The 31st EECERA Conference is hosted by APEI in partnership with CRIANCA Childhood Association and Estoril Convention Center
It is organised by the Centre for Research in Early Childhood, in conjunction with APEI.
Our main conference venue is Estoril Congress Center
The Estoril Congress Center boasts a privileged location on the Estoril coast, 25 km away from Lisbon airport, and right next to the famous Casino with its surrounding gardens and sea view.
Our accommodation and mobility offering:
The ECC has a wide range of options to choose from in Estoril centre: 5, 4 and 3-star hotels, as well as excellent public transport facilities.
Our unique architecture:
Opened in 2001, designed by the architecture firm Regino Cruz Arquitectos, the ECC offers a rare architectural symbiosis of high outside-facing glass walls, wood and concrete structures, bathed in natural light, having won the “Excellence in Innovation and Quality Architecture Prize” and the “Best Tourism Development” award.
The only Green Venue in Portugal:
The ECC is the only venue in Portugal certified as a Green Venue (EarthCheck’s Gold Certification) for its good environmental practice and commitment to sustainable business.
Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC), Birmingham, United Kingdom
The Centre for Research in Early Childhood is the home of CREC in Birmingham (Charitable Trust) and Amber Publications & Training Ltd (APT). Established by Professor Chris Pascal and Professor Tony Bertram, CREC has been working to improve early years provision for over 25 years. CREC specialises in early childhood research which has relevant and meaningful outcomes for practice and policy. Some of its research is transformed into training and development programmes designed for the specific needs of the early years sector. CREC also offers postgraduate research degrees and has a strong reputation for undertaking reviews, reports, evaluations and consultancy work with many UK local authorities, NGOs and countries. CREC also runs British Early Childhood Education Research Association (BECERA) annual conference and has been EECERA’s strategic partner supporting the delivery of EECERA annual conference since 2009.
Associação de Profissionais de Educação de Infância (APEI), Lisbon, Portugal
APEI is a private non-profit association with the status of public utility, created in 1981. It is an association that aims to promote the professional development of early childhood educators and other professionals, through a set of actions developed throughout the national territory, of discussion of pedagogy and pedagogical practices of quality in early childhood education, currently with about 5,000 members.
The APEI has partnerships with research centers and higher education institutions (universities and polytechnics) and with the Ministry of Education, giving advice on educational policy and in the production of scientific and pedagogical documents to support the operationalization of the curriculum guidelines in early childhood education.
Since 1987 it publishes the only printed journal on early childhood education in Portugal (Cadernos de Educação de Infância), it publishes the international printed journal Children in Europe Today, which involves ten EU countries and it also publishes RELAdEI – Revista Latinoamericana de Educación Infantil, an indexed scientific journal. It has an editorial line that publishes the most recent books edited worldwide, both of pedagogy in childhood and support to the educational practices of professionals.
Each year, APEI promotes a wide range of training actions and seminars, most of them accredited by the Scientific-Pedagogic Council for Continuous Training, involving national and international trainers/speakers. Since 2016 it has held more than a thousand initiatives, involving around 23,000 professionals.
Cascais, Portugal
The Municipality of Cascais has a long history of promoting pioneering initiatives in the area of Education, having been the first to sign with the Government the Inter-administrative Contract for the Delegation of Competencies in the area of Education (2015) and the first to accept the transfer of new competencies in this area (2018). It has publicly assumed the commitment to work towards the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), unanimously approved by the United Nations General Assembly (2015), and in the elaboration of a Local Strategy that contributes to the full achievement of the same, which includes, in particular, Goal 4 – Quality Education. The Municipal Educational Strategic Plan was built with the strong participation of different stakeholders – teachers and other educational professionals, parents, students, public entities and community partners, national and local political agents, covering all educational establishments, both public and private.
The Municipality of Cascais has been developing innovative initiatives in early childhood education and at the various levels of compulsory education, expressing the growing responsibility of municipalities in the field of education, namely in terms of promoting its qualitative evolution.
It collaborates with schools and kindergartens of the public network and schools of the private network, respecting their autonomy and freedom, in the development of innovative educational projects that respond to the main policies of the municipality, respecting the broad consensus between teachers, parents, students the community and education experts on the need to renew pedagogical models and practices, which meet the demands placed on us by complex post-modern societies, in which the importance of networking methodology is recognised in order to promote educational changes and ensure a Quality Education.
