Keynote Speakers Overview

Associate Professor Hillevi Lenz Taguchi, Stockholm University, Sweden
Keynote Title: Investigating learning, participation and becoming in early childhood practices with a relational materialist approach.

Mercy M. Musomi, Executive Director of Girl Child Network, Kenya
Keynote Title: Legal, legislative and policy frameworks that relate to violence against children with emphasis on the girl child – Kenya scenario

Professor Patricia G Ramsey, Mount Holyoke College, USA
Keynote Title: Economic and Environmental Equity for Young Children

Professor Helen Penn, University of East London, UK
Keynote Title: Overcoming Inequality; The rights of the poorest children

Geraldine Atkinson, Deputy Chairperson (Early Childhood) for the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care & President of the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc, Australia
Keynote Title: Strong in culture and community: An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander approach to caring for children and families

 

Associate Professor Hillevi Lenz Taguchi, Stockholm University, Sweden

Keynote Title: Investigating learning, participation and becoming in early childhood practices with a relational materialist approach.
The more we seem to know about the complexity of learning, children's diverse strategies and multiple theories of knowledge, the more we seek to impose learning strategies and curriculum goals that seek to reduce the complexities and diversities of learning and knowing. Policy makers and practitioners look for general structures and standards for practices based on contemporary and updated developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) with the aim to enforce a socially just and equitable practice for all (Bredekamp and Coople, 1997; Gestwicki, 2006). What are the theories and knowledges that we take up and integrate into our practices, and what theories and knowledges are not taken up into our discourses and practices? In this paper I ask myself: What are the practical and ethical consequences of different ways of understanding knowledge and knowing and our being and becoming in the world? What kinds of practices are made possible if our thinking and practices are guided by an onto-epistemological thinking, where questions of being and learning/knowing are considered to be intertwined and interdependent, as opposed to when ontology and epistemology are separated as in our dominant ways of thinking and materialising our practices? This paper will discuss these questions while making two different readings, in line with feminist poststructural theory/methodology (Davies and Gannon, 2005) of an example of investigative maths and children's interest in measuring with preschool children. It was performed by a student-teacher in Stockholm, Sweden during her five week long vocational training. The first reading will be based on constructivist learning theory and what is called lesson- or learning-studies (Marton and Tsui, 2003; Pramling Samuelsson and Pramling, 2008). In this reading the learner is basically considered as separated from the cognitive learning construct, which is taken up and cognitively integrated into the individual learner's conceptual development. The second reading will be based on an onto-epistemological thinking where the learner and what is learnt is not understood as separated but inter-dependent and intertwined. In this reading knowing is understood as the phenomena that emerge as a result of material-discursive intra-activity in-between (human and non-human) organisms and matter in preschool practices (Barad, 2007). This reading draws upon science theorists such as Karen Barad (1998, 1999, 2007, 2008), Donna Haraway (1991, 2008) and philosopher Elisabeth Grosz (1995, 2005, 2008), as well as the French thinkers/philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (1987, 1994). Moreover, I will discuss the ethical consequences of these two different readings which are based on different epistemologies and ontologies. I will end the paper by outlining an ethics of immanence and potentialities (Colebrook, 2001) for early childhood education practices based on the second reading. Such an ethics might be able to transform educational practices so that they can be about identifying and challenging children's potentialities and capacities to act and be inventive in processes of collaborative becomings, as opposed to trying to reach pre-formulated goals and learning-contents as in most of our dominant early childhood practices. Practicing an ethics of potentialities means going beyond the prevailing divides in education, such as theory/practice, science/art, intellect/body, rationality/affect etc. It is a practice that is affirmative of ongoing change and transformation based on the assumption that humans as well as non-humans are in a state of mutual co-existence with every thing else.

