Past Conferences | ISSA Conference 2019
Conference strands presentations
Strand 1: Nurturing home environments for young children
Strand 2: Nurturing environments in services for young children
Strand 3: Nurturing environments for young children and families in their communities
Keynote Addresses
Prof. dr. Paul Leseman - Utrecht University
Value-based regulation of early childhood education and care for equity and inclusiveness
The early childhood education and care (ECEC) field across the world has undergone many changes in the past decades, with partly promising but partly also threatening developments. There is definitively a trend towards more unification and integration, and also the availability and accessibility of ECEC have increased substantially in many countries, at least for the 3- to 6-year-olds. These developments reflect the increasing awareness that high quality ECEC can contribute importantly to tackling pertinent societal issues such as educational inequality and social exclusion. At the same time countries are struggling with the governance and funding of ECEC. Increased privatization and marketization have contributed to the expansion of ECEC provision and have led to increased access for all children, but major challenges remain regarding the quality and inclusiveness of ECEC and related support services. Especially the inclusion of children from migrant and ethnic minority communities is an urgent, still unresolved issue, calling for policies that can eliminate financial and cultural barriers. Most countries nowadays have hybrid ECEC systems, with public and private organizations, both for-profit and not-for-profit, operating in a partly harmonized market. Whereas governance and harmonization strategies still predominantly focus on regulation of costs-related structural quality characteristics, evidence suggests that value-based governance, giving statutory prominence to children’s rights and to the principles of equity and (cultural) inclusiveness, together with decentralization of responsibilities to the local level holds the best promise for reaching out to all children while maintaining high quality.
Paul Leseman obtained his MSc (major in psychology, minor in linguistics) at the University of Amsterdam and a PhD in the social sciences at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Read more
Sarah Klaus - Director of the Early Childhood Program in the Open Society Foundations
20/20 Vision: The Early Childhood Development Field in Focus.
Assessing the Past and Anticipating the Future
The year 2019 marks the 20th Anniversary of the International Step by Step Association (ISSA), as well as the 25th Anniversary of the Step by Step Program, the flagship early childhood education program of the Open Society Foundations that inspired ISSA’s establishment. Anniversaries challenge us both to look backwards at where we have come from and to look forwards to anticipate the future. Using the theme of ‘nurturing’ as a framework, this keynote will explore what motivated the emergence of early childhood as a global endeavour and how it is evolving. Together we’ll make predictions about what will shape the field in the next 20 years. It will challenge all of us to answer the question: where am I in this movement, and what role do I want to play in its future.Sarah Klaus is director of the Early Childhood Program (ECP) at the Open Society Foundations. ECP advances the rights of children and families that are left behind by empowering parents, professionals and civil society organizations and by building socially-inclusive, transparent systems. Since 2006, she has expanded the program’s original focus in Central Eastern Europe and Eurasia to include Africa, Asia, Latin American and the Middle East. Read more
Watch Sarah Klaus' Keynote on the future of early childhood development
Download Sarah Klaus' Keynote presentation on the future of early childhood development
Michael Feigelson - Executive Director Bernard van Leer Foundation
If you could experience the city from 95cm, what would you change? The keynote explores an initiative of the Bernard van Leer Foundation called Urban95, which is working with city leaders around the world to implement reforms focused on babies, toddlers and the people who take care of them every day. The focus will be on the challenges and the importance of going beyond the traditional realm of service delivery and working with new stakeholders such as city planners, architects, engineers and transportation officials.
Michael Feigelson has spent the last 15 years focused on working with governments, civil society and business to improve opportunities for children and youth. Read more
