Embedding Project Work – Empowering Early Childhood Practitioners to be Research Active
Sarah Dixon Jones and Vikki Wynn explain how empowering practitioners to have increased autonomy in the development of their own approach to project work has led to positive shift in their confidence, enhanced practice and defining set of principles settings could apply to own practice.
Collaborative learning with childminders through coastal school professional development
The team at the Inspiring Foundations (IF) explain how their initial aim of supporting the childminders in their professional development evolved into a collaborative learning experience for all participants.
Challenging normative understandings of participation and sense of belonging in multilingual early years education and care
Joanna Ainsworth shares how through the use of sociometric survey and ethnography in her study of nonverbal communication in peer to peer interactions, she learns about children’s participation, relationships and sense of belonging.
Starting School - Why consulting with children is fundamental to creating effective transition practices in the EYFS.
In this post Clair Sammons talks about the importance of children's voice in transition, how it links with her research project into children's perspectives of starting school and the implications for practice.
Empowering tomorrow: Children as capable contributors in a world where adults hold the power .
In this post Carmela Garcia explores potential impact of sociodramatic play and discussion when exploring social issues with young children.
Young carers in early childhood - creating threads of hope through lived experience.
In her pre-conference post Carly Ellicott explains why it is so important for the young carers to be identified as early as possible and how her current work aims to help inform service design and delivery to support them better in the future.
Young children in the museum – exercising agency through cultural engagement
Nicola Wallis, a practitioner researcher at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge explains why museums play an important role in supporting young children’s agency and nurturing democracy.
Why getting children active is good for parents too
The benefits of getting children involved in physical activity are wide ranging and well documented. But a recent project in Wales suggests that there are also positive outcomes for the parents who get involved. By Dr Jane Dorrian
An Exploration of Mindfulness Meditation Practice and its Role in Parenting
In her pre-conference entry, Jude Brown explained how learning to be ‘in the moment’ to connect with her children has led to current doctoral research aiming to capture this embodied lived experience and exploring how it may shape our relationships and connections with young children.
“What IF we could have our own curriculum”
In this entry Vikki Wynn, explains how the team at Inspiring Foundations, a UK nursery school federation, developed their own curriculum through practitioner enquiry.
Early Years Teachers’ perspectives on the role of play in crises
In her pre-conference contribution, Laura Mathers talks about the concept of play for children in crises, and how her research investigates its role, purpose and modes, as perceived by EY teachers and practitioners.
How do (or can) Early Childhood Education and Care practitioners promote young children’s health?
Jackie Musgrave shares where her deep interest in children’s health stems from and how learning about the EY practitioners’ role in supporting and promoting the health of children and babies prompted her to investigate these valuable contributions further.
Once, twice, three times a failure: time to permanently scrap statutory Reception Baseline Assessment in England?
In this research introductory post, David Meechan, Simon Halfhead, Dr Zeta Williams-Brown and Dr Tracy Whatmore share some insights from their study into the impact of the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) which, despite efforts to reduce pressures on workload, was introduced in September 2021.
Exploring mindfulness-based practice to enhance young children’s wellbeing in early childhood education and care in Ireland.
In her pre-conference post, Leesa Flanagan explains how she first got introduced to the concept of mindfulness and how her interests in the subject have widened, developed professional curiosity and evolved into and an exciting new research project.