Knowledge Hub

The ultimate goal of the InTrans project is to ensure that all children and families — especially the most vulnerable — benefit from warm and inclusive transitional practice in ECEC and school.  

To achieve this goal, the project is supporting professionals through action at the policy advocacy and training levels.  

At the level of policy and governance, InTrans has been facilitating activities to create awareness, knowledge development, and exchange for national and international policymakers in order to help them develop a shared vision on warm and inclusive transitions and corresponding policy measures.  

More concretely, the project has conducted policy analysis research in each of the four countries involved (Belgium, Finland, Italy and Slovenia). Based on the resulting baseline policy country reports, these infographics have been created to provide an overview of the present state of early childhood care and education systems in the countries (including Denmark). 

For an overview of the challenges and opportunities in the field of transitions across the four countries, read the comparison analysis executive summary report. 

Available in English.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

The Foundational training on psychological first aid (PFA) and trauma-Informed practices for young children and their caregivers fills a critical knowledge and skills gap in the early childhood workforce capacity, which surfaced due to the current humanitarian crisis created by the war in Ukraine. Many questions need to be answered to ensure that the needs of young refugee children and their caregivers are met, and that early childhood practitioners are protected while providing this much-needed support.

The main questions addressed in the training are the following:

• How to identify young children in distress and provide them with adequate support?
• How to protect, interact, communicate with, involve, and support young children and their families who have experienced traumatic situations without doing them any harm?
• What early childhood practitioners should (or should not do) to ensure that internally displaced or refugee children develop in a safe, nurturing, and inclusive environment where they can heal from harmful experiences, affirm their identity and childhood, and continue to play and learn alongside their peers?
• How can early childhood practitioners ensure that they are promoting respect for diversity and empathy?
• How early childhood practitioners can take care of personal and team well-being and mental health, to be able to serve children and families in the most efficient way?

The Foundational Training on Psychological First Aid (PFA) and trauma-informed practices for young children and their caregivers is built around three building blocks. You can read an excerpt of the Training Guide by clicking the "read the excerpt" button.

If you are interested in learning more about the training, contact us.

The Foundational training on psychological first aid (PFA) and trauma-Informed practices for young children and their caregivers fills a critical knowledge and skills gap in the early childhood workforce capacity, which surfaced due to the current humanitarian crisis created by the war in Ukraine. Many questions need to be answered to ensure that the needs of young refugee children and their caregivers are met, and that early childhood practitioners are protected while providing this much-needed support.

The main questions addressed in the training are the following:

• How to identify young children in distress and provide them with adequate support?
• How to protect, interact, communicate with, involve, and support young children and their families who have experienced traumatic situations without doing them any harm?
• What early childhood practitioners should (or should not do) to ensure that internally displaced or refugee children develop in a safe, nurturing, and inclusive environment where they can heal from harmful experiences, affirm their identity and childhood, and continue to play and learn alongside their peers?
• How can early childhood practitioners ensure that they are promoting respect for diversity and empathy?
• How early childhood practitioners can take care of personal and team well-being and mental health, to be able to serve children and families in the most efficient way?

The Foundational Training on Psychological First Aid (PFA) and trauma-informed practices for young children and their caregivers is built around three building blocks. You can read an excerpt of the Training Guide by clicking the "read the excerpt" button.

If you are interested in learning more about the training, contact us.

This guidebook was developed as part of the "Transition Is Our Mission" (TIM) project, aimed at ensuring a smooth transition for children from preschool to primary school. The document provides research-based insights and practical tools for educators and other stakeholders involved in this transition, focusing on developmental, pedagogical, and professional continuity. It includes guidelines and examples of good practices from Croatia, Latvia, and Slovenia, addressing challenges such as ensuring consistency in teaching approaches and providing support to families. The guidebook's main goal is to help schools and preschools create a supportive, child-centered transition that enhances both academic and social outcomes. The resource is inspiring due to its cross-country collaboration and emphasis on inclusive education for all children, including those from vulnerable backgrounds.

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EDUCAS Toolbox aims to support coordinators, coaches, trainers, professionals that seek to stimulate professional development paths with ECEC staff with the aim to create child and friendly learning spaces in ECEC centres. 

The Toolbox includes pedagogical approaches, methods and tools used during the EDUCAS project to support professionals in improving ECEC environments with an educare approach.

Available in English, Dutch, Italian and Lithuanian.

The topic of people working directly with children and families in the health, education and social work stands out when looking for sustainable solutions to challenges faced in early childhood care and education. This topic is even more important in Bulgaria given the workforce shortage in these sectors as well as the low indicators of reach of healthcare, early childhood education and care, and social protection to children. 

