TRAnsitions Children and Kindergarten Erasmus Project

Project Title

TRAnsitions Children and Kindergarten

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: Access for disadvantaged; Inclusion – equity; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)

Project Summary

The TRACKs project was based on a partnership between different institutions and early childhood education and care (ECEC) service providers from three countries: Poland, Italy and Belgium. The University institutions actively involved in the project were: the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland), the University of Bologna (Italy) and the University of Ghent (Belgium). Since the purpose of the project was to actively promote research-based professional development, the training institutions and ECEC service providers taking part in this endeavour were: Arteveldehogeschool in Belgium, the Komensky Institute in Poland, and the Cooperativa Assistenza Disabili Infermi Anziani Infanzia (CADIAI) in Italy. The main objective of the TRACKs was to offer high quality learning opportunities to ECEC professionals currently working with children aged 0 to 6 years old and to prospective professionals still in teacher training, with the aim of promoting more inclusive educational practices within early childhood settings. Compared to the plans we added one more target group: teachers in process of formal professional promotion (in Polish context). To gain access to all these target groups we planned, as mentioned above, the cooperation between academics and practitioners within the project. Now, after completing the project, we can confirm that such concept was an effective way of creating, implementing and promoting of educational innovations.
As everyday practice enacted in early childhood settings has a profound impact on children’s development, wellbeing and sense of belonging, ECEC practitioners take centre stage in this process: sustaining the professional competence of ECEC practitioners is crucial for allowing educational change to happen within these institutions. Earlier studies demonstrate that action-research initiatives addressed towards professionalisation of ECEC staff by focusing on the analysis of daily interactions with children, have very positive effects on enhancing practitioners’ reflexive competences: from this perspective, video coaching becomes an effective tool for improving the quality and inclusiveness of ECEC services. Nevertheless, the challenge for the ECEC professional is to act with foresight, providing children who have fewer experiential opportunities in the home-context with additional experiences, encouragement and support to achieve their full potential. Starting from the above assumptions, the main goals of the project were:
a) to explore which aspects of daily practices in ECEC settings contribute to promoting children’s learning and wellbeing in contexts of diversity (heterogeneous groups)
b) to analyse these aspects by engaging with practitioners in reflective processes fostering their professional growth and a shared vision of inclusive practice within the team
c) to provide equitable learning opportunities and nurturing environments for all children, especially those coming from multiply marginalised backgrounds experiencing social inequalities, poverty and exclusion.
To sum up we conducted research and video coaching in ten ECEC settings with app. 100 professionals (teachers, educators or care workers) directly involved:
a) in Italy two ECEC settings were selected, both located in the city of Bologna (Emilia-Romagna). Both services are run by the local project partner Cooperativa Sociale Cadiai.
b) in Belgium (Flanders), in cooperation with pedagogical guidance services of the municipality of Ghent, two ECEC-settings combining kindergarten and pre-school education and out of school care, have been chosen.
c) In Poland, two case-studies have been devised. The first case study included two ECEC centres as representatives of metropolitan ECEC provision (one located in Katowice and one in Cracow), while the second case study included four small ECEC settings in the peripherally positioned Podkarpackie region.
Next groups of beneficiaries were professionals, students and NGO educators who took part in our „train the trainer” program (app. 300 persons). We plan to continue video-coaching trainings and to use the outputs and other project’s result in teaching future professionals. Moreover, Komensky Institute would like to use project’s Toolbox in online work via platform with cooperating professionals (esp. coming from distanced rural areas).
The main findings of the TRACKs project show that adopting video-analysis-and-coaching as a research/training method in ECEC services can contribute to:
(1) promoting practitioners’ individual and collective reflection on children’s intentionality,
(2) de-constructing taken-for-granted assumptions through pedagogical guidance in teams,
(3) improving enacted practices through action-research and experimentation.
We plan to actively promote the outputs of the project (tools), practical partners already introduced them to their practice, academic partners plan to continue using the results of the project in teaching process.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 356497 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIWERSYTET JAGIELLONSKI & Country: PL

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITEIT GENT
• Cooperativa Assistenza Disabili infermi Anziani Infanzia
• Instytut Komenskiego sp. z o..sp. k.
• ARTEVELDEHOGESCHOOL
• ALMA MATER STUDIORUM – UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA