Educational Innovation and Child Participation in Early Childhood Education
A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760). This special issue belongs to the section "Childhood and Youth Studies".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 39
Special Issue Editors
Interests: childhood; rights; global citizenship education; policies for the protection, provision, and participation of children in educational contexts
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: childhood; rights; education for global citizenship; policies for the protection, provision, and participation of children in educational contexts; teacher training and teaching competencies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Early childhood education is an essential stage in children's development. This Special Issue will explore and share the ways in which educational innovation in early childhood education can help inspire new ways of teaching and learning, providing safe, sympathetic, and respectful childcare environments that are committed to children’s rights.
We advocate educational innovation that helps to reimagine education by promoting the participation of children as active agents of situated and experiential learning, enabling them not only to be heard, but also to influence the socio-educational environments of which they are a part.
From this perspective, it is not a question of ‘going to and being at school’, but of ‘being and making a committed school’ that generates alliances and positive influences in the lives of its members, where everyone is taken into consideration.
Child participation is therefore a right, a duty, and a guarantee for educational innovation.
This Special Issue welcomes original research articles, systematic literature reviews, and educational articles that provide insightful and important contributions. Areas of research may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Experiences of educational innovation in early childhood education.
- Alternative experiences in early childhood education.
- Innovation and improvement in early childhood education through child participation.
- Children as co-researchers.
- Reflections on innovation and child participation: Challenges and frameworks for action.
- The role of adults in promoting and exercising child participation.
Prof. Dr. Ana Castro Zubizarreta
Prof. Dr. Roberto Sanz Ponce
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- educational innovation
- early childhood education
- child participation
- educational quality
- educational improvement
- teacher training
- childhood
- educational experiences
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