ISSA's 9th Annual Conference on Democratic
Practices in Education: An Inspirational International Meeting
To explore how education for active citizenship helps
children learn democratic values, 350 early childhood practitioners,
researchers, policy makers, and NGO activists from more than 70 countries from
Europe and around the world met in Budapest, Hungary 9-12 October 2008, at
ISSA’s 9th Annual Conference: Active Citizenship: Democratic
Practices in Education, co-hosted by the World Forum Foundation.
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Testimonials
Article from German Newspaper Pester Lloyd (in German) 461 KB pdf
On 9-12 October 2008, ISSA hosted its 9th ISSA Annual Conference - Active Citizenship: Democratic Practices in
Education, organized in partnership with
the World Forum Foundation. This event brought together 350 representatives of
ISSA’s member NGOs, international organizations and agencies, government
representatives, donors, and relevant networks, such as OSI, UNICEF, the World Forum
Foundation, Children in Europe, the Roma Education Fund, Early Years, the
Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Education, DECET, Save the
Children, ACEI, OMEP, ACEV, Civitas, and Aflatoun, among many others. This
networking among networks and the dialogue across sectors and cultures contributed
not only to the development and promotion of democratic practices in education
but also to further strengthening international partnerships to support quality
education for all.
ISSA is grateful for the very successful cooperation and
support of the World Forum Foundation (WFF), OSI, UNICEF, and the Consultative
Group on ECCE in organizing the satellite events hosted around the conference:
ISSA’s Council Meeting, the Pre-Conference Skill Building Seminars, the Meeting
of the WFF’s Global Leaders Program, the UNICEF CEE/CIS ECD and
Education Annual Regional Network Meeting, the Meeting of the WFF
International Working Group on Peace Building with Young Children and the
Annual Meeting of the Consultative Group on ECCE. We would also like to offer
our sincere thanks to OSI for the generous financial contributions to ISSA and
its members, as well as to the sponsors and exhibitors of this event: Teaching
Strategies, Community Playthings and Kaplan Early Learning Company.
The Conference started with an Opening Session and Reception
hosted at the Hungarian Parliament, further reinforcing the strong interest of
decision-makers in the topics of early years and active citizenship. ISSA was
very pleased to welcome distinguished keynote speakers from Hungary Dr.
Zoltan Szabo, Chair
of the Education and Scientific Committee of the Hungarian Parliament and Janos
Setenyi, PhD, one of
the well-known experts in the field of citizenship education in Hungary.
The first plenary of the conference opened with an inspiring
address by Maria Calivis, Director of the UNICEF Regional Office for CEE/CIS. Ms.
Calivis began by congratulating ISSA for “its extraordinary contributions to
creating open societies that put children first,” going on to say that “ISSA
has distinguished itself by supporting innovative, child-centered teaching and
learning methodologies and by bringing cutting-edge technical expertise into
the region.” Ms. Calivis underlined the importance of early childhood and the
need to work hard to mobilize political will all around the world to invest in
early childhood care and education due to its significant impact on all
children, especially on the most vulnerable. She spoke about the strongest
tactics for advocating stronger national commitments to early childhood:
science and child rights, with a specific emphasis on arguments to be made in
the Central and Eastern Europe and former Soviet regions.
Mr. Gergely Arato, State Secretary of the Ministry of Education of
Hungary described efforts in area of early childhood in Hungary and expressed
appreciation for the fact that such a conference was taking place in Budapest,
which he hopes will help to raise attention to the field.
The keynote address by Prof. Dr. Tatjana Koke, Minister of Education and
Science of Latvia, was devoted to the paradoxes of contemporary society and the
challenges for education in the 21st century’s knowledge society,
taking into consideration globalization, the growing role of ICT, and changing
organizational cultures. She discussed the concept of a learning era
characterized by human capital, networked autonomy, self-generated identity and
the capacity to take action.
John
Clark, Hampshire’s
Deputy Director of Children Services (UK), based his key-note on the premise
that it is impossible to just teach children and young people how to be
effective citizens; they have to be provided with opportunities to behave as
citizens, to feel and think as citizens – to be citizens, and to want to
be citizens. Clark’s presentation described the 3R approach – the Rights,
Respect and Responsibilities Project in Hampshire, strongly rooted in the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Dr. Sharon Lynn Kagan, Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor
of Early Childhood and Family Policy, Co-Director of the National Center for
Children and Families, Associate
Dean for Policy at Teachers
College, Columbia University, and Professor Adjunct at Yale University's Child
Study Center (USA), offered an innovative approach on how to look at
transitions in a much wider and deeper context. In her keynote address, “Transitions
Across Time and Place: Implications for Children, Families, Teachers, and
Policies,” Kagan described a framework consisting of pedagogical, programmatic,
policy, and systems transitions, providing definitions, examples, and advantages
of each.
