Research Around The World

 For this blog assignment, I chose to take a look at the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA).

What are some of the current international research topics?

Children's emotions is a large current topic ranging from the stress of starting childcare to how temperament helps children with externalizing problems. Another big topic is play and creativity ranging from play equipment to physical things we use to expand on creativity.

What surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this international early childhood website?

The latest articles are listed on the first page you go to when looking at this journal and it allowed me to look at some articles about play that were really interesting. One of them was on the physical prerequisites of creativity and discusses how we put a lot of emphasis and value on creativity as an attribute. It's a topic that often comes up in my day to day life working at my current center because we often do art projects with the kids or let them do art on their own to explore their creativity. We also have toys that encourage them to get creative when making houses or tracks for their cars so that we aren't taking away their ability to use their imagination within the classroom. The article showed me different ways of looking at creativity such as seeing the integral connection between environment and situations and their impact on creativity as a whole.

What other noteworthy information did you find on this website?

I like that they discuss what the journal is as well as give you a list of the latest articles that have come out in their journal. Alongside that, on the side of the webpage, they have the list of people on the editorial board. It allows you to look at who is talking, reviewing, and dishing out the information that you can read in the articles. Not only that, it gives you the ability to find out how to get published, how to submit or promote your article, or even how to become a reviewer. It gives a good insight into what you are taking in when you read the articles in their journal and make it so you only take in good information that is has been peer-reviewed and is therefore backed.

Resources

European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA): This international early childhood organization publishes a well respected journal. All back issues are accessible from this site and are fully searchable without charge. http://www.eecera.org/journal/

Sofia Eriksson Bergström (2021). Glitter, flashlights, and building pillows – about physical prerequisites for creativity. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 29:2, 278-292.