Network convenors: Persille Schwartz and Kristina Westlund
Purpose
ICSEI addresses educational matters for all children, including the youngest children in their initial engagement in out of home learning activities offered by the public or private sector. These activities, and their importance for children’s learning and well-being in their ECEC setting as well as for their future academic achievements and sense of belonging in elementary school, is the focus of the ECEC network.
ECEC is an abbreviation of Early Childhood Education and Care, and as such the network takes a stand that education and care walks hand in hand. Children attending these activities will most often be aged 0-6 years, and will be attending half or full time programmes in educational settings suited settings with in various degrees and numbers of educated staff.
The network was launched in 2009 with the intent of creating a platform for ECEC practitioners, researchers and policymakers around the world to share knowledge and experiences from their own or other people’s professional work in the ECEC sector.
When participating in the Early Childhood network you will receive and share information about recent ECEC research, conferences or political initiatives, and you will have access to information about ECEC practice and politics in countries of other participants.
Collaborations and activities
As the presence of network participants varies a lot from congress to congress, the network arranges virtual meetings between congresses in addition to the annual conference meeting. At the meetings, network members share and discuss recent research, policy issues and other topics related to ECEC. The meetings take place three times a year and have e.g. focused on cross national research, monitoring systems in different countries and on including children’s perspectives as feed-back to staff on areas for quality improvement.
Network members are welcome to come up with suggestions or initiatives regarding future topics for meetings and collaborations.
Convenor
Persille Schwartz
Master of communication and psychology
Consultant
Denmark
Co-convenor
Kristina Westlund
PhD Student
Kristianstad University
Sweden