Interpreting Child-Centredness to support Quality and Diversity in Early Childhood Education and Care Erasmus Project

Project Title

Interpreting Child-Centredness to support Quality and Diversity in Early Childhood Education and Care

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Pedagogy and didactics; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Alongside the quality of the workforce, ‘child-centredness’ is often highlighted as important for the provision of high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC). It underpins many national curricula and guidelines but, on closer inspection, has different interpretations reflecting the context and history of ECEC services: romantic – to respond to the children’s needs and interests; developmental – to support their development; democratic – to offer children choice and agency. This project sought to explore potential tensions and synergies between these different interpretations of ‘child-centredness’ and what these might mean for educators supporting children with different needs or from diverse backgrounds. Questions arise as to how, in reality, ALL children can be at the centre of pedagogical practice, how ALL children’s developmental needs can be supported and whether democratic approaches can be combined with a focus on tracking individuals’ progress against milestones. Furthermore, when supporting children from communities towards the margins of society, there are strong arguments against adopting an approach centred exclusively on the child’s own interests or cultural background in favour of an approach that also offers the child and family a bridge between their home community and mainstream society. We carried out a review of the literature which illustrated that diversity in ECEC applies just as much to ECEC services as it does to the children who attend them. ECEC services in Europe differ in structural aspects, such as in age of children, staff ratios and qualifications, as well as in histories, traditions and philosophies. Interpreting child-centredness to support quality and diversity, therefore, means also recognising the diversity of ECEC services and its workforce. Acknowledging the diversity of ECEC context both across and within countries shaped the development of a new observation framework designed to capture examples of child-centred practice in the six project countries (Croatia, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the UK). We recorded structural features about the ECEC settings where the observations took place, and asked educators to reflect on principles of child-centredness derived from our literature review, notably learning through play; respecting children’s needs, interests, strengths and capacities; recognising children’s learning strategies and uniqueness; respecting children as capable learners and decision makers; respecting children’s diversity, individuality, family background and culture. The 44 observations from ECEC settings illustrated both the diversity of ECEC contexts in Europe, but also commonalities in educators’ support for children’s interests. The observations showed how those working in ECEC balance the different concepts of child-centredness as they respond to individual children. Furthermore, observations of group based activities and the design of ECEC environments demonstrated that often educators were being children-centred, responding to the multiple needs and interests of the diverse groups of children. The observations enabled the project team to refine their understanding of child-centredness as encompassing the role of the educator, the pedagogical environment, work with families and educators’ image of the child. The refined understanding informed an online questionnaire that explored how ECEC educators understood the concept of child-centredness and how confident they were in enacting child-centredness, as well as identifying associated training needs. The questionnaire was administered in the six participating countries, generating 928 responses. Perhaps not surprisingly, responses showed that more experienced educators were more confident in their child-centred practice than newly qualified educators. This was taken into account when designing three online courses to support educators in child-centred practice; a buddy system was recommended whereby more experienced educators were encouraged to work through the materials with less experienced peers. The three courses reflected the three tenets of child-centreness, offering a range of resources to support educators to reflect on their practice. From the six participating countries, 338 educators participated in the three courses. Evaluations completed by 211 participants demonstrated that the courses were easy to access, with good materials, and were effective in supporting educators to reflect on their practice and learn new strategies for work with children.The different components of the project informed an open access e-book which draws together key findings from the literature review, observations and course content, organised around the three themes of child-centredness. The courses will be refined and updated in response to participants’ evaluations as part of a new project, ensuring their continued use by ECEC educators and students and extending their reach to other countries.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 207209 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH & Country: UK

Project Partners

• VIA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
• UNIVERSIDADE DA CORUNA
• ECCE & PLAY EARLY CHILDHOOD IRELAND
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRIESTE
• Coopselios sc
• SVEUCILISTE JOSIPA JURJA STROSSMAYERA U OSIJEKU FILOZOFSKI FAKULTET
• camborne nursery school