Workshop title: Challenging and 'complicating' Gender Equality in Early Childhood Education
Chaired by: Hillevi Lenz Taguchi, Stockholm University
Presenters: Klara Dolk, Hedda Schönbäck & Christian Eidevald, Stockholm University
In this workshop the participating researchers and/or preschool teachers intend to identify, critically examine and challenge some of the assumptions underlying dominant practices of gender-equality work in various early childhood education provisions. Inspired mainly by feminist poststructuralist and queer theory, the participants will identify dominant discourses on gender equality that are expressed, implicitly and explicitly, both in widely read literature on "gender-pedagogy" and in the practices described in self-evaluations of local gender-equality projects. The participants will show how it is possible to, in different ways, theoretically, as well as in terms of every day pedagogical practices, challenge these dominant discourses and their materialised practices. The presentations will attempt to outline ways of thinking and doing gender equality within pedagogical practice that go beyond the dominating notions and practices in gender equality pedagogy today.

Biography
Hillevi Lenz Taguchi, Associate Professor in Education at the Department of Education, Stockholm University, was born in 1962 and has her background and formal training in Sociology and Literature. Lenz Taguchi has mainly published books in Swedish on her experiences with reflexive, deconstructionist and collaborative work with preschool teachers and teachers using pedagogical documentation as a methodological tool for learning and change [Why pedagogical documentation? 1997 (Stockholm University Publishing); Pedagogy of Listening, 2005, (Liber Publishing)], both of which have been translated to Danish and Norwegian; as well as a book on feminist poststructural theory and educational practices [Down to bare bone. An introduction to poststructural feminism (Stockholm University Publishing)]. Forthcoming in English is a book to be published in August 2009; Going Beyond the Theory/Practice Divide in Early Childhood Education: Introducing an intra-active pedagogy (Routledge). This book summarizes her collaborative research with preschool teachers, teachers and teacher educators in preschools, teacher education and in-service training that she has published articles on for international publications during the last five years. Her current nationally funded research-project concerns preschool children's gendered identity constructions from a material feminist approach on language and the physical environment.

Professor Helen Penn, University of East London, UK

Keynote Title: Overcoming Inequality; The rights of the poorest children
Much of the discussion about the rights of young children is aspirational. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) general comment Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood (2005) has laid down some principles about the integrity and agency of the young child, and the importance of family and cultural context. It has briefly outlined the rights of participation, protection and provision. Yet globally a majority of young children lack the most basic necessities - adequate food, water, shelter, sanitation, and health services. Many millions, especially girls, do not have access to education. Many children will die before they are five. These grim statistics undermine the very notion of child rights. This keynote considers how inequities like this within countries and between countries, especially between the countries of the global North and the global South might be addressed. It takes as its starting point the 2009 UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report Overcoming Inequality: Why Governance Matters which focuses on inequity and some of its causes and consequences. It considers the possibility for action by groups and individuals concerned with young children.

Workshop Title: Universal rights but particular circumstances?
The discourse of children's rights is universalist - it states what all children should be entitled to in all circumstances. At the same time, we know that young children's lives are grounded in particular contexts. How do we reconcile universal rights with particular circumstances? Are there some practices which are widely used and upheld in particular contexts but are regarded as intolerable in others; for example smacking or -conversely- permissiveness? This workshop compares expectations about young children's behaviour across rich and poor communities. The workshop will present some ideas from anthropological research, and draw on the presenter's recent research in South Africa.

Biography
I trained as an infant teacher and taught in schools in London and Kent in the UK. In 1986 I became Assistant Director of Education in Strathclyde Region in Scotland, where I ran the first integrated care and education service in the UK. I was responsible for the administration of 500 early childhood settings including nursery schools, children's centres and family support groups.

In 1992 I joined the Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London. I undertook a range of research projects including work on the integration of care and education services. I co-wrote (with Spanish colleagues) an EU Childcare Network discussion document on quality, and then drafted Quality Targets in 1996 for the Network. I have just completed an analytical review for the EU Education and Culture Directorate on the evidence for policy making in early childhood education and care in Europe. I have been rapporteur for the OECD Starting Strong Reviews in Flanders and Canada.

