A good beginning...a better life

Professor Martin Woodhead and senior lecturer John Oates, from the OU’s Child and Youth Studies Group of The Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology (CREET), have received further funding for their Early Childhood in Focus (ECiF) project – a new series of research dissemination publications on global early childhood issues.

The initial grant (€130,000 from the Bernard van Leer Foundation, Netherlands) covered the first three issues in the ECiF series; this new grant of €262,600 is to develop a further six books during 2008/9. Each issue of ECiF is designed to communicate key child rights themes among a range of global audiences.

Issue one, which was edited by John and focuses on ‘Attachment Relationships’, was launched in July 2007. Bringing together theory and evidence from many of the world’s leading experts in early child care and development, this inaugural issue was downloaded almost 4,000 times during the first three months of its availability, and more than 2,000 printed copies were distributed – it is also available in Spanish.

The positive feedback from professionals, politicians, policymakers, academics, and child rights advocates from across Europe, North and South America, Africa, and the Middle East has been highly encouraging for the ECiF series. For example, a senior UNICEF official wrote about ECiF 1: “Congratulations. Easy to read, concise, policy-oriented brief. A rarity in today’s world of never-ending psychobabble that never gets read by anyone who has the power to change policy. Excellent work.”

See www.bernardvanleer.org for more.