I am thrilled to have received DKK 12 Million to study children’s participation in daycare communities and knowledge transfer from continuing education with researchers from VIVE, Aarhus University and VIA University College!
Bente Bjørnholt and I from VIVE will participate in the research project “Gender, Language, and Participation in Early Childhood Care: Continuing Education and Leadership”. The project is lead by associate professor Anne Mette Kjeldsen from King Frederik Center for Public Leadership at Aarhus University, and will, apart from VIVE, also have participating researchers from VIA University College.
The main challenge that we aim to address is the apparent inequality in boys’ and girls’ language skills in daycare institutions, and how they can be addressed through continuing education. Having strong language skills early in life is important for children to become part of communities in daycare institutions. However, both Danish and international studies show significant inequality in boys’ and girls’ language skills and their opportunities to participate. Overall, boys lag behind in language development, and this inequality begins already during the daycare years, increasing over time—despite existing language initiatives in daycare settings.
The project will contribute with knowledge about concrete strategies to include all children in daycare activities and about how continuing education can be most effectively implemented to tackle such challenges. We know surprisingly little about how best to support employees in applying new knowledge from competence development when they return to their workplace. We only know that it can be challenging to translate this new knowledge into practice. That’s why the project focuses on the role of leaders in supporting employees in this process.
In addition to developing and implementing the competence development program, the project will conduct a large-scale randomized trial to examine whether the application of knowledge from competence development is more effectively supported in daycare institutions when the local daycare leaders also participate in a similar program with their employee.
My role will primarily be to run the RCT and impact parts of the project, but I’m hoping to contribute to the implementation parts as well.
Annoncement from the Partnership on Child Research (in Danish)
Annoncement from VIVE (in Danish)
Annoncement from VIA (in Danish)
Annoncement from King Frederik Center for Public Leadership at Aarhus University (in Danish)