I now hold the post of Professor of Early Childhood in the Cass School of Education, University of East London, UK where I work mainly on PhD programmes. I have co-founded the International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Market Economy (www.uel.ac.uk/icmec ) which is a virtual centre for information about the operation of the private sector in the field of early education and care. The centre also holds regular seminars and policy debates about the role of the private sector in a mixed market economy, and has an international advisory board.

My interests have increasingly been in the global South (developing countries/majority world) where I have undertaken a wide range of consultancy work for international non-governmental organizations and charities mainly in Central Asia and Southern Africa. I am currently funded by CfBT Educational Trust to research the costing of early childhood education and care projects in South Africa. I am concerned with the relationship between policy, practice and theory in early childhood, and in particular the way in which policies and practices get transferred from the global North to the global South.

Professor Patricia G Ramsey, Mount Holyoke College, USA

Keynote Title: Economic and Environmental Equity for Young Children
Economic and environmental inequities deeply affect the lives of young children. Those who live in poor communities often suffer from environmental degradation that include a myriad of health hazards from the absence of clean water to the presence of toxic substances in air that they breathe. Ironically, those who live in more affluent communities and are protected from the immediate effects of these life threatening conditions are often caught in the consumerist snare that manipulates children and potentially undermines family, peer, and community relationships. Thus, all children are hurt by hyperconsumerism that drives the exploitation of resources and people and intrudes on childhood throughout the world. The current global economic crisis is exacerbating these problems but also is an opportunity to challenge destructive and unjust policies and practices. In this talk, I will discuss how children are affected by these forces; how we, as educators and activists, can push for a more just and healthy world for children; and how we can support children and their families to resist the allures of consumerism and to advocate for economic and environmental equity and sustainability.

Workshop Title: Promoting Economic and Environmental Sustainability and Equity: An Action Oriented Workshop
In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to discuss specific ways that different economic and environmental pressures are affecting the lives of young children in their countries and communities and to develop strategies for counteracting negative effects.

In the first part of the workshops, we will share accounts about the extent to which consumerism is affecting specific countries and communities and, in particular, children's views and values and their relationships with their families and peers. We will discuss the corporate and political powers that drive these pressures and share strategies that groups have developed to counteract them at national and local levels.

In the second part of the workshop, we will talk about the environmental costs of consumerism. Participants will identify local and national environmental issues that affect their own communities and particularly young children and their families. We will discuss the underlying financial and political pressures (e.g., the need to attract foreign investment at any cost, the power of corporate lobbyists) and economic disparities (e.g., the location of hazardous waste dumps in poor communities) that drive and exacerbate these problems. Participants will be invited to share their experiences and ideas about political strategies and organizations that have been effective in forcing corporations and governments to make better environmental decisions.

The third and final part of the workshop will be devoted to sharing and creating ways that we can individually and collectively pressure governments and corporations to make more socially and environmentally responsible decisions. We also will talk about how we can develop locally appropriate strategies to help children and their families to resist the allures of consumerism, become more connected to their natural environments, and to advocate for environmental justice and sustainability.

Biography
Patricia G. Ramsey is professor of psychology and education at Mount Holyoke College. She is a former preschool and kindergarten teacher and received her Ed.D. in Early Childhood Education from University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She has studied the development of children's attitudes about race and economic class and has written several articles and chapters on this research as well as the following books: Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World: Multicultural Education for Young Children (now in its third edition), Multicultural Education: A Source Book (now in its second edition and co-authored with Leslie Williams and Edwina Battle Vold) and What If All the Kids Are White? Anti-Bias Multicultural Education with Young Children and Their Families (co-authored with Louise Derman-Sparks).

Mercy M. Musomi, Executive Director of Child Girl Network, Kenya

Keynote Title: Legal, legislative and policy frameworks that relate to violence against children with emphasis on the girl child - Kenya scenario
Kenya is a party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), as well as the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC). Both instruments MEANT TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF ALL CHILDREN have been signed and ratified by Kenya, and both treaties aim to prohibit and eventually eliminate all forms of violence against children by member states.

