Our Completed Work
2025
The Practitioner Inquiry Programme: Building a bridge between research and pedagogy
In February 2024, Early Childhood Ireland members had the opportunity to engage with a new and exciting practitioner inquiry programme, titled ‘Practitioner Inquiry – bridging the gap between research and pedagogy’
We are delighted to share with you the impact of this programme through our publication, Towards Transformative Practitioner Inquiry in Ireland’s Early Years and School Age Care Settings. The publication describes the Practitioner Inquiry framework as a transformative research-based system to support improvements to practice, showing better experiences and outcomes for children because the research was carried out by the practitioners in their own settings.
You can read more here.
Evaluation of the Leadership for Inclusion in the Early Years (LINC) Programme
Early Childhood Ireland is a partner in the LINC Programme Consortium, with the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education at Maynooth University, led by Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.
LINC Level 6 Programme Evaluation
The Interim Evaluation of the Leadership for Inclusion in the Early Years (LINC) Programme (June 2019) evaluated the outcomes of participation in the programme on knowledge(s), practices, and values on leading inclusion in Early Years settings from 2016–2017.
The Final Evaluation of Phase One of the Leadership for Inclusion in the Early Years (LINC) Programme 2016–2020 (June 2024) provides evidence that the programme is having a positive effect on the inclusive culture, practice and pedagogy within settings and has the potential to positively impact the lives of children and families.
The evaluation of Phase Two of the LINC Programme (2021–2024) is currently underway.
LINC+ CPD Programme Evaluation
The Interim Evaluation of the Leadership for Inclusion in the Early Years Continuing Professional Development (LINC+ CPD) Programme 2021 – 2023 (April 2025) evidenced the programme’s progress in consolidating and deepening the existing knowledge(s), practices, and values of LINC graduates in their role as INclusion CO-ordinator (INCO) in its first three packages.
The final evaluation is ongoing.
For further information, please see the LINC Programme website: www.lincprogramme.ie or contact Liz Kerrins at [email protected].
Barnahus Consultation
Early Childhood Ireland was commissioned in 2024 by The Children’s Rights Division (DGII) of the Council of Europe to undertake this consultation for the development of a Communication Strategy for Barnahus in Ireland. The consultation with children aged three to 12 years in four Early Years and School Age Care settings aimed to ensure that their feedback is central to communication so that the visual identity and key messages of Barnahus Ireland resonate with and are easily accessible to them. The process was guided by the well-known Lundy model (2007), to promote children’s meaningful participation. The Lundy model emphasises feedback as a strategy for delivering influence and demonstrating decision-makers accountability. This means ensuring that children are told how their views were taken into account.
Our feedback to the children who participated is available here.
For further information, please contact Carmel at [email protected]
2024
Child Safeguarding Research
In 2023 and 2024, Early Childhood Ireland researched our members’ perspectives on and experiences of Child Safeguarding practices and setting culture, through a national member survey and structured interviews as there is little research on this subject.
For further information, please contact Carmel Ward at [email protected].
Leadership in Early Years and School Age Care settings
This 2024 in-house review of international and Irish research on leadership in Early Years (EY) and School Age Care (SAC) settings reflects on the implications of the evidence for Irish policy on workforce development and building an EY and SAC system.
This report will be published in late 2024.
For further information, please contact Liz Kerrins at [email protected].
Childminding Research
Following a competitive tendering process, Early Childhood Ireland commissioned the Centre for Educational Achievement, Stranmillis University College (SUC), Belfast to undertake a ‘rapid review’ of the research evidence in 2024 on the determinants of positive experiences and outcomes for children from birth to 15 years who participate in Childminding services.
The full report is available here.
The Executive Summary is available here.
