Professional development

Early Childhood Voices conference showcases innovations in the ECEC sector

Freya Lucas

Nov 10, 2020

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The Early Childhood Voices 2020 online conference aims to showcase innovations designed to improve the lives of children, families and practitioners working in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector, and has already attracted more than 1,600 registrations from more than 50 countries.

Featuring more than eight keynote presentations and 90+ oral presentations from more than 17 countries, the online conference starts Monday 16 November, running through to Friday 20 November.

Being offered free of charge, the Charles Sturt Early Childhood Research Group has organised the conference showcase children’s voices, with sessions being offered asynchronously so that attendees can access the presentations at any time of the day or night.

Most of the presentations will be available after the conference finishes, and those who register will receive a free conference book as a PDF.

Each paper presented at the conference is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and with these topics:

Children’s voices
Families’ voices
Professionals’ voices
Indigenous voices; COVID-19
Wellbeing; workforce
Leadership; communication, speech and language
Rural issues
Disability
Innovation.

Researchers will be talking about ways of investigating and documenting experiences, challenging the status quo, and how people in the early childhood sector have managed during COVID-19.

Keynote speakers include Australian Laureate Fellow Professor Marilyn Fleer, Professor Sheila Degotardi, Professor Bob Perry, and Professor Sue Dockett.

Other leading international presenters include:

Professor Laura Lundy, a world expert in children’s rights;
Professor Gail Gillon, who will be speaking about improving young children’s early literacy; and,
Professor Jayne Osgood and Professor Ann Merete Otterstad, who will present new materialist perspectives on established early childhood practices.

Jacqui Emery from Royal Far West will talk about their work improving services and outcomes for children with developmental challenges. To learn more, or to register, please visit the conference website here.

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