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, 320 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.
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. In her concluding
remarks, she called for support towards the establishment of an
extended regional network of early childhood and education organizations,
professionals and practitioners, as a joint effort of ISSA and UNICEF.
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.
