1. Building partnerships The Velma E. Schmidt Critical ChildhoodPublic Policy Research Initiativeand other international collaborationsin early childhood research Mathias Urban, Cass School of Education RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE CONFERENCE 2011

2. Research Context • What we do: international collaborative research on ‘professionalism’, ‘quality’, ‘policy’ in early childhood education an care (ECEC) • Who we work with: Universities, professional networks (e.g. DECET) and associations (e.g. ISSA), NGO’s (e.g. Education International) across Europe, US, New Zealand, Australia, Africa (Cameroon, Kenya) RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE CONFERENCE 2011

3. Some recent examples • Strategies for Change – funded by Bertelsmann Foundation, Germany • Early Childhood Education in Europe – funded by Education International • CORE (competence requirements in early childhood education and care), funded by European Commission, Directorate General for Education and Culture • M.U. ‘Cluster Leader Early Childhood’ in collaborative project to ‘provide expertise and support for European cooperation in Education and Training’ (EC to HE)(Bertelsmann Foundation, European Centre for Strategic Management of Universities, ESMU, Horváth & Partners) RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE CONFERENCE 2011

4. Working in partnership: • Project proposal developed based on long standing collaboration between individuals and organisations – leads to consortium agreement with University of Ghent, Belgium • Proposal written and submitted by UEL - lead institution (M.U. with support from UEL Research development manager) • CORE team at UEL and Ghent collaborate with DECET and ISSA to ensure personal representation of 27 EU countries in the project. • International Advisory Board to represent OECD and international research institutions RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE CONFERENCE 2011

5. Impacts … • CORE findings emphasise systemic aspects of ‘competence’ and professionalisation in ECEC:‘the competent system’ • Recent EU communication on ECEC (launched Feb 2011) refers to CORE and states:‘systemic approaches to professionalisation are needed’ RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE CONFERENCE 2011

6. … and prospects • CORE findings point out the critical issue of absence of unqualified workers in ECEC from official documents: ‘the invisible assistant’ • This has lead to a joint project proposal:ASPECT (Assistants and Paraprofessionals in Early Childhood Education and Training) • Consortium of 2 Universities, 3 international research centres and 1 international professional association, lead by UEL • Developed and submitted with support from ReDS RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE CONFERENCE 2011

7. RDF supportfor international project development • Velma E. Schmidt Critical Childhood Public Policy Research Initiative, launched by University of North Texas • Aim: to establish a global research cluster (‘assemblage’) focusing on public policies towards childhood in different geo-political regions (US, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Africa and Europe). • UEL to lead European assemblage in collaboration with MMU and LMU

8. RDF supportfor international project development (cont.) • RDF support enabled attendance of ‘assemblage’ research group meeting at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign • Research assistant to support writing up outline of grant proposal to EU and US funders • Next research group meeting at UEL, October 2011 • UEL to host international ‘Reconceptualising Early Childhood Education’ (RECE) conference:Politics of Care (25-19 Oct 2011)uel.ac.uk/rece2011