March 27th, 2024
Manjula in Memoriam
Manjula’s passing is a huge loss to our ILRF -EC team, her family and community and she will be greatly missed by all!
ILRF team has sent to Manjula’s funeral and wake a wreath with ribbon in the colour of red shades and Eeva has sent a card with beautiful words from Veijo:
February 19th, 2024
Celebrating Early Childhood Leadership – Two International Awards Sponsored by the International Leadership Research Forum (ILRF)
We are excited to announce the establishment of two special awards to celebrate research in Early Childhood Leadership across the world. Both awards are for early career researchers, defined as doctoral researchers working with their PhD research or employed as relatively new post-doctoral researchers.
Both awards recognise critical thinking and creativity of scholars working on early childhood leadership, and are aimed at fostering research leadership within our sector and beyond national borders. These awards are also aimed at encouraging innovative thinking and promote excellence in research that can strengthen theory-practice-policy connections.
At the ILRF Conference award ceremony, the award winners will:
- receive an international certificate of achievement
- be invited to submit a paper based on their PhD research for publication in an ILRF Research Monograph
Eligibility criteria for each award is described below.
Award #1: ILRF Early Childhood Leadership Early Career Scholar Publication Award
Eligibility criteria: To qualify for this award
- applicants must have been awarded their doctorate during the past five years (2018-2023).
- submit a PDF copy of one publication that has been published in the last three years (2020-2023).
- the publication can be a journal article, book chapter, or other peer reviewed written research output.
- write a 500 word statement or submit a 5 minute video of how the publication has stimulated discussion by addressing the judging criteria listed below.
Award #2: ILRF Early Childhood Leadership Doctoral Thesis Award
Eligibility criteria: To qualify for this award
- the thesis must be for a full PhD degree awarded from 1 January 2020.
- a copy of the examiners’ reports must be submitted with the application
- applicants must submit a 1 000-word statement based on their thesis addressing the judging criteria listed below.
Judging criteria and the process for reviewing applications for both awards are the same.
Judging criteria: How does the publication or doctoral thesis
- advance knowledge and understanding of early childhood leadership by making a contribution to theory, practice, research and/or policy?
- stimulate critical thinking and innovation in researching early childhood leadership within their own country and/or world-wide?
- contribute to improvements in policy and/or practice focusing on early childhood leadership?
Process for reviewing applications
An International Panel of ILRF scientific members will be established to assess applications for both awards. There will be three steps as follows:
- Establish that applications meet the criteria for eligibility.
- Assess each eligible application against the judging criteria.
- Select one applicant to receive each award.
The International Panel may also request a copy of the full thesis and any additional information to assist in their decision-making.
Important:
- Applications will remain confidential throughout the review process.
- If the International Panel decides there are no applicants for the award that satisfies the judging criteria, no award will be presented.
- The final decision of the International Panel will be binding. That is, following the announcement of the decision, it will not be open to appeal and there will be no discussion with unsuccessful applicants to justify the decision.
- The Early Career Scholar Publication Award winner will be announced at the closing ceremony of the ILRF conference in 2024.
- The winner of the Doctoral Thesis Award will be contacted early to enable the person to have sufficient time to prepare for a presentation at the conference.
Applicants can self nominate or seek support from their supervisors to nominate them by completing the required documentation. The ILRF conference organizing committee encourages supervisors and colleagues to propose applicants.
Closing date for applications for both awards is: 31 March 2024
If you have any questions concerning these award applications, please contact: manjula.waniganayake@mq.edu.au
ILRF Award Application Form:
December 21st, 2023
ILRF EC 5th book (open access) is now available!
Matshediso Rebecca Modise, Elina Fonsén, Johanna Heikka, Nkidi Phatudi, Marit Bøe &Thembi Phala (eds.) 2023. Global Perspectives on Leadership in Early Childhood Education. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33134/HUP-20
December 8th, 2023
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS IS NOW OPEN!
9th International Leadership Research Forum – Early Childhood (ILRF EC) Conference – Leading High Quality Early Education in Complex Contexts
University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland 9th-11th September 2024
Hosting Department: Institute of Educational Leadership, Department of Education
Contact: Elina Fonsén, elina.k.fonsen@jyu.fi
ILRF EC aims to bring together people involved in Early Childhood Leadership Research, to create an arena for presenting current thinking on theoretical and empirical approaches. The conference also provides a platform for collaborative research, meetings and discussions on specific topics on ECE leadership.
Presentations should focus on research that examines how Early Education leaders face multiple challenges such as the shortage of well qualified staff, and the impact of rapidly changing social, political, and economic developments, climate change and insufficient funding for Early Education. We welcome papers discussing innovative solutions to leadership challenges, reimagining theory and methodology.
Call for abstracts opens: 8th December 2023
Deadline for submissions: 31st January 2024
Abstract Acceptance Feedback: 15th March 2024
Abstract Submission Requirements:
Your abstract (Approx. 200 words) should include the title of the paper and 2–3 keywords. In addition, please provide all the authors’ full name and contact information, institution, and affiliation. The abstracts should be sent by https://link.webropol.com/s/ILRFEC2024
October 5th, 2023
The 9th ILRFEC conference in Jyväskylä, Finland September 9th-11th, 2024
International Leadership Research Forum – Early Childhood (ILRF EC) Conference 2024 – Leading High Quality Early Education in Complex Contexts
Call for abstracts will be sent shortly and the deadline for submissions will be 31st January 2024.
The abstract acceptance notifications will be sent by 15th March 2024.
July 6th, 2023
ILRF EC 5th book is coming soon!
Modise, M, Fonsén, E., Heikka, J., Phatudi, N., Bøe, M. & Phala, T. (Eds.) Global Perspectives on Leadership in Early Childhood Education. Helsinki University press.