This study presents data from the experience of 461 specialists working directly with children and families, and outlines main directions for improvement of the professionalisation of the early years workforce in three areas: initial education, professional development and working conditions. In addition, also formulates recommendations for policy development in this area. 

Download summary report in English

Download full report in Bulgarian

Download summary report in Bulgarian

Download summary report in English

Download full report in Bulgarian

Download summary report in Bulgarian

TOY to Share, Play to Care is a two-year project (January 2019 – January 2021) that builds on previous work undertaken by International Child Development Initiatives (ICDI), a Netherlands-based non-governmental organization. Specifically, it follows upon the project TOY for Inclusion, 2017-2019.

The TOY to Share, Play to Care consortium comprises ten partner organizations based in nine European countries.

The initial TOY for Inclusion project developed and piloted Play Hubs, i.e., low-threshold, community-based, and informal early childhood spaces open to young children, their families, and community members of local Roma communities. Play Hubs offer toys for borrowing (toy libraries), stimulating activities for young children, opportunities for inter-generational encounters, and generally safe and welcoming spaces for everybody.

The follow-up project TOY to Share, Play to Care takes the existing Play Hubs as its starting point and builds on their experiences in order to scale up the model.

The project design includes a comprehensive data collection, monitoring, and evaluation framework to enable shared learning from project experiences. The following research questions were explored in this report using a qualitative methodology for data collection and analysis.

1. What does impact/making a difference mean to your locality in relation to inclusive early years community initiatives i.e., this project? How do you know? For whom?
2. What do you envisage will help you make a difference to your locality in relation to inclusive early years community initiatives?
3. What do you envisage will make it difficult to make a difference in relation to inclusive early years community initiatives?

Reflective teachers for quality education is a book reflecting the Step by Step Moldova NGO experience in promoting transformative democratic, child/earner-centered education. The book has three chapters.

Chapter one – From the Diversity of Teachers’ Practices - presents reflections from the experience of Step by Step classroom practitioners on how they build inclusive learning communities, where each child can succeed; on how they promote active and meaningful children’s learning, overcoming the barriers between the formally disconnected curricula subjects and encourage children initiated leaning, including through applying a project-based approach.

Chapter two - From Competent Teachers to Competent Trainers-Mentors - includes the reflections of SBSM practitioners on the path they followed to assume the new roles of trainers and mentors and the factors that contributed to it. Relying on ISSA developed QRP (PDT, and other resources), SBSM introduced new forms of teacher continuous professional development, including interactive and practice-oriented training and (individual and group) mentoring to support teachers’ critical reflection skills for quality child-centered education.

Chapter three - Stories That Illustrate the Change - contains stories shared by different stakeholders on the changes promoted by SBSm along the years. The chapter includes the voices and perspectives of teachers, parents, children managers. A special compartment is dedicated to the changes SBSM brought to the in-service teacher training in several institutions.

The EDUCAS project planned to start the Continuous Professional Development Paths (CPD) in the three countries involved (Belgium, Lithuania, Italy) with specific focus groups involving families and staff in the ECEC centers partners of the project. The aim of the focus groups has been:

1) gaining insight about families’ and staff’s ideas/beliefs/feelings in relation with the ECEC spaces where their children are and their connection with education and care;

2) exploring ideas concerning the ‘ideal’ ECEC service for families and staff (which core elements)

Through the focus groups, partner organizations aimed at getting a better insight concerning the needs, ideas and beliefs of staff and families concerning the theme of the project, with the purpose of elaborating a bottom-up participatory implementation path (case study – action research).

Each research center carried on two focus groups in each of the two ECEC centers involved in each country (plus an extra one in Italy): one with parents, one with staff, for a total of four focus groups per country (five in Italy). In total 13 focus groups took place, involving 47 professionals and 36 parents. The method and themes of the focus groups have been discussed and agreed in advance, in order to have ‘similar readable data’ at the end of the process.

This report presents the summary of the analysis of the focus groups with staff and parents, and of the drawings and interviews with the children in Belgium, Lithuania, Italy.

The central aim of this study is to examine what measures have been taken by selected EU member states – two countries (Sweden and Croatia), as well as three regions (Flanders in Belgium, Berlin in Germany and Emilia-Romagna in Italy) – to deal with the COVID-19 crisis during the first year of the pandemic (March-December 2020), in order to ensure quality ECEC for children and families.

The data analysed show that ECEC played a crucial role in countering the negative effects of the pandemic on children, families and communities. However, compared with other levels of education, ECEC appears to have been one of the sectors most vulnerable to the policy decisions taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The InTrans project statements - Reclaiming transitions as inclusive relational spaces in times of crisis and beyond, and Investing in professionalization of ECEC staff to foster smooth transitions in times of crisis and beyond - are based on the results of this report.

