Watch our online conference featuring a celebration of Froebel Trust funded research and practice development projects. Across three sessions, researchers and educators present findings from their projects.
Our 2026 Online Conference celebrated research and practice development projects, funded by the Froebel Trust.
Our first session 'Involving' includes projects that demonstrate the importance of the Froebelian principle of Unity and Connectedness in research. Each project focuses on either involving educators as researchers, parents of children with additional needs and/or prioritising children's voices.
Access the reports:
- Using wearable technology to explore freedom with guidance in outdoor nursery | Karen Vincent and Polly Bolshaw
- The impact of involving grand-friends in children's lives | Sue Egersdorff, Kay Heslop, Charmaine Agius Ferrante and Liz Ludden
- Including children with special education needs in woodwork | Janice Marriott
The second session 'Informing' focuses on the ways projects can support 'knowledgeable and nurturing educators' by making connections between policy and Froebelian practice in different contexts.
Access the reports:
- Dialogising Froebelian philosophy in action: Early intercultural insights | Dr Lynn J McNair, Bridgette Redder, Dr Leah O'Toole and Professor E. Jayne White
- Making connections: Froebel's principles and practices in Wales | Dr Sian Sarwar
The final session 'Inspiring' considers how our projects support the development of knowledge that can transform the practice.
Access the reports:
- Connecting everyday, principled resistances in early childhood education | Jo Albin-Clark
- Block Play indoors and outdoors | Rebecca Goulding and Alex Powell
About the speakers
Session 1
Dr Karen Vincent | Polly Bolshaw
Senior Lecturer in Early Years, Canterbury Christ Church University
Polly Bolshaw is a Senior Lecturer in Early Years whose research focuses on young children's experiences outdoors, including a Professional Doctorate exploring babies' perspectives of outdoor environments.
Sue Edgersdorff | Kay Heslop | Dr Charmaine Agius Ferrante | Liz Ludden
Researchers & Practitioners, Ready Generations / Northumbria University
This team brings together community activism, intergenerational research and early years practice. Their collaborative work explores the impact of involving older adults — 'grand-friends' — in the lives of young children within a Froebelian-inspired nursery setting.
Janice Marriott
Head of TuffKid Nursery, Kisharon Langdon
Janice leads TuffKid, an orthodox Jewish nursery where a third of children have complex needs. With an MA in integrated early years provision, she has guided the nursery on its Froebelian journey for over a decade.
Session 2
Dr Lynn J McNair | Bridgette Redder | Dr Leah O'Toole | Professor E. Jayne White
International Researchers, Universities of Edinburgh, Canterbury, Maynooth & Te Rito Maioha NZ
This international team of scholars brings together Froebelian philosophy, dialogic pedagogy and early childhood policy from across Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand and Aotearoa to explore how Froebelian thought travels and transforms across cultural contexts.
Dr Sian Sarwar
Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies, Cardiff Metropolitan University
Sian's research centres on curriculum, pedagogy and children's participation rights. Her current Froebel Trust project explores connections between Froebel's principles and the new Curriculum for Wales.
Session 3
Dr. Jo Albin-Clark
Lecturer and Researcher, Edge Hill University
Jo's research draws on feminist materialisms and posthuman theories to explore documentation practices in early childhood education, with a focus on everyday acts of resistance and creative pedagogical possibility.
Rebecca Goulding | Alex Powell
Senior Advisory Teachers, Cardiff Flying Start
Becci and Alex support practitioners across Cardiff's Flying Start settings. Both have completed Froebel Elements training and are passionate advocates for Froebelian principles in everyday early years practice.