Reflecting the intent of the
conference to bring together representatives from different areas, the keynote
address delivered by Prof. Jacques van der Gaag, Professor of Development Economics,
Faculty of Economics and Business, University of
Amsterdam (The Netherlands), was
an economist’s view on early child development. One of his key messages was
about the crucial impact of childhood experiences on the rest of the life of an
adult; experiences in early childhood lead to adult outcomes in all spheres of
life, such as education, health, social capital, and equality.
Another keynote address added
the perspective to the early childhood from the perspective of child rights. The
speech delivered by Prof. Jaap E. Doek, Former Chairperson of the UN Committee on the
Rights of the Child (The Netherlands) suggested several important questions to
address in order to use international legal documents and political will more
effectively. Prof. Doek emphasized that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a commitment and ongoing effort and there is
still much to do to in order to improve the lives of all children.
Dr. Charles N. Quigley, Executive Director of the Center for
Civic Education (USA), in his keynote address “Foundations of Democracy:
Introducing Primary Students to Fundamental Democratic Ideas and Principles,”
provided an interesting example of how basic concepts of democracy, such as
authority, responsibility, justice, and privacy can be introduced to very young
children in an age-appropriate way, not by telling about democracy but by
applying knowledge to everyday situations and moving from knowledge to
mastering skills and developing dispositions.
In her keynote address
“Education for Human Rights and Cosmopolitan Citizenship: Responding to the
Challenges of Our Global Age,” Dr. Audrey Osler of the Centre for Citizenship and
Human Rights Education, University of Leeds (UK) invited participants to think
about the changing context of citizenship education, the changing concepts of
citizenship education within a globalized world, as well as cosmopolitanism and
education for cosmopolitan citizenship. Osler stressed that young people have
local, national, and international perspectives and can articulate their
multiple and dynamic identities. Unfortunately education programs do not always
recognize these realities.
Dr. Jacqueline Hayden, Program Manager, Social
Inclusion and Respect for Diversity, Bernard van Leer Foundation (The
Netherlands), in her keynote address “Five Steps Towards Responsive Advocacy: Infiltrating
the Civil Landscape,” emphasized social inclusion, stressing that support to
early childhood development services is a key factor for nurturing social
inclusion and respect for diversity. Hayden reminded participants of the importance
of being aware of the ripple effect and to be ready to seize opportunities for
change even when they lie outside of the paradigm.
The keynote address delivered by Dr. Richard A. Nuccio, Director of Civitas International Programs, Center for Civic Education
(USA), showed an example of young children’s participation in the lives of
their communities through involvement in an international program: “Project
Citizen.” Nuccio shared the experiences of the Center for Civic Education and
of the CIVITAS International Network in promoting quality education through
civic education.
The last keynote address,
delivered by Dr. Judith L. Evans, Director Emeritus, Consultative Group on Early Childhood
Care and Development (Canada), reminded participants about the need to engage
in common work to build bridges – some local, some global - to support
the development and happy life of each child. Making links with earlier
presentations, Evans invited participants to think about active citizenship as
learning how to learn, learning how to lead, and doing it together.
Presentations of all keynote speakers and from some of the
pre-conference skill-building seminars are available on the conference website: http://www.diamond-congress.hu/issa2008.
Additional presentations from concurrent sessions will be uploaded in the near
future.
In addition to the inspiring keynote addresses, participants
of the conference were able to choose among ten parallel sessions, participate
in pre-conference skill building seminars, visit pre-schools in Budapest, as
well as to expand and renew friendships through a rich social program.
The conference provided a venue for sharing information and
experiences from all over the world and for gaining professional expertise from
practitioners, researchers, lawyers, government representatives, NGO
representatives, and international organizations. Many of the concurrent
sessions were devoted to showcasing the work of ISSA’s members and partners in
areas related to equity/access, social inclusion, and quality care and
education in early childhood. Everyone left the conference feeling enriched and
energized in taking up the cause of ensuring quality care and education
experiences for all young children. Participants shared feedback that the event
was a significant professional development opportunity for everyone involved,
and a venue to exchange ideas and develop strong partnerships for the common
cause.
ISSA also took this opportunity to disseminate information
about its recently launched 10 year strategy, which will focus on four
strategic goals: promoting access and equity of care and education for young
children in Central/ Eastern Europe and Central Asia; promoting high quality
and professionalism in the provision of care and education for young children;
promoting civil society participation, community-based ECD, and parental
education; and enhancing the capacity of the ISSA network to deliver its
strategy.
The conference ended with cordial invitations from the
co-organizers to join their respective events in 2009. The World Forum
Foundation announced its World Forum on Early Care and Education, 16-19 June
2009 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, hosted by Early Years (http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/)
and marking the 10th Anniversary of the World Forum Foundation.
ISSA invited participants to join its 10th Annual Conference “Seeds
of Change: Effective Investments in Early Childhood for Enduring Social
Progress”, 14-16 October 2009 in Bucharest, Romania (www.issa.nl).
This event will be both a celebration of ISSA’s tenth anniversary and another
step towards bringing together the many sectors and stakeholders who work
together for the benefit of young children and for the future of their local,
regional, and global communities.
