15 March 12:00-13:00 (change of date)
Join the Centre for International Education at the University of Sussex for this term’s seminars. More details about this event can be found on the CIE Event page.
Speaker: Professor Eva Lloyd, Professor of Early Childhood in the School of Education and Communities at the University of East London
Topic: Researching Lebanese early childhood education in a perfect storm
Event organised in collaboration with Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth, University of Sussex.
All welcome
Face-to-face in Bramber 120 and on Zoom.
Abstract
The 2019 – 2022 Early Childhood Education in Lebanon study was funded by the British Academy Early Childhood Education Programme and supported under the Global Challenges Research Fund. Undertaken in partnership with Lebanese colleagues at Rafik Hariri University, the project was inspired by Lebanon’s 2016 decision to open its public education system to all children and young people aged 3 to 18, including Syrian child refugees. At the time Lebanon hosted approximately 1.5 million Syrian refugees, half of them children. The 2020 pandemic and major socio-economic and political unrest from autumn 2019 onwards, resulting in widespread poverty among the population, provided a challenging research environment. Nevertheless, this study captured views of low-income Lebanese and Syrian parents, policymakers, NGOs, teachers and headteachers on the provision of early childhood education and its impact. In this seminar I share study findings and some of the practical, emotional, and ethical dilemmas it raised.
Bio
Eva Lloyd OBE is Professor of Early Childhood in the School of Education and Communities at the University of East London and Co-Founder and Director of its International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare. She is also attached as Visiting Professor to University College London’s Thomas Coram Research Unit. Her research focuses on early childhood policies and systems, particularly marketised systems, and their impact on children growing up with disadvantage. She has provided extensive advice to national and international early childhood policymakers, most recently as a member of an Expert Group developing recommendations on a new funding model for the Irish Republic’s early learning and care system.
