The TRACKs project was based on a partnership between different institutions and early childhood education and care (ECEC) service providers from three countries: Poland, Italy and Belgium. The University institutions actively involved in the project were: the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland), the University of Bologna (Italy) and the University of Ghent (Belgium). Since the purpose of the project was to actively promote research-based professional development, the training institutions and ECEC service providers taking part in this endeavour were: Arteveldehogeschool in Belgium, the Komensky Institute in Poland, and the Cooperativa Assistenza Disabili Infermi Anziani Infanzia (CADIAI) in Italy. The main objective of the TRACKs was to offer high quality learning opportunities to ECEC professionals currently working with children aged 0 to 6 years old and to prospective professionals still in teacher training, with the aim of promoting more inclusive educational practices within early childhood settings. Compared to the plans we added one more target group: teachers in process of formal professional promotion (in Polish context). To gain access to all these target groups we planned, as mentioned above, the cooperation between academics and practitioners within the project. Now, after completing the project, we can confirm that such concept was an effective way of creating, implementing and promoting of educational innovations.As everyday practice enacted in early childhood settings has a profound impact on children’s development, wellbeing and sense of belonging, ECEC practitioners take centre stage in this process: sustaining the professional competence of ECEC practitioners is crucial for allowing educational change to happen within these institutions. Earlier studies demonstrate that action-research initiatives addressed towards professionalisation of ECEC staff by focusing on the analysis of daily interactions with children, have very positive effects on enhancing practitioners’ reflexive competences: from this perspective, video coaching becomes an effective tool for improving the quality and inclusiveness of ECEC services. Nevertheless, the challenge for the ECEC professional is to act with foresight, providing children who have fewer experiential opportunities in the home-context with additional experiences, encouragement and support to achieve their full potential. Starting from the above assumptions, the main goals of the project were:a)to explore which aspects of daily practices in ECEC settings contribute to promoting children’s learning and wellbeing in contexts of diversity (heterogeneous groups) b)to analyse these aspects by engaging with practitioners in reflective processes fostering their professional growth and a shared vision of inclusive practice within the team c)to provide equitable learning opportunities and nurturing environments for all children, especially those coming from multiply marginalised backgrounds experiencing social inequalities, poverty and exclusion.To sum up we conducted research and video coaching in ten ECEC settings with app. 100 professionals (teachers, educators or care workers) directly involved:a)in Italy two ECEC settings were selected, both located in the city of Bologna (Emilia-Romagna). Both services are run by the local project partner Cooperativa Sociale Cadiai. b)in Belgium (Flanders), in cooperation with pedagogical guidance services of the municipality of Ghent, two ECEC-settings combining kindergarten and pre-school education and out of school care, have been chosen. c)In Poland, two case-studies have been devised. The first case study included two ECEC centres as representatives of metropolitan ECEC provision (one located in Katowice and one in Cracow), while the second case study included four small ECEC settings in the peripherally positioned Podkarpackie region.Next groups of beneficiaries were professionals, students and NGO educators who took part in our „train the trainer” program (app. 300 persons). We plan to continue video-coaching trainings and to use the outputs and other project’s result in teaching future professionals. Moreover, Komensky Institute would like to use project’s Toolbox in online work via platform with cooperating professionals (esp. coming from distanced rural areas).The main findings of the TRACKs project show that adopting video-analysis-and-coaching as a research/training method in ECEC services can contribute to: (1) promoting practitioners’ individual and collective reflection on children’s intentionality, (2) de-constructing taken-for-granted assumptions through pedagogical guidance in teams, (3) improving enacted practices through action-research and experimentation.We plan to actively promote the outputs of the project (tools), practical partners already introduced them to their practice, academic partners plan to continue using the results of the project in teaching process.

