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Six members of the ELP team
set off to spend four weeks
sharing the work of Learning Stories in Germany. This is part of ongoing work
we have been doing in Germany over several years. The work began in the early
2000’s when Margaret Carr and I visited Germany on the invitation of the Youth
Institute. The Head of the Institute had read Margaret’s book on Assessment and
was very interested in the work around dispositions. Learning Stories are now
found all over Germany and in many different forms. Many reciprocal visits have
subsequently taken place in Germany and New Zealand. This is the second major
trip to Germany. Seven of the ELP team went to Germany 2 years ago for a month
long trip around Germany sharing our work.
Our first stop was Oporto
in Portugal.
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| ELP team from left to right: Jo Colbert, Kathryn Delany, Alison Brierley, Lorraine Sands, Robyn Lawrence & Wendy Lee |
The European Early Childhood Education Research Association
(EECERA) Annual conference was being held here and we all were successful in having our
papers accepted and so we presented two Symposia. These were:
Symposium 1
Strengthening the community
of learners using action research as the key pathway to pedagogical change.
All three papers submitted for the EECERA Conference
stemmed from action research. They describe the experience of building strong
learning communities in three very different contexts:
1. An Early Childhood Setting,
with a teacher-led service.
2. A Playcentre Setting, with
a parent-led service.
3. A group of Early Childhood centres
working within and beyond their own settings.
All of the settings discussed here were
committed to strengthening their community of learners and building a stronger,
professional learning community. The three papers were:
Awi mai awhi atu. Helping
me, helping you.
Fostering social competence
in a mixed-age early childhood centre.
This paper was presented by
Alison Brierley
Mātauranga: building knowledge, wisdom and
understanding in a leaderful community
This paper was presented by Jo Colbert
He iwi whānui o ngā kaiako ākonga
A Community of Teacher Learners; Aspects of effective
professional development.
This paper was presented by Kathryn Delany
Symposium 2
Building a Research
Culture of teachers working with Infants and Toddlers in Early Childhood
Settings in NZ
As Project Facilitators working within the Educational
Leadership Project (ELP) in Aotearoa New Zealand we put together three
perspectives that each consider some of the ways in which we are working with
infants and toddler communities to both strengthen and enhance a research
culture to strengthen early childhood learning. The three papers were:
·
Growing Leaders from Infancy
·
Enhancing and Strengthening Courage and Bravery
Through the Support of a Trusted Companion in a Leaderful Community
·
Constructing Identities as Professional Lifelong
Learners
This work illustrates the transformational power of professional learning and it
consolidates the support of everyone in the wider community to become life long
learners in the 21 century.
The notion of both teachers and children as researchers is
being embedded in the fabric of early childhood education in New Zealand and
these three papers presented exemplars in which both children and teachers are
the co-constructors of their own learning. Teachers’ voices highlighted aspects
of shifts in practice based on researching pedagogy, transforming competence,
and exploring leadership. The three papers were:
Growing leaders from infancy
This paper was presented by Lorraine Sands
Enhancing and Strengthening Courage and Bravery
Through the Support of a Trusted Companion in a Leaderful Community
This paper was presented by Robyn Lawrence
Constructing Teacher
Identities as Lifelong Learners and Researchers
This paper was presented by Wendy Lee
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| Margaret Carr was the first keynote speaker of the conference! |
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| Margaret was introduced by Margy Whalley |
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| The main conference lecture theatre |
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| Me enjoying morning tea, time to catch up with people! | |
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| Conference Dinner held in a spectacular location high on hills overlooking the river. |
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I think I will add a few photos from Oporto in a couple of days. Cheers, Wendy
