PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR(S)
Jeroen Aarssen (Sardes BV, The Netherlands)
COLLABORATORS
Ianthi Tsimpli (UCam)
Brechtje Post (UCam)
Ankie Vandekerckhove (VBJK, Belgium)
Lilian van der Bolt and Paulien Muller (Sardes BV, The Netherlands), Margareth Sandvik and Ferruh Özalp (Oslomet, Norway)
DURATION
2016 - 2019
DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT(S)
MyREF’s overall objective was to enhance the quality of Early Childhood Education and Care for young refugee children (age 0-4) by providing tools to educators, childcare professionals and policy makers to support the development of a well organised system of ECEC and language learning, since that will ensure refugee children to be better prepared for their future in the receiving country. The project purpose was:
to collect examples from four different countries of how Early Childhood Education and Care for young refugee children is organised, both with respect to the legislation as well as to the practices (conditions, involvement of the children, perceived effectiveness)
to analyse and categorize these examples
to implement the activities in different settings
to evaluate these activities
to develop a toolbox for ECEC professionals working specifically with young refugee children
CONNECTED PROJECT(S)
Hiraeth: An arts outreach programme for unaccompanied asylum seeking children in Cambridgeshire
Multilingual phonological development: Preschoolers in Singapore [current]
PRINCIPAL RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS
Poulter, M., B. Post, and I. Tsimpli (2019). Refugee Access to Early Childhood Education and Care in the UK, published at https://www.languagesciences.cam.ac.uk/policy/refugee-access-to-early-childhood-education-and-care-in-the-uk.
MyREF: Multilingual Early Childhood Education and Care for Young Refugee Children - quality indicators for working with pre-school refugee children published at https://sardes.nl/myref, June 2019.
MyREF Training packages (online resource for ECEC volunteers and professionals working with pre-school refugee children) published at https://sardes.nl/myref, June 2019.
WHY/HOW DOES YOUR PROJECT ADVANCE OUR KNOWLEDGE ON BILINGUALISM/MULTILINGUALISM/CONTACT?
Develop a better understanding of how multilingualism of carers and their pre-school children affects refugee children’s integration and care.
WHAT IS THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF YOUR PROJECT?
By engaging with NGOs, educators, professionals, and policy makers through our published analyses, the Toolbox, and the MyRef closing conference (https://conference.issa.nl/node/162), we raised awareness of the care and particular needs of pre-school refugee children in the participating countries involved in the project. The project was granted the European Innovative Teaching Award by the European Commission (20 October 2021).
LOCATION AND/OR IMPACT OF YOUR PROJECT
North-West Europe, UK, Belgium