Estimated publishing date 2023/2024.
May 3rd, 2023/6th July 2023
ILRF EC 4th book (open access) is now available!
Fonsén, E., Ahtiainen, R., Heikkinen, K-M. E., Heikonen, L., Strehmel, P., & Tamir, E. (Eds.) (2023). Early Childhood Education Leadership in Times of Crisis: International Studies During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Verlag Barbara Budrich. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.2430379
Read the editors’ interview:
November 8th, 2022
ILRF EC 4th book is coming soon!
Estimated publishing date 2022/2023.
November 8th, 2022
News from ILRF meeting in Azerbaijan
August 22nd, 2022
ILRF meeting in Azerbaijan
International Leadership Research Forum – Early Childhood (LRF EC) Conference will be hosted at ADA University. ILRF EC Conference was hosted at ADA University 29th – 31th August 2022.
August 25th, 2022: See conference agenda
November 12th, 2020
ILRF meeting in Azerbaijan now in 2022
Due to uncertain global and local conditions, the ILRF meeting in Azerbaijan scheduled for September 2021 is postponed to year 2022.
May 5th, 2020
The 8th ILRFEC takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan in September 2021
The 8th ILRFEC meeting will take place at ADA University, Baku, Azerbaijan 23rd – 24th September 2021.
The organizer: ADA University, School of Education, www.ada.edu.az
Address: Ahmadbey Aghaoghlu str. 11
Baku, Azerbaijan, AZ1008
Contact person: Ulviyya Mikayilova, umikailova@ada.edu.az
More information and an abstract call will be issued in the fall of 2020.
Welcome!
April 3rd, 2020
International Leadership Research Forum and the Editors are happy to announce the fifth ILRF publication focusing on the different aspects of Leadership in the context of Early Childhood Education:
‘Global Perspectives of Leadership in Early Childhood Education and Care’
Editors: Dr Matshediso Rebecca Modise, Prof Nkidi Caroline Phatudi, Dr Phala, Dr Johanna Heikka and Dr Elina Fonsén
August 19th, 2019
ILRFEC third free access publication is published!
Petra Strehmel, Johanna Heikka, Eeva Hujala, Jillian Rodd & Manjula Waniganayake (Eds.). (2019). Leadership in Early Education in Times of Change. Research from five Continents.
The book can be downloaded from our site!
May 15th, 2019
The 7th ILRFEC takes place in Pretoria, South Africa, in September 2019
The 7th ILRFEC meeting will take place at University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa 25th – 27th September 2019.
Welcome!
June 4th, 2018
The 3rd ILRFEC-monograph will be published in December 2018
The 6th International Leadership Research Forum Early Childhood (ILRFEC) took place in at the University of applied sciences in Hamburg, Germany from 3rd to 6th of September 2017 with 50 participants. Most of the papers of the conference will be published in the ILRFEC-monograph #3:
Petra Strehmel, Johanna Heikka, Eeva Hujala, Jillian Rodd, Manjula Waniganayake (Eds.) Leadership in Early Education in Times of Change. Research from five Continents.
The collection brings together the latest work of researchers from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America focusing on early childhood leadership matters. It covers different aspects of leadership in early education: professional education and development, identity and leadership strategies as well as governance and leadership under different frame conditions. National perspectives are added by international comparisons.
This book will be published in 2019. A paperback will be available from Columbia University Press.
September 1st, 2017
Articles of ILRFEC second publication
Manjula Waniganayake, Jillian Rodd & Leanne Gibbs (Eds.). (2015). Thinking and Learning about Leadership: Early childhood research from Australia, Finland and Norway
can be downloaded from our site!
March 3rd, 2017
The 6th ILRFEC – CALL FOR PAPERS
6th International Leadership Research Forum Early Childhood (ILRFEC) 3rd – 5th (6th) September 2017 at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany Alexanderstr. 1 in 20099 Hamburg.
September 11th, 2015
The 5th ILRFEC – CALL FOR PAPERS EXTENDED!
Call for papers for 5th ILRFEC meeting at University of Eastern Finland in Savonlinna, Finland 9th-11th December 2015 is extended to September 20th, 2015.
March 9th, 2015
Quality Childhood Conference International 2015 (QCCI 2015) at The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) on 18-19 June 2015
All ILRFEC members are invited to participate to the Quality Childhood conference on June 2015. More information and call for papers >>
November 13th, 2014
The 5th ILRFEC meeting at University of Eastern Finland in Savonlinna, Finland 9th-11th December 2015
More information and call for papers >>
August 12th, 2014
Conference abstracts and presentations
Conference abstracts and presentations can be found from Conferences-menu >> choose conference.
June 10th-12th, 2014
ILRFEC meeting in Trondheim, June 2014
The ILRFEC meeting will take place at Queen Maud University College of Early Childhood Education (QMUC) in Trondheim, Norway 10th -12th June 2014.
The aim of the ILRF is to gather people involved in early childhood leadership research, and to create an arena for presenting leadership research.
Articles of Researching Leadership in Early Childhood Education can be downloaded from our site!
December 9th-12th, 2013
An exciting leadership event is happening in Sydney on the 11th of December!
Macquarie University and Community Child Care Cooperative NSW has come together to host a research symposium based on current research on early childhood leadership matters.
Some of the most influential early childhood leadership scholars are amongst the presenters.This is a unique opportunity to listen to these scholars about their current research. It is the first time that so many early childhood scholars focusing on leadership matters are coming together in Australia.
August 26th, 2013
ILRFEC publication out now!
Our publication Researching Leadership in Early Childhood Education is now available! For more information please click here.