Professor Valerie Sollars was invited to deliver a keynote presentation at a conference entitled Small children, great opportunities: How to tackle child poverty together?The conference was held recently at the Flemish Parliament in Brussels and was jointly organised by Vlaanderen – the Flemish Ministry of Education, Kind & Gezin and the King Baudouin Foundation.
The conference concluded a project focusing on working with 0 to two-year olds in child care settings and three to six-year-olds in kindergarten settings. It brought together professional staff, childcare organisations and family supporters, keen on sharing good practices and suitable transitions when investing in quality provision for young children.
Prof Sollars’ presentation was entitled Experiencing quality in early childhood education and care: Perspectives from research, policies and praxis. The presentation provided an overview of seminal, international research and policy documentation related to quality in early childhood education over the past two decades, highlighting the challenges of the sector arising from shifting national and international demographics, economic considerations and cultural mindsets.
Professor Sollars also shared some preliminary findings from her research study on quality issues as perceived by Maltese parents and practitioners, a study which was supported by RIDT funding.
Read more about Prof Sollars’ research project here.