The conference will reconsider basic concepts in early childhood education and care, especially how fundamental values are defined and how these definitions lead to different policies and practices. Early childhood education is based on certain values, some of which are defined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and in the conference the translation of these values into policies and practices will be questioned. Further, the understandings and realisations of these basic concepts in academic subjects such as education, pedagogy and didactics need to be analysed.
The promotion of children’s rights implies a set of fundamental concepts containing a variety of challenges and dilemmas. In particular, the child’s right to be an active participant in activities and in their own every day life in day care institutions, as well as their right to be protected and cared for, implies a set of values which can be viewed as problematic and is worthy of consideration and questioning.
In recent decades one can notice that research and development on early childhood is growing. The 2008 EECERA Conference aims to raise some fundamental questions concerning basic concepts and values related to research, policy and practice.
Concepts like development, growth, care, learning, play, quality, socialization and the German concept Bildung need to be examined. Core values like democracy, sustainable development, and inclusion are crucial for early childhood education both in Europe and in other parts of the globe and need to be systematically investigated in the light of current early childhood policy and practice.
A main goal of the conference is to explore these basic concepts in early childhood education as they are stated in national documents and frameworks across Europe and as they appear in pedagogical practices. Through keynote lectures, symposia, paper and poster presentations we hope to address these basic questions in early childhood education and care in Europe.
STRANDS
The conference will focus on following themes in Early Childhood Education and Care:
1. Core values in policy, theory and practice
2. Children's rights: intentions and reality
3. Young children as active participants in institutions
4. Challenges concerning sustainable development: Globalisation - environment – responsibility
5. Professionalism and challenges/demands for professional development
6. Equitable and inclusive education in the early years
7. Transitions: collaboration and coherence
8. Curriculum and assessment
9. Children's play and learning in institutional contexts
10. Arts and creativity in early years
