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Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is internationally recognised as a social investment strategy for supporting parental employment and providing the foundations to children’s lifelong learning. ECEC provides early intervention for disadvantaged groups; high quality ECEC can help lessen the negative consequences of disadvantage on children’s later learning. 

Internationally those who work in ECEC are recognised as central to the quality of ECEC. The European Commission (2014) identified the importance of initial training and subsequent professional development as contributing to the development of professional competences of the ECEC workforce and contributing to the overall quality of ECEC. Despite the continued focus on the importance of the ECEC workforce for the quality of services, structural attributes, such as initial qualification requirements, are variable across Member States, and professional development requirements, if present at all, are even more differentiated (Lindeboom and Buiskool, 2013). Beyond these structural attributes are questions as to what constitutes the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for a competent ECEC workforce (Urban et al., 2011).

This project will enhance and extend understandings of the competences required for working in ECEC in diverse contexts, whilst creating innovative professional development to support the ECEC workforce in developing professional competences. 

The project focusses on child-centred practice, a commonly used and deeply embedded concept for ECEC encompassing developmental, democratic and individualised constructions of ECEC (Chung and Walsh 2000). These different constructions resonate with different aspects of ECEC’s importance in supporting children’s development whilst offering equality of opportunity irrespective of social circumstances and individual needs. 

However, questions arise as to how all children can be at the centre of pedagogical practice, particularly when considering diverse communities and whether democratic approaches can be combined with a focus on developmentalism.