The Froebel Trust Lecture 2024 considers "slow, deep, unhurried learning" for children in early years settings and schools today. Recorded in Nov 2024.
Everyday life is increasingly pressured and hurried for many families, young children and for those working in early years settings and schools.
Guest speaker Professor Alison Clark's highly acclaimed research looks at the impact of this 'hurry' on children's learning and experiences - from national testing, inspections, the drive to 'catch-up' or 'close the gap' and an ongoing emphasis in the early years sector on getting young children ‘school ready’.
In the 2024 Froebel Trust lecture Alison Clark makes the case for slowing down our approach to early childhood education - making time to listen to children, nurture deeper learning and ensure all children can thrive in our education systems today.
Alison was joined by experienced early years leader Donna Green who reflects on recent work with teams of educators in Scotland embedding a slower approach into the curriculum in early years settings and schools. What does a 'slow pedagogy' look like in practice? And what difference can it really make?
The event is Chaired by Catriona Gill, Froebel Trust Trustee.
Prof. Alison Clark and Donna Green have written a pamphlet for the Froebel Trust, 'Time for childhood: Slow pedagogy' published in November 2024 which you can download for free.
Speakers
Professor Alison Clark, Professor of Early Childhood Education, University of South-Eastern Norway and early childhood consultant based in Orkney, Scotland.
Alison is Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education, London. Together with Professor Peter Moss, she developed the Mosaic approach (Clark and Moss, 2001; Clark, 2017), a methodology for listening to and engaging with young children’s views and experiences and now widely developed and adapted by researchers and educators.
Her recent ‘Slow knowledge and the unhurried child’ study was funded by the Froebel Trust, published by Routledge in 2023 and named Professional book of the year in the Nursery World Awards. Alison is currently engaged in research with educators about ‘slow practices’ in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Scotland, Norway, Iceland and Japan. Based in Orkney, Scotland, Alison is also a practicing artist.
Donna Green, Head of Woodlands early learning and childcare centre, Falkirk Council, Scotland.
Donna has worked in early years for over 30 years and advocates as an early childhood pedagogue. Founder and leader of the Falkirk Froebel network which began in 2019, following on from her University of Edinburgh, Froebel in Childhood Practice certificate course, then graduated MSc Ed (Early Childhood Practice and Froebel) in 2021, where her dissertation researched ‘Exploring slow pedagogy through a Froebelian lens'. In 2022, Donna led a Froebel Trust grant funded collaboration project ‘Implementing slow pedagogy through Froebelian principled practice’. She has a published chapter in The Bloomsbury Handbook to Friedrich Froebel (2023).
Chair
Catriona Gill is a Froebel Trust Trustee and joined the Early Years team at Education Scotland in 2021 - following more than 20 years in teaching roles. Her last teaching position was as Head Teacher of Greengables Nursery School and Family Centre in Edinburgh. Having gained the Froebel and Childhood Practice Certificate from the University of Edinburgh in 2008, she now shares her expertise with current students as a part-time tutor on the University of Edinburgh Froebel in Childhood Practice courses.
