Zoe’s reflections:

I’ve attended and presented at a variety of conferences, in organisational studies as well as in the early years sector, but the recent EECERA conference was particularly enjoyable. I chaired a session, presented a summary of my doctoral research at another, and finally gave a ‘PED’ talk, which was definitely the most nerve-wracking experience!  It’s like a TED talk, but is ‘PEDagogical’ in nature, and is delivered without notes or slides for no more than 10 minutes. It’s intended to be more personal and narrative, which suits my style! It was a relief and a delight to be given some lovely feedback after each session. The gist of my main talk was that my research confirmed the need for an Ethic of Care to underpin early years provision, both as a moral value and in the way childcare practices are undertaken. The need to prioritise ‘care’ over ‘education’ was the theme of my PED talk, and in the context of government plans to open nurseries in empty classrooms, I think it’s going to be an ongoing concern, particularly for babies and toddlers.

Most of all, though, the conference provided Santa and myself with inspiration for developing our journey to improve our sustainability at Acorn. Between us, we attended a range of presentations, and are still digesting the learning from them. I was particularly inspired by research being done in Nordic Nature Kindergartens, and in another session, the use of sociograms to reflect on relationships between practitioners and their key children. There were also poster presentations and a variety of stands, and the opportunity to network with people working in a wide range of roles within the sector. The chance to catch up with familiar faces, and to meet new friends, from across the globe, not just Europe, was really enjoyable (and that’s from someone who normally avoids ‘networking’ events like the plague!) and the end of conference dinner was a well-deserved treat. We loved the story that 50 years ago, Abba won Eurovision in the conference venue of the Brighton Dome, (and the embarrassing fact that the UK judges awarded them ‘null points’) and there was a lot walking between venues for the different sessions, which provided welcome breaks between talks, although the wind and rain also made for some bedraggled appearances on the final day.

BECERA, the British Early Childhood Research Association, is the original and smaller version of EECERA, and a few years ago, I presented some work that my colleague Aimee and I had done on the benefits of home visits. Engaging in action research is invaluable for our own professional development and it really does help us to improve our practice. It’s one of the benefits of Acorn being a not-for-profit social enterprise, that we can justify spending time on efforts to develop our thinking and improve practice in the long-term, and the sustainability theme of the EECERA conference is probably a big part of why Santa and I enjoyed it so much, as it underpins everything that we’re trying to do. Our next conference is the Nursery World conference on Sustainability, and we now have even more inspiration for the session that we’re delivering!

Santa’s reflections:

As one of the members of Acorn's Action Research Group, at the start of 2024 I conducted a piece of research exploring our staff, families’ and children’s understanding of sustainability. I was really interested in not only feedback on our current eco-friendly approach from the adult groups (which would help to inform the formation of our sustainability strategy), but I was also interested in finding out how is the ambiguous and relatively complex concept of ‘sustainability’ actually understood. And then, how are the children making sense of it all. Afterall, it is important that we share an understanding of the bigger picture and the ‘why’, before talking about the implementation of changes and developments, right? Do we all share an understanding of why sustainability is so important, and do we understand that we all have a part to play towards it?

I was so pleased that my research abstract got accepted to be presented at the European Early Childhood Education Research Association’s annual conference, partly because this was my first ever research conference, and I was so happy to have this experience so early in my career (a big thank you to Zoe for supporting me throughout).

But also I was really looking forward to hearing about the topic from different international perspectives, and have the chance to contribute with an insight from Acorn. The range of research covered was phenomenal, from comparative practitioner beliefs about education for sustainable development in China and Norway, to diving deeper into what the three pillars of sustainability mean within the early years. I particularly enjoyed listening to an ongoing piece of research from a group of Danish researchers who were addressing sustainability through the concept of ‘world-care’ (extending care pedagogy to everything other than human), and emphasising ethics of the human-nature relationship, stepping away from the idea from the West that humans are dominant over nature. It is most certainly the other way around! I was also very glad to see how often within the early years community, Indigenous peoples ways of knowing the world were not only acknowledged but highlighted as key to embedding sustainability!

Myself and Zoe left the conference feeling very inspired and excited about our plans for developing Acorn’s sustainability journey, and we even had two out of the four days in Brighton that were warm and sunny!