Cape Town - The South African Research Association of Early Childhood Care and Education (SARAECE) will launch its first e-publication by bringing together an array of voices within the sector.

“Voices from the Early Childhood Care and Education Field in South Africa: Research and Promising Practices for New Directions”, was borne out of the SARAECE conference held in July 2021.

The e-publication will be launched on Tuesday, at the Cape Town Museum of Childhood, 3 Milner Road, Rondebosch.

The book consists of 32 articles by 32 lead authors with an additional 41 authors and five editors.

The authors are a combination of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) principals, teachers, researchers, academics, non-profit organisation directors and programme managers.

Co-editor and Centre for Early Childhood Development researcher Michaela Ashley-Cooper said the articles are a combination of summaries of research conducted in the sector as well as reporting on interventions and programmes implemented in the ECCE sector in South Africa.

“We wanted to share a wide range of themes that not only shared research (something that is the case with most conference proceedings) but also work on the ground such as food issues, using technology to communicate; understanding concepts like transformative pedagogy and using loose parts to develop creative teaching, to name but a few.”

The objective of the publication was to share the innovative work currently taking place and continues despite the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as to illustrate the passion and positive mindset of the sector despite huge challenges facing the sector.

Anyone interested or working in the field of ECCE and ECD, funders, undergraduate and postgraduate students, teacher trainers/ facilitators, and government officials would be able to derive benefit from the publication.

Outgoing SARAECE president and co-editor Dr Giulietta Harrison said: “This publication is a first for SARAECE and represents our mission to disseminate current knowledge about our sector, share research and bring the multi-faceted aspects of ECCE together as collaboratively we can make a difference.”

The book will be available on the SARAECE, Africa A Plus Schools, and the Centre for Early Childhood Development websites.

shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za

Cape Argus