Throughout the three years of the EDUCAS project, partners in Belgium (FL), Italy and Lithuania have undertaken a thorough examination of existing visions and methods related to organizing ECEC environments in their contexts. With the support of two ECEC centres in each country, they have locally developed Action Research paths that are tailored to the contexts in which the six ECEC centers are working. The project aims to improve the organization of these ECEC centers’ space and materials within the educare approach.

The case Study in Belgium (FL) presents the action research that was coordinated by Center for Innovative Education and developed together with the two ECEC centres (Aukstelkes mokykla daugiafunkcis centras and Vaikystes Sodas).

Throughout the three years of the EDUCAS project, partners in Belgium (FL), Italy and Lithuania have undertaken a thorough examination of existing visions and methods related to organizing ECEC environments in their contexts. With the support of two ECEC centres in each country, they have locally developed Action Research paths that are tailored to the contexts in which the six ECEC centers are working. The project aims to improve the organization of these ECEC centers’ space and materials within the educare approach.

The case Study in Italy presents the action research that was coordinated by Univestity of Parma and developed together with the two ECEC centres Gelsomino in Parma and Maria Vittoia in Torino).

Educating and caring for young children is a big responsibility, challenge and commitment. The POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS for strengthening the importance of SPACE and EDUCARE approach in early childhood systems aim at providing a comprehensive set of recommendations for policymakers on EU and national levels, funders, and other ECEC stakeholders.

These policy recommendations are based on the findings and insights from the EDUCAS project implemented in Belgium (Fl), Italy and Lithuania, the extensive literature review, country policy recommendations, and other international documents developed by project partners.

Throughout the three years of the EDUCAS project, partners in Belgium (FL), Italy and Lithuania have undertaken a thorough examination of existing visions and methods related to organizing ECEC environments in their contexts. With the support of two ECEC centres in each country, they have locally developed Action Research paths that are tailored to the contexts in which the six ECEC centers are working. The project aims to improve the organization of these ECEC centers’ space and materials within the educare approach.

The case Study in Belgium (FL) presents the action research that was coordinated by VBJK and developed together with the two ECEC centres (Hippo’s Hof and De Tandem).

In addition, drawing on the process and results of EDUCAS project, in combination with the results of other projects/research concerning educare/spaces, a set of implications (for the Belgian-FL context) for policy and practice on a local and regional level have been elaborated.

Creating warm, nurturing home environments is not easy, especially when confronted with the many challenges of daily life, and it has been widely acknowledged that all families, within or outside a “crisis mode”, need support.

More and more, reports echoing parents’ voices (Cooney, 2020) highlight that “parents are not ok”. Thus, the challenges related to translating evidence into practice on effectively supporting parents to provide nurturing care to their children (Britto et al., 2015) have been also amplified, as new needs have emerged, and new modes of support are needed.

This tailored brief, developed with the support of the Bernard van Leer Foundation, sets out to provide recommendations for policy makers and service providers to consider prior to designing and implementing parenting support policies and programs. This brief also emphasizes the necessary factors that can bring parenting support programs to scale sustainably.

The ambition of this roadmap is to inspire you, as a reader, to strengthen collaboration between assisting and core practitioners in ECEC. The underlying idea is that better collaboration strengthens individual practitioners and teams in addressing all aspects of children’s well-being, development and learning needs.

In order to strengthen collaboration between assisting and core practitioners, this roadmap presents both a framework and ideas to develop pathways for continuous professional development, engaging both assisting and core practitioners, as well as leaders.

The content in the roadmap is inspired by the experiments developed, tested and evaluated in pilot projects in different ECEC settings in four countries (Belgium, Denmark, Portugal and Slovenia). More precisely, the roadmap builds on the following background studies:

• The baseline study, which was based on a survey sent to the participants in the pilot projects and built on quantitative data and statistical analyses.
• Four country reports, reporting the process and results of the professional development initiatives in each country.
• The endline report presenting the overall evaluation and highlighting the findings from the professional development initiatives in the four countries.

The Toolkit aims to support the work of nursery teachers with young refugee children and their families. It consists the Guidebook with methodological and theoretical guidelines; Activity cards with examples of activities for children under 4 years of age organized in 3 clusters: Welcoming the child = Welcoming the family, Dictionary with key words and phrases in Greek, French, Arabic and Farsi; Belonging and We are all different, we are all equal. It is accompanied with downloadable children’s songs from Syria, Afghanistan, Congo, and Iran played by one of the famous Greek musician Georgos Xaronitis.