critically explore the development and implementation of inclusive policies and practices which reach excluded and marginalized groups and provides them with quality education that has inclusive curricula, pedagogy and learning at their heart.

The Special Issue will focus on the following key topics:

• what constitutes inclusive early education and how this is culturally located
• which children are excluded, how does this happen and how this might be changed
• how exclusionary policies and practices can be challenged and new practices developed to ensure each child’s needs are considered so that all learners participate and achieve together
• how inclusion might work in different cultures and communities and with regard to children with different characteristics
• understandings of the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of exclusion and inclusion in its broadest sense
• what possibilities do we have to embed inclusive policies and practices within all early education systems and settings?

We welcome high quality, rigorous, ethical and original empirical, conceptual or methodological submissions related to the above themes.  EECERA 2025 conference presenters are strongly encouraged to submit.

Those wishing to submit their manuscript should indicate in the Scholar One submission site that the manuscript is a candidate for a special issue, by selecting the Early Education for All: Celebrating Diversity and Seeking Inclusion option. It is highly recommended to include ‘inclusion’ as a keyword.

Deadline for final paper submissions is 14-November-2025.