For further information, please contact Liz at [email protected]
Enhancing Quality in Family Day Care (Childminding)
‘QualFDC’ was a peer learning project, led by Early Childhood Ireland, with Aarhus University (Denmark), VBJK (Centre for the Innovation in Early Years) and Vlaams Welzijnsverbond (Flanders, Belgium) and funded by the Erasmus+ Programme. The partners explored governance and management systems, workforce development, and recruitment and retention strategies to strengthen Childminding in the EU. Project objectives were achieved through three learning, teaching and training activities. The project identified the pre-conditions for quality Childminding in a final learning report and video, which are available on the project website: https://projects.au.dk/qualfdc
For further information, please contact Liz Kerrins at [email protected].
Consultation with Babies, Toddlers and Young Children
The Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education at Maynooth University, Early Childhood Ireland and Stranmillis University College won a public tender in 2021 to consult with babies, toddlers and young children as part of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment’s stakeholder consultation to update Aistear, the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework. The consultation was implemented in two phases. The report of phase 1 was published in 2023, and the report of phase 2 was published in 2024.
For further information, please contact Carmel Ward at [email protected].
Our World of Languages (OWL) Project
In 2022, Early Childhood Ireland and Mother Tongues partnered on the Our World of Languages (OWL) Project, a small-scale, evidence-based, arts-based storytelling pilot project. This project was supported by the RTÉ Toy Show Appeal in association with Community Foundation Ireland.
We used the learning from the implementation and an independent evaluation commissioned from the Froebel Department, Maynooth University of the OWL Project to develop the OWL Provocation Pack, to strengthen linguistically responsive pedagogy in preschools.
For further information, please contact Liz Kerrins at [email protected].
2023
Outdoor Play Spaces in Irish Early Years Settings
This report of a national online survey of Early Childhood Ireland members, conducted in 2022, undertook a baseline assessment of the features of members’ Early Years Outdoor Play spaces. The findings contribute new national data exploring the physical characteristics of outdoor environments in Irish Early Years settings.
For further information, please contact Liz Kerrins at [email protected].
Valuing Outdoor Play Conference Proceedings
This report shares the proceedings of Early Childhood Ireland’s conference, Valuing Outdoor Play, held on 29 March 2023. This conference engaged Irish and international stakeholders in research-based dialogue on the actions required to reform the Irish regulation and inspection system, to enable our members to deliver high-quality outdoor experiences for children in Early Years settings.
For further information, please contact Liz Kerrins at [email protected].
2022 and before
National Early Years Research Day Proceedings
Early Childhood Ireland held National Early Years Research events in-person and online. Three volumes of peer-reviewed papers from participants were published from 2019 to 2022.
You can access the Research Day Proceedings here:
National Early Years Research Day Proceedings – Volume 1
National Early Years Research Day Proceedings – Volume 2
National Early Years Research Day Proceedings – Volume 3
For further information, please contact Kathleen Tuite at [email protected].
Dealing with the Pandemic: The case of Early Years and School Age care Providers in Ireland
Early Childhood Ireland published a qualitative research project with our members in 2020. The study’s purpose was to explore how the policy choices made by the Government impacted the EY and SAC sector during the COVID-19 pandemic and how providers saw the post-pandemic reality for their work.
You can access the final report.
For further information, please contact Frances Byrne at: [email protected].
Aistear in Action Initiative: Final Report
This research report of a National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and Early Childhood Ireland partnership gathered practitioners’ experiences of using the then newly-introduced Aistear: The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework (2009) to develop and enrich the curriculum they provided for preschool children. The report provides vital insights into the process of curriculum change and development in services and important messages about supporting and enabling curriculum change in the Early Years sector.
You can access the final report here.
For further information, please contact Liz Kerrins at: [email protected].
Quality though Professionalisation: Local Evaluation of the Tallaght National Early Years Access Initiative
Early Childhood Ireland was commissioned by the Tallaght National Early Years Access Initiative (NEYAI) consortium to evaluate its Quality Through Professionalisation Programme in 2014, which delivered an accredited training programme supporting the implementation of Aistear and Síolta in High Scope pre-school settings. The Tallaght NEYAI was supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies, Mount Street Club Trustees, the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, the Department of Education and Skills and Pobal.
You can access the final report here.
For further information, please contact Liz Kerrins at: [email protected].
