Skip to content

Special Interest Group

Children, Childhoods and Early Education

The Children, Childhoods, and Early Education (CCEE) SIG brings together researchers, practitioners, and students to explore and advance interdisciplinary understandings of children’s lives from early childhood through to later stages and offers space to explore ways for stakeholders to work together for the benefits of children, their families and communities. It focuses on recognition of agency and capacity of children including the very young in constructing their learning and life experiences. It also deepens understanding of how children’s experiences, learning, development, and well-being are shaped by educational, social, cultural, and policy contexts, both in the UK and internationally.

Research interests include:

  • Children’s agency, play, and wellbeing
  • Children’s rights and child participation  
  • Curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment
  • Early childhood pedagogy, policy, professionalism, and workforce
  • Childhoods in global context
  • Childhood transitions and life-course studies
  • Digital literacies, equity, inclusivity,  and sustainability
  • Spaces, places, and relationships in children’s lives
  • Ethics and participatory approaches in research with children

The SIG aims to:

  • Promote innovative, critical research across early childhood and childhood studies
  • Interrogate education-care boundaries and transitions in children’s lives
  • Challenge assumptions and stereotypes associated with early childhood and children
  • Enhance and promote equity, inclusion, and justice in early childhood education and care
  • Advocate for children, their families and early childhood profession   
  • Support collaboration across disciplines and with other SIGs
  • Encourage mentoring, networking, and publication opportunities
  • Influence practice and policy through knowledge exchange and research innovations 

BERA Children, Childhoods, and Early Education SIG Forum

 

SIG Convenors

Profile picture of Marco Antonio Delgado-Fuentes
Marco Antonio Delgado-Fuentes, Dr

Senior Lecturer at University of Derby

Dr Marco Antonio Delgado-Fuentes is a Senior Lecturer of Childhood and Education and works for the Institute of Education at the University of Derby. He has worked in other universities in Mexico and the UK. He has been an advisor for UNICEF, the...

Beckee Everitt, Mrs

Operations Director at University of Northampton

As an Operations Director for a small group of PVI early years settings, I bring a wealth of experience and expertise in the field of early childhood education. Currently pursuing my PhD, my research focuses on studying leadership in early years...

Profile picture of Fengling Tang
Fengling Tang, Dr

Senior Lecturer at University of Roehampton

I am a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies, Centre for Learning, Teaching and Human Development, School of Education, University of Roehampton. I had worked in schools and further education in China and a nursery school in London before I...

Content associated with this SIG

BERA Educational Research Book of the Year

Closes 22 Jul 2025

This award celebrates the publication of educational research and is awarded to a scholarly book on education deemed to be high quality, engaging and innovative.

AwardOpen

BERA celebrates 10 years of the BERA Blog

2025 marks 10 years of the BERA Blog, and we’re so proud of all that it has accomplished! Thank you to all those who have contributed to the Blog, whether as authors, editors, or readers. The...

BERA in the news6 May 2025

10 years of the BERA Blog

This blog series celebrates one decade of the BERA Blog, as an important and growing space to explore current and varied issues and questions of concern to the education community. To mark this...

Blog Series