Good quality Early Childhood Education and Care (henceforth ECEC) has a beneficial influence on children's later school careers, especially when they have disadvantaged backgrounds. But the ECEC sector is not highly valued in society. Furthermore, the instruction quality in European ECEC settings is moderate-to-low, and vulnerable in settings with many disadvantaged children. Professionals struggle to respond to the challenges of diversity, and often do not focus on children's competences to cope with diversity. Although there is a growing research base on what works to improve these issues, those research insights are not fully known to the ECEC community and not yet adopted in practice on a large scale. This project aimed to improve the bridge between research and practice by launching a blog in each partner country for ECEC professionals and other stakeholders. Central topics were the societal value of ECEC, ECEC for disadvantaged children, high process quality, valuing diversity, and teaching children competences to deal with diversity. Bloggers were teacher educators and researchers, who strengthened their pivotal role between research and practice. They made scientific research accessible and attractive to ECEC teachers, reflected on current practices and innovations, and stimulated ECEC teachers to adopt an inquisitive and innovative attitude in their own classroom practice. Bidirectional communication between the professionals and the bloggers was improved by the invitation of guest bloggers, by addressing the needs of the professionals in the blog posts, by the organization of multiplier events with ample room for discussion, and the integration in social media communities that foster discussion. Based on the professionals' preference to discuss relevant topics within their own teams, the blog messages contained reflective questions, and advice was given to use the blogs during team professionalization.Apart from these national blogs, we set up a European blog in English with the same scope, but a different target group. Here ECEC experts, such as teacher educators, researchers, policymakers, and senior teachers with a good command of English, were targeted. Blog messages from the European blog were translated and adapted to the national blogs, and vice versa, to raise the visibility of ongoing research and innovation in the European context. This European blog was helpful to reach the field of ECEC in other European countries and to ensure strong connections and collaboration between the national blogs.The quality of the blogs was monitored following the development of guidebooks with quality guidelines and procedures, and improved by means of PDCA-cycles including focus groups, data analysis, an online questionnaire, and professionalization of the bloggers. These guidebooks help establish and maintain high-quality blogs after the end of the project. Furthermore, the guidebooks may inspire similar initiatives in other countries. To this end, we presented the outcomes of the project at national and international conferences. Leaflets were developed to support guest bloggers and blog readers to use the blog in their teams. Other project activities aimed at the further dissemination of the blogs. Apart from traditional dissemination activities, we made extensive and smart use of social media. For example, existing large Facebook communities of ECEC professionals were addressed. Popular YouTube videos featuring young children were integrated in the blog posts. Reference to the blogs on existing websites, blogs, and professional magazines was fostered. During the COVID19 pandemic, project partners discovered webinars were good means to disseminate the blogs and increase discussion and exchange about the blog themes. Between September 2019 and August 2020 we had over 280.000 visitors of the blogs altogether, including ECEC teachers, teacher educators, researchers, and policymakers.Based on the Internet survey conducted within the last months of the project, we know that this project strengthened ECEC teachers' and teacher educators' research-based insights in the central topics of the project, increased awareness of social inclusion, increased a positive attitude towards research and innovation, and strengthened the open learning community of ECEC teacher educators, teachers, researchers, and policymakers. Blog readers used insights from the blogs in their own practice. In the end, this project will lead to innovations in ECEC settings and professionalization initiatives that will infuse insights from research and innovation in the partner countries concerning our central topics. We expect the European blog to be an effective tool to spread research-based insights at an international level and increase international awareness of European expertise in the field of ECEC.

The main aim of the project BRIDGING is to improve the quality of the practices in early childhood education through participation of children, educators and cultural staff in artistic projects in public spaces, helping young children and adults to become active European citizens, fostering creativity, collaboration, and communication. The reason and need for the project comes from the fact that societies are becoming increasingly diverse and educators need new tools to acknowledge such diversity in a way that is aligned with European values, contributing to active citizenship and democratic, inclusive, social cohesive societies. Essential to BRIDGING is the strong collaboration between and within each country, involving not only school settings, but also cultural institutions and universities. The collaboration between children, the educational settings and the multiple spaces of the city, within and across countries, will facilitate new ways of looking, thinking and acting upon the local and global urban environment. Based on an action-research design methodology, several cycles of inquiry, inquiry-search, exploration-registration, and dissemination will be carried out collaboratively, both outside and inside schools, using art and digital tools as a means of exploration and communication. The use of arts and ICT aims to help inspire and expand young children’s horizons contributing to open minded and positive reflection upon differences and diversities. The exploration of their own city and other’s cities will help children to develop knowledge and attitudes related to European citizenship likely to influence lifelong learning skills. Interdisciplinary collaboration between the different international partners intends to support the cross-fertilization of different discourses (education, arts, music, sociology, psychology and architecture) that can allow a rich, effective, and intentional operationalization of the educational process of all those involved, leading to high-quality practices. As a result, BRIDGING intends to give children and adults multiple opportunities to be more engaged as citizens using arts and digital tools as privileged tools for share and communicate, with a positive impact on professionals, families and children’s development, learning, and wellbeing.