At the beginning of September, 13 Westminster Children Society (WCS) staff met at the airport to fly to Malta to take part in their first European Early Childhood Education Research Association conference. It was the culmination of a plan that was conceived when I heard Pen Green's Margy Whalley talk about how much her staff had benefited from attending the previous conference. I was inspired!
The event was organised by the University of Malta on behalf of EECERA, an international association of early childhood researchers, policy makers and practitioners. They come together annually to promote and disseminate new research that will extend the theories which underpin services for children up to the age of eight and their families.
It seemed a huge ambition to get at least one staff member to attend from each of the 12 WCS centres to Malta, but we achieved it. To build awareness and save up towards the overall cost we wrote articles, spoke at conferences, taught evening classes, attended interview panels and took on students. Nearly 12 months later we had most of the money.
We went so that we could become more confident researchers and evaluators of our practice. We wanted to learn to explore dilemmas and forge even tighter links between theory and practice. We knew that when the gap between theory and practice gets smaller, practice gets stronger.
The whole experience was fantastic and for one member of the group it was even more special, as it was her first flight. The conference had a range of keynote speakers and a choice of symposium papers. As we did not want to miss anything, we spent breakfast deciding who would attend each symposium and then at dinner we shared our key learning.
The conference was extremely well organised in a lovely, friendly hotel overlooking the harbour. The whole team felt engaged from the moment we arrived. It was like walking into a thinking tunnel of problem posing and problem solving. It was also amazing to see and talk to many of the modern gurus of early years.
Dr John Bennett from OECD opened the conference, reminding us of the importance of having a set of principles to work from. He stressed how the curriculum must include a set of pedagogical goals, principles and guidelines to help children achieve their potential and 'start strong'.
Dr Ferre Laevers' keynote speech was about children's wellbeing and it moved one team member to tears. He talked eloquently and passionately about why we should strengthen our emotional and intellectual relationships with children.
Hearing the stories of Dr Margaret Carr and her New Zealand team was exciting. She stressed how children's competence is enormous in areas where they are given the opportunity to gain. At WCS we have been inspired by the Te Whariki curriculum, which refers to the Maori word for woven mat and is all about embracing diversity. Here we were seeing and hearing the team who put it together in 1996.
We made some scary discoveries - such as the fact that children in early years spend only 500 hours less in the three to four years with us than they do for the entire six years at secondary school.
The symposiums were led by people from all over the world. The international studies underlined the importance of the social, cultural and political context when considering childcare and education. It was heartening to hear how countries such as Finland have overcome some of the challenges faced by settings in the UK. America and Australia are tackling many similar problems, such as the private/state divide, poor status, high staff turnover and serious training and staff development problems.
Practitioners talked about changes they had made to their service, inspiring us to review some of our own practice. The Pen Green team gave some new ideas about how we can involve parents more. Ideas on diversity, ICT, role play, gender, cultural issues in parenting, observation, humour, literacy, engagement... the list was endless. It all had the same message, 'Improving quality in practice'.
We also wanted to challenge particular issues, such as men in childcare. As Gary Simpson, WCS manager, pointed out, 'Perhaps we need consistent visualisation of men in the workplace, not as a special focus but as part and parcel of everyday childcare.'
We have forged some fantastic links. We are going to talk to our Portuguese colleagues who are interested in the way we work with Portuguese children in London. We are linking with our German colleagues who are exploring the best way to manage multi-site centres. The voluntary sector is valued in many countries and squeezed in many others, so we are going to find out how we can tell the early childhood world what we can offer to them.
We left Malta tired but happy, feeling valued, keen and excited. We have so many questions. Should we change our titles to pedagogues? Should we rethink the way we record children's assessment progress? Do we talk enough to the children?
We know that our plan to video each other to measure our levels of engagement is right. We will make even more efforts to review the way we currently involve children in their evaluations of their own learning.
Most of all, we know each other better. We also have at least half the team who want to write a paper for next year's conference. How better to show that we want to actively involve ourselves in the learning process?
Gill Springer, WCS acting manager, supports this view. She says, 'It was great meeting researchers and theorists from all over the world - how can you not be inspired? I also learned so much about myself and my way of thinking, not only in practice but in the teambuilding and interaction.'
So we are fundraising for next year's conference in Dublin, and we say to anyone interested in seeing how theory links with practice, start saving now -there is no better investment. See you in Dublin! NW One thing that heartened us was that much of what we do is good for the children and in many areas we are on the right track. There was no doubt though that it takes time to turn theory into practice but when it works it really works. What an uplifting message. Our hearts soared and we felt truly valued.
Further information
To find out more about the EECERA conference in Dublin, from 31August to 3 September 2005, see www.eecera2005.org
