News

Building a mentoring culture in early childhood education system in Uzbekistan

July 21, 2026
ISSA Program Director Mihaela Ionescu, PhD, shares about her recent visit to Uzbekistan supporting UNICEF and the Ministry of Preschool and School Education (MOPSE) in developing and delivering the first national mentoring programme for preschool education.

Step By Step Macedonia use Facebook to inspire young readers

March 10, 2017
Sweet Dr. Citko, a character created and designed by Step By Step Macedonia, has been the public face of a viral Facebook Campaign to advise adults on how to encourage the children in their lives to have healthier reading habits. As part of the…

ISSA Conference Call for Proposals NOW OPEN

March 9, 2017
As ISSA prepares for the 2017 Conference: Local Responses, Global Advances: Towards Competent Early Childhood System, we are reaching out to practitioners, academics and other professionals to submit a proposal to present their work at our event.…

Member in Focus with Step by Step center for Quality Education in Slovenia: "We link Research and Practice"

March 6, 2017
Jerneja Jager, is the head of the Step by Step Center for Quality in Education, ISSA’s founding member from Slovenia. At just 34 Jerneja is the youngest Head of Department of the Educational Research Institute in Ljubljana. She told us about…

ISSA seeks Consultants to map the setting of young children in refugee camps in Greece/ DEADLINE EXTENDED

February 28, 2017
ISSA seeks to hire consultants to assist the Secretariat by informing the process of developing Early Childhood Development programs in refugee camps in Greece; deadline March 15th, 2017. TERMS OF REFERENCE I. Background The International Step by…

ISSA delivers expert training on Resource Modules for Home Visitors in Turkmenistan

February 22, 2017
Following up on the successful collaboration between ISSA and UNICEF in the development of the Resource Modules for Home Visitors, ISSA’s Senior Program Manager, Zorica Trikic and Karen Whittaker from the University of Central Lancashire, travelled…

Review of ISSA’s 2016 Peer Learning Activities

February 16, 2017
Each year, ISSA’s supports and facilitates numerous Peer Learning Activities (PLAs) exclusively for our members. As a learning community, ISSA believes that providing this service is core to our values and beliefs. Working together to put high-…

New Translations of ISSA's Quality Framework

January 13, 2017
“Quality is not act. It is a habit.” ~Aristotle Following the successful publication of ISSA's Quality Framework for Early Childhood Practices in Services for Children under Three Years Old during 2016, we have undertaken to make this work available…

ISSA Member in Bosnia Herzegovina Launches Annual Teaching Award

December 19, 2016
The Center for Educational Initiatives Step by Step in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH), has launched a national Annual teaching award aimed at promoting innovative and high-quality preschool, primary and secondary school teachers, with special focus on…

Empowering civil society: 11 Peer Learning Activities organized in 2016

December 19, 2016
ISSA’s Peer Learning Activities (PLAs) offer a unique opportunity for ISSA members to learn from each other experiences, grow their knowledge and strengthen ISSA as a learning community. Each year ISSA members can apply for funding and organize…

ISSA Members - the Power of Partnership

December 14, 2016
During 2015, ISSA undertook a period of strategic planning; a look ahead to the future and how to become a broader network functioning in more countries to deliver high quality early childhood services. Since January this 2016, ISSA has worked with…

Joint statement: Remove systemic barriers to tackle the Roma public health emergency

November 29, 2016
Europe is facing a Roma public health emergency: We, the undersigned organisations are extremely concerned about the alarming health situation of the Roma[1] in Europe and the lack of awareness and actions concerning their situation. It is…

Happy fathers equal happy children

November 25, 2016
Not so long ago we were amazed when a cover of The Economist was linked to one of the key articles titled: How to make a good teacher. This week, The Guardian and the BBC News astonished us by reporting on a study on how children benefit from loving…

International conference on children’s rights in alternative care

November 24, 2016
The international conference on Children’s Rights in Alternative Care, “Walk the Talk” took place on 8 November in Paris. The event was the closing conference of an international project co-funded by the European Commission and coordinated by SOS…

Stronger Together: ISSA members coordinate action on European Quality Framework

November 18, 2016
18 November 2016 – ISSA’s Peer Learning Activities (PLAs) are an instrument of change and a vehicle for sharing best practices among the membership. This week in Amsterdam, organizations from five countries met to strategize on how to introduce the…

Call for Evidence to inform Landscape Analyses on the Early Childhood Workforce

November 18, 2016
In 2015, Results for Development Institute (R4D) and ISSA (International Step by Step Association) jointly launched the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative (ECWI). This global effort supports and empowers those who work with families and young…

Sharing a Treasure of Parenting Resources

November 9, 2016
ISSA members together with UNICEF Regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States and UNICEF Country Offices have worked together to create this database of Parenting Resources in both English and Russian…

ISSA experts contribute article to first book in the 'under threes' Springer series

November 9, 2016
ISSA’s Program Director Mihaela Ionescu and Program Specialist Dawn Tankersley have contributed to the first book in the new Springer series, Under-three Year Olds in Policy and Practice. Their chapter, A Quality Framework for Early Childhood…

American Institutes for Research looks to Europe for Promising Strategies

November 9, 2016
The American Institutes for Research's (AIR) recent study Connecting All Children to High-Quality Early Care and Education has looked at European countries, and identifies how Early Childhood Education being considered a 'child's right' impacts…

More New Members

November 3, 2016
ISSA is delighted to welcome three new members to our network. Over the last couple of month we have successfully processed applications from For Our Children, Bulgaria Rushdi Inclusia, Tajikistan Educational and Social Center SOS Kindergarten,…

Discrimination still the number one issue affecting young Roma and Traveller children

October 28, 2016
Experts and advocates for child’s rights, early childhood development, and Roma inclusion met in Leiden on October 27 to support the growth of REYN-Romani Early Years Network. Building on the network’s experience in providing professional…

In their own words: reflections on ISSA Conference 2016

October 25, 2016
Representatives of ISSA Member Association 21 July, Dzemila Salkanovic and Francesca Colombo share their reflections what it meant and how it felt to be involved in ISSA Conference 2016. Dzemila Salkanovic 'ISSA conference was an experience of…

Early Childhood in Times of Rapid Change delivers meaningful growth for participants

October 20, 2016
Over 300 professionals and experts gathered in Vilnius, Lithuania between 11 and 13 October 2016 to discuss future pathways in the field of Early Childhood Development (ECD). Early Childhood in Times of Rapid Change addressed issues of concern to…

Countdown to ISSA Conference 2016

October 7, 2016
We are now just four days away from ISSA's 2016 Conference. On Tuesday October 13th, over 300 teachers, NGO workers, early years paractitioners and experts will join ISSA to discuss Early Childhood in Times of Rapid Change. The conference looks to…

ISSA’s Powerhouse – Results of the 2015 Membership Survey

September 27, 2016
Last year, 2015, was an outstanding year for ISSA: new members, a new strategic framework for growth until 2018, Peer Learning Activities - which produced dynamic learning and cooperation among members, and a growing portfolio of programmatic…