Open to everyone, this Webinar will be of particular interest to all those working with children in Early Childhood, Early Childhood Teachers who work in the Early Years, Primary School Teachers, students studying on Early Childhood Care and Education and Primary School Teaching programmes; LINC Students and Graduates, along with those who work in the broader Early Childhood Sector.

The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) is an evidence-based, award-winning model for inclusion in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. Dr Sophia Gowers was a member of the research consortium, led by The University of Derby, that was commissioned by the DECDIY to conduct the end-of-three-year evaluation of AIM. The evaluation sought the perspectives of key stakeholders including policy makers, practitioners, parents, and uniquely to a policy evaluation, young children themselves as key informants. Within this seminar, Sophia will explain her role in designing a multimodal case study approach to elicit young children’s perspectives on their full inclusion and meaningful participation in pre-school settings. This involved working in collaboration with Dr Lisha O’Sullivan (MIC) to recruit and train a group of Practitioner Researchers, all of whom were LINC graduates. Following training the Practitioner Researchers engaged as co-researchers in field work activities in pre-school settings across Ireland. Sophia will present an overview of the case study context ahead of vignettes which illustrate the use of multimodal map-based approaches by the Practitioner Researchers to capture young children’s experiences, engagements and perspectives. Each of the vignettes will highlight the voice of the child, drawing attention to their self-perception of inclusion and meaningful participation. In her discussion of the case study findings, Sophia will highlight the valuable role practitioners can play in promoting inclusion and the value young children placed in developing relationships with others. Sophia will conclude by considering the contribution that attending to multimodal communicative practices can make to listening to young children’s views and informing future policy and practice.