More than 120 practitioners, policy makers, academics and students from across Ireland who are involved in the Early Childhood Care and Education sector attended the two-day ‘Our Children, Our Future’ Conference at IT Sligo recently.
Key note speakers at the event were Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald TD, CEO of Barnardo’s, Fergus Finlay, Professor Sheila Greene of Trinity College Dublin and Professor Nóirín Hayes of DIT. International speakers included Professor Diane Levin of Wheelock College, Boston and Professor Ronny Bruffaerts of the University of Leuven, Belgium.
Minister Fitzgerald also formally opened the Institute’s Early Childhood Care and Education Skills Laboratory during her visit.
Among the issues discussed at the conference were the impact of media violence on children; early sexualisation of children; the mental health impacts of childhood adversity; the low representation by men in the sector; and a broad range of policy and practice issues relevant to the professional identity and development of the sector.
Roisin McGlone, chairperson of PLE (Pedagogy Learning Education) and lecturer on IT Sligo’s Early Childhood Care and Education honours degree course, said that the event was a huge success; “The original objective of the conference was to provide a forum for practitioners, policy makers, academics and students to reflect on the past and plan for the future.
From the overwhelmingly positive feedback we continue to receive, this objective has been surpassed and is testament to the collective will to have the voice of the sector heard,” she said.
The conference, the first to provide a forum for reflecting on the past and shaping the future for the children of Ireland, was organised by PLE, a network of 17 third level colleges that provide degree courses in early childhood care and education.
Also involved in supporting this forum were the Irish Social Science Platform, the Border Midlands region of County Childcare Committees, the HSE and IT Sligo.
Image Captions:
First Image- Members of the Oireachtas and IT Sligo staff pictured with Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald TD at the the opening of the Early Childhood Care and Education Skills Laboratory.
Second Image- IT Sligo staff pictured with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald TD at the opening of the Early Childhood Care and Education Skills Laboratory at the Institute.
Third Image-Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald TD with students of the Early Childhood Care and Education Course at IT Sligo. Minister Fitzgerald and Barnardo’s CEO Fergus Finlay were the keynote speakers at a childcare conference called ‘Our Children, Our Future’ hosted at IT Sligo last week. More than 120 delegates attended the event, which was the first of its kind in Ireland.