Since this ratification, Kenya has been under obligation to put in place policies, statutes and structures that would give effect to the provisions in these instruments and consequently enable child protection FROM EARLY YEARS in Kenya. Efforts by the Civil Society and Government to come up with legal frameworks and policies to deal with issues of children have yielded a number of statutes and policies at different stages of development. However, cases of child abuse and neglect continue to be on the increase; sexual based violence cases have been reported for young girls and boys of under 5 years of age. Education as a basic right is not free for children under 6 years and is not compulsory for all children.

Workshop Title: Children's Rights: policies and practices, a Kenya perspective
The paper will look at the challenges that girls in Kenya and in general Africa faces in their endeavour to achieve education. Possible Interventions will be outlined, for example provision of sanitary towels to menstruating girls who are not able to access learning due to lack of sanitary protection. It will also examine the critical issues that affect children in early years in terms of access to learning, nutrition, distance to schools and infrastructure. Challenges faced by girls in particular - child trafficking, female genital mutilation, child brides and the impact of HIV and Aids will form part of the presentation. Hunger and famine as factors mitigating against positive growth development of children in early years.

Biography
Ms Mercy Musomi is the Executive Director of a children's rights organization in Kenya known as the Girl Child Network. The organization was started in 1995 to implement the recommendations of the fourth world conference on women held in Beijing in 1995. Mercy is an activist who fights for the rights of children and especially the Girl Child. The child in Kenya like in many African countries suffers violence from birth unto death. Girls suffer sexual gender based violence in terms of female genital mutilation; child marriages and child trafficking.

Mercy is a Counselling Psychologist and undertakes a key role in mentoring children especially girls ( early years, adolescents and the youth) on the importance of education despite the myriads of challenges they face. She is also a lobbyist and a champion of the Rights of the children.

Gerladine Atkinson, Deputy Chairperson (Early Childhood) of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC)

Keynote Title:Strong in culture and community: An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander approach to caring for children and families
Child care constantly confronts the gaps between what is needed and what can be provided. Meeting these challenges requires flexible, dynamic and community-driven organisations, for organisations must fit their community's needs. Those communities rich with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures require high quality child care services that enhance cultural, physical, social, emotional and academic learning, and provide support for families to care for children at home.

The Multifunctional Aboriginal Children's Services (MACS) centres across Australia provide holistic, flexible and culturally strong approaches to child care, education and family support services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. These Aboriginal community-controlled centres operate alongside and in partnership with mainstream services, with MACS programs often including day care, pre-school, cultural programs, playgroups, outreach workers, mobile services, health specialists and family support services.

Geraldine Atkinson has considerable experience in the education and the early childhood sector. She will discuss the role that culture and community should, and does, command in Aboriginal child care and family support. Recounting her experience with the Victorian Batdja Preschool and Lidje MACS, now the integrated Lulla's Children and Family Centre, she will canvass the importance of the diverse range of MACS child care and holistic family support services, as well as the obstacles to providing excellent and comprehensive services. Biography
Geraldine Atkinson is a Bangerang/Wiradjuri woman who has devoted her career to expanding the possibilities available for Koorie people through education.

Beginning as an Aboriginal Teacher Aide in 1976, Geraldine has since worked extensively in the Victorian Aboriginal community in all sectors of education and has been involved with several Aboriginal community controlled organisations and services.

A recognized leader in Koorie education, Geraldine has been instrumental in negotiating and formalising education partnerships as President of the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc (VAEAI), and is the representative for the national Indigenous Education Consultative Body (IECB) to the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA).

Geraldine is Deputy Chairperson (Early Childhood) of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC), the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and is also Chairperson of Lidje MACS (multi-functional Aboriginal children's service) and Batdja Aboriginal Preschool in Shepparton.