Abstract:

High-quality early childhood education is a desirable aim of educational experts; however, the practice might lag behind intentions. While segregational tendencies still exist in public education in Hungary, the diversity of the population regarding ethnicity and socioeconomic status in the 8th district of Budapest especially requires an inclusive approach in the kindergartens.

This SozialMarie Prize winner, exceptional innovation has been planned and manifested by the cooperation of civil organizations and the municipality to enhance and support inclusion in the 12 kindergartens of the district. The project aims to develop a sustainable model with three main pillars.
(1) Based on comprehensive research, the project has created new social indicators
(2) To redraw the educational zones to distribute the disadvantaged children equally.
(3) Trainers and social workers support improving the quality of services through capacity building of the kindergarten staff and introducing and implementing new services.

Exploring and disseminating strategies and good practices to overcome segregation and support inclusion is a crucial task (RECI, 2012; FRA, 2014; FXB Center, 2015). The theoretical framework of the work in the project is based on the basic principles of inclusive early childhood education (Booth, Ainscow, and Kingston, 2006, European Commission, 2019, UNICEF, 2011), as well as on strategies supporting desegregation (Fuller et al., 2015) and the results achieved in developing integration-supportive environment (Fejes and Szűcs, 2018; Vancikova et al., 2017; Zabeli and Behluli, 2014).

The complex development of the professional work has been implemented through multi-faceted activities through various services such as teacher training, further skills development of children, social work, community development, and mediation. The training of kindergarten teachers is selected and implemented according to local needs, including multicultural education, project approach, parental involvement, and cooperative learning. New programs have been introduced in the institutions, along with continuous mentoring. Great emphasis is placed on organizational development (Engeström, 2001), primarily on internal community development in member institutions, strengthening the collaborative culture, knowledge sharing, and creating communities of practice between member kindergartens (Hunzicker, 2011, Evans, 2014, Darling-Hammond, Hyler and Gardner, 2017). It has been necessary to pay special attention to identifying the personal, affective factors essential for professional learning (Keltchermans, 2009; Korthagen, 2017) for individualized motivation.

The analysis of the challenges and solutions during the implementation of the project contributes to the strategy’s effective future adaptation.

Keywords:

Inclusive early years education, organizational development of kindergartens, CPD in early education, multicultural education in kindergartens.