The year 2011 has seen a rise in interest in the theme of gender balance in the ECEC work force, at least in Germany. We have now contact with experts from 19 countries worldwide who are interested in issues of gender and male/female workers in ECEC. With this newsletter, we inform about some previous and forthcoming events. In 2012, we want to renew our mailing list and intend to form a “Special Interest Group” within EECERA, Europes most influential independent association promoting research on early childhood and its applications to policy and practice.
21st EECERA 2011 in Switzerland
EECERA Annual Conference is the largest and most significant early years’ research conference in Europe, regularly attracting more than 600 researchers from all over the world. The conference in september 2011 in Geneva covered a broad range of themes, including two symposia on gender with colleagues from our network: “Gender in peer- and adult-child-relations in ECEC” and “More men in ECE: Strategies towards a gender-balanced work force”. You can download all presentations from the symposia on our website – http://www.koordination-maennerinkitas.de/literatur/ –> go to “Dokumentationen” at the bottom of page.
EECERA Special Interest Group “gender balance”
Several colleagues from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Norway interested in gender issues in ECEC met on the EECERA in Geneva and discussed possibilities of further collaboration. They agreed in founding a “Special interest group” (SIG) on “Gender balance” within EECERA could serve the purpose of bringing the theme more into the focus of ECE research. There is also support from members of the EECERA Board for this idea.
Tim Rohrmann will be one of the convenors and will write a proposal for the SIG. For this, we need at least five colleagues from different countries who are members of EECERA and are interested in joining the group. Please contact Tim if you want to support the SIG.
As one subject, we will initiate Self Organised Symposia on the next EECERA conference, see below.
International conferences in 2012 – 22nd EECERA 2012 in Portugal
The 22nd Annual EECERA Conference will be held from 29th august to 1st september in Oporto, Portugal. http://eecera12.ese.ipp.pt/
The main theme is “Pre-Birth to Three: Identities, Learning, Diversities”. We intend to organise one or two SOS (self organised symposia) on gender / men. These could well be located in the conference strands “European/international overviews on policies, research, practices, teacher education, professionalism” or “Early education and diversities”. One focus could be gender balance in teacher education, another on the role of men and the relations of male and female co-workers.
If you are interested to contribute, please come in contact with Tim soon! <rohrmann@koordination-maennerinkitas.de>. Final date for submissions of abstracts and proposals is 22nd February 2012, so contributions have to be sent in in January.
International conference Men in Early Childhood Education and Care in Germany
The German coordination office for men in ECEC invites to an international conference on the 27th and 28th of September 2012 in Berlin, sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. We would very much like to welcome you on the conference. Information about the conference will be sent out with seperate mail.
English website of German Coordination office for men in Kitas (ECEC) relaunched
We also have relaunched our english website. Several pages have been translated and inform about the work of the coordination office, the ESF pilot program with regional projects all over Germany, and national and international research. Visit http://www.koordination-maennerinkitas.de/en/ to find out more.
Hope to meet you next year in Berlin, Oporto or elsewhere!
Best regards,
Tim & the team of the coordination office.
—
Dr. Tim Rohrmann
Koordinationsstelle Maenner in Kitas
Coordination office men in ECE
Katholische Hochschule fuer Sozialwesen
Catholic High School of Applied Sciences
Koepenicker Allee 39-57
D-10318 Berlin
fon +49 (0)151 531 900 21
mail rohrmann (at) koordination-maennerinkitas.de
web http://www.koordination-maennerinkitas.de