About us

Asia Pacific Early Childhood Consultants was established in Singapore and Australia in 2002

Our intent is to provide high quality early childhood professional learning opportunities that uphold the principles of equity, social justice and the mandates of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Asia Pacific Early Childhood Consultants is interested in supporting early childhood professionals to re-imagine the work they undertake with children. We see APECC as a critical friend that respectfully challenges long held beliefs, looks at the familiar in new ways, helps you see what you cannot yet see and support individuals and teams to be the best they can be.

We are also interested in promoting an interpretive and contextual understanding of a range of respected approaches to early childhood, including the key principles of the Reggio Emilia Educational Project, with specific reference to honouring children, professional inquiry, educational documentation and the impact of the physical and temporal environment. We respect that the ideas lent to us by colleagues in other contexts are their intellectual property, and we refer to these ideas to develop our own interpretations and actions in order to translate them in to other contexts and cultural nuances.

With these aspirations in mind, APECC would like to engage the EC community in dialogue and debate about professional practice, educational research and quality, with early childhood professionals from a range of settings in Australia and beyond.

Watch our Executive Director, Dr Deborah Harcourt, as she joins the panel session

"How do we grow a good person?" with His Holiness the Dalai Lama,

and Dr Simon Longstaff (St James Ethics Centre),

Prof Carla Rinaldi (Reggio Children) and Yassmin Abdel-Magied (Youth without Borders)

Our online courses - start any time!

BRAND NEW!!

CHILDREN'S RIGHTS EDUCATION

An approximately 12 week online course that focuses on educating professionals who work with children to examine the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and its implications for professional practice. This course will give participants an opportunity to explore the UNCRC as it relates to their own practice and interact with Deborah around the issues and provocations that arise. This course is relevant to any person who works with children and young people in any capacity.

Registration now open

EXAMINING REGGIO EMILIA

Series 1: Translating Reggio Emilia

(a series of four short courses)

An interpretation of the key principles of the Reggio Emilia Educational Project
Working with the competent child
Building relationships with people, spaces and materials
Meaningful observations to support teaching and learning

Series 2: Re-imagining educational documentation

(a series of four short courses)

An introduction to educational documentation
Giving visibility to teaching and learning
Expressive languages and children's thinking
Linking documentation and assessment

OUR EVENTS

New professional learning opportunities

What's all the fuss? Reggio Emilia for beginners.

Brisbane, Perth, Darwin & Sydney

Back to basics: Introducing Reggio Emilia

FREE PODCASTS

Provocations and opinions from Deborah's desk

An opportunity for early childhood educators to join in a dialogue in order to debate and unpack current issues, events, challenges, viewpoints or niggles in professional practice. Of particular interest will be (re) developing a relationship to the key principles of Reggio Emilia in the Australian context.

VIRTUAL SEMINARS

Focussing on practice change and pedagogical innovation for small to medium sized teams.

This professional learning opportunity is ideal for centre based teams who would like to understand more about the principles of Reggio Emilia, Educational Documentation, children's rights, environments that support thinking and other practice change mechanisms - in their own setting. These seminars can be done live with Deborah or recorded for later use.

Acknowledging Country

APECC would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land upon which it meets with early childhood educators across Australia. This land was, is and will continue to be an important place for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, who have travelled across our vast country since time began. We pay our ongoing respect to Elders past and present, and thank them for their guidance, courage and support.

Check into our blog page, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter

We would like to acknowledge that some of the images we offer on this website, as illustrative examples of content only, have been accessed through publicly available sites and blogs such as the Garden Gate Development Centre, Let the children play, Reggio Inspired Centres, Michelle Pratt, Flinders Early Learning Centre and the Boulder Journey School. Should viewers of our pages have any issues with the images, please contact us immediately so that we may offer an appropriate acknowledgement or remove. We apologise in advance if we have overlooked any acknowledgements.