What is EECERA?

The European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) is an international organisation dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of research in Early Childhood Education throughout Europe and beyond.

CREC is the UK base for the European Early Childhood Research Association. Professor Bertram and Professor Pascal are Founding Trustees and support the scientific work of the Association's conferences and Special Interest Groups (SIGs). The EECER Journal is edited and produced at CREC and Professor Bertram is the Association's Coordinating Editor.

EECERA's priniciple aims are:

• to provide an interdisciplinary, academic and rigorous forum on the international stage for the development and dissemination of high quality research on early childhood education and care (ECEC);
  
• to explore topical, theoretical and empirical research and encourage new methodologies;
• to facilitate collaboration and cooperation between researchers working in this field;
  
• to encourage a clear articulation of the links between research, policy and practice in ECEC;
  
• to give mutual support and offer peer group interaction to researchers in early childhood education;
• to raise the visibility and status of ECEC research worldwide.

These aims are achieved through:

• the staging of an annual EECERA Conference for the dissemination and development of research in ECEC;
• the publication twice yearly of a high quality, refereed EECER Journal;
• the periodic publication of themed monographs of research papers arising from cross-national Conference collaborations on areas of special interest (SIGs);
• circulating an annually updated database of researchers within the EECERA network, which includes their research interests, expertise and current activity;
• appointing worldwide regional coordinators to promote EECERA and report on local research or policy initiatives to be featured in the Journal;
• a website which indexes Journal abstracts in English, French, German and Spanish by author, title and keywords, promotes conferences and links to other ECEC sites and allows for membership discussion;
  
• providing a  retreat opportunity for members wishing to write or hold symposia meetings at a beautifully located Research Centre by the Aegean in Northern Greece.