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The words used repeatedly by some of the key people in Stella’s professional life are ‘passion’, ‘determination’ and ‘knowledgeable’, but also phrases such as ‘a caring colleague’, ‘a motivational trainer’ and ‘a loyal friend’.
Stella’s passion for the rights and needs of young children can be seen throughout her career; in her unquenchable fascination with the patterns of learning children demonstrate in their play, resulting in her many publications on schemas; and her career-long advocacy for the importance of observation as a foundation for effective practice.
Stella has been able to put her passion into practice and to ensure that colleagues around her, whatever their seniority, listen to the voices of children and educators. Whatever role she takes on, Stella steadfastly upholds her belief in the importance of high-quality care and education for young children and of well-trained early years educators.
As course co-ordinator at Southwark College, Stella was successful in training and developing her students to a high standard. Her teaching was engaging and thought-provoking, and under her tutelage students flourished. This was due not only to her ability to interpret and evaluate students’ observations, using theoretical language they could relate to, helping them to understand why observations of children are important, but was also due to the positive connections she made; always giving students her time and looking for the best in everyone. This ethos continues today in her role as lead tutor for the Froebel Trust short courses. Always starting with where the learner is at, Stella’s approach is inherently Froebelian. Stella says her best job ever was teaching child development to 16- to 19-year-olds on Lambeth’s Employment Training Scheme.
Stella’s expectation that others will champion children as she does means she has often been brave as well as determined: overcoming negative experiences of growing up as a black child in a racist education system, working hard to achieve her goals; her MA in Early Childhood Education with Care; and then to become Dr Stella Louis and a published author.
For me, the word that threads throughall these achievements is respect: respect for children through observing their play carefully without making judgements; respect for parents – her work as a consultant in Southwark on parents as partners in early learning was groundbreaking; respect for educators as she seeks to empower them to learn, such as in her work in South Africa using asset-based community development and following a decolonised, transformative approach. Stella says this is the work that has had the biggest impact on her – seeing how the teachers develop and the impact on what the children are offered. A mark of the respect she is held in by the children, staff and community is that she has been given a Zulu name, Jabulile, which means Happiness.
A main driver for Stella through all of this has been to be a great mum and positive role model for her beloved daughter, Hannah, culminating in their joint authorship of the text Unconscious Bias in the Observation, Assessment and Planning Process.
Therefore, Hannah must have the last word. She says, ‘Working in the early years has never just been a job for my mum, it’s a core part of who she is. Growing up, we couldn’t even make it through a trip to Sainsbury’s without mum spotting a parent or carer in need of support. She’d talk to them in a calm and non-judgemental way. Seeing those parents walk away, it was like the weight of the world was lifted off their shoulders. In those moments I knew just how special she was – she wasn’t just my superhero; she was theirs too.’
STELLA’S HIGHLIGHTS
Teaching child development at Lambeth Employment Training Scheme
2001 – MA in Early Childhood Education with Care
2009 – Seconded to work on PPEL, Parents as partners in early learning – sharing knowledge of schemas.
2009 – First publications on schemas
2015 – First publication on observation
2010 – Project work in South Africa
2017 – Doctorate in education
2017 – Leading Froebel short courses
2020 – Joint publication with Hannah Betteridge on Unconscious Bias in the Observation, Assessment and Planning Process.
