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Child Centred Competences for Early Childhood Education an Care: A free easy access online learning resource

Bringing together four years of research, the Child-Centred Competence Framework is a set of materials to guide early childhood educator students, professionals and mentors through a process of contemplation, provocation and reflection on what it means to be child-centred when working with young children. The framework has been derived from early childhood education and care contexts in seven countries (Croatia, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Spain and the UK) and can be used inter-professionally to consider what child-centred practice might look like in different contexts. The Framework builds on the European Council's conceptualisation of competences as the combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate for the context (European Commission, 2007 ; European Commission, 2018). The framework takes the three core aspects of child-centred knowledge - romantic, developmental and democratic - as its starting point. The three concepts are presented as the foundational knowledge on child-centredness, where knowledge is about harnessing action. The three strands of knowledge therefore become lenses through which to consider the culture, policies and practices of child-centredness. The dimensions of culture, policies and practices have been divided into sections, each with a series of indicators. Within culture, there is a consideration of values and ethos, while policies consider organisation structures and policies and practice encompasses curriculum and pedagogy. Under the dimensions and sections there are 38 interconnecting indicators. Each indicator is presented as a short statement that has been derived from literature and existing research into child-centred practice. The indicators have been illustrated through a series of resources intended to support students, professionals and mentors to consider what child-centredness means for their context. These resources include provocations, examples from practice, videos, further reading/signposting for further information.

child-centredness, early childhood education and care (ECEC), culture, practice, policy

This e-book was developed as part of the Erasmus+ project Child-Centred Competences for Early Childhood Education and Care (Project reference: 2019-1-UK01-KA203-061665).