ECEC innovation & quality

European Innovation Teaching Awards

(Brussels, 23-24 Nov)

Early Childhood Education and Care innovation is extremely important in an European Lifelong Learning Perspective

Nice days in Brussels taking part in the EITA, the European Innovation Teaching Awards that reward the achievements of relevant Erasmus school cooperation. Prof. Juliana Raffaghelli moderated the ECEC networking sessions (Early Childhood Education and Care) and the Future-Ready-Skills session with a strong focus on AI in education.

"I was positively surprised by the critical approach to the dominant EdTech tools and the need to think about teachers and early educators' agency: searching for a relevant educational purpose for adopting technologies like AI (but also robotics or augmented/virtual reality) -Raffaghelli said

What did we do?

The first focus was to discuss the relevant problems in ECEC quality, particularly considering the skills shortage and the low attractiveness of this profession. For a long time considered a matter of "care," including the extremely relevant part of life between 0 and 6 years old as part of the public educational endeavour is still polemic. And that space of uncertainty makes room for inequalities in the ECEC provisions. The literature has already emphasised how important it is to include children (particularly economically disadvantaged children) in ECEC.

The second focus on AI offered some framework to start thinking about EU cooperation. It emphasised the need for networking to take decisions that are supported by reflective practise. The EU representatives used the phrase "We know what we don't know" to emphasize the need to look beyond the flashy perspective that today's AI tools are offering teachers. It is instead necessary to analyse, try, discuss, and select only after careful educational consideration and consultation.

In this PADLET you will find materials and results from the sessions are some results of the session

No future will be built in a hurry...

"Fast change" and "the future is here" are mnore commercial slogans than a direction for educational practise and research. ECEC is only recently thinking about networking at EU level, and the issue of technologies in the earliest years of life is just recent. Therefore, a space for slow conversation between educators was just welcomed. Understanding how to step away from daily problems; and particularly overcoming the culture of the pre-schooling system as a space for just care with no educational value is now at the center of several EU states' efforts. Other (like Denmark or Finland) are advancing in projects where technology is more an instrument for professional development and collaboration amongst educators than a component of the educational settings in ECEC.

So much to think about...let's keep on networking!