Research on social emotional learning and infant/toddler care and education

Published in ConnectED Newsletter - Volume 7 - Issue 1 - September 2023

Gay Wilgus, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education, spent the Spring 2023 semester of her sabbatical in France and Ireland conducting a comparative study of social emotional learning programs in the United States, Ireland, and Asia Pacific. This research was recently presented in Paris at a conference entitled Responsabilité du chercheur en éducation; Enjeux de société et recherches en éducation et Formation: mise en débat (Responsibility of the educational researcher: debating risks in educational research and teacher education), organized by Prof. Wilgus’ French colleagues at Université de Paris Cergy-Pointoise. The symposium, entitled “A comparative look at approaches to social emotional learning in Ireland, the Asia Pacific, France, and the US,” was presented in collaboration with Susan Gallwey (Ireland), Kyungah Bang and Catherine Wilczek (Asia Pacific), and two CCNY students, Legah Kokouet and Oumou Sidibe.

Additionally, Prof. Wilgus made an invited presentation entitled “Primary caregivers’, caregivers,
teachers’, and administrators’ beliefs about the parents’/primary caregivers’ role in  infant/toddler care and education” for colleagues at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) in Ghent, Belgium. This presentation was part of the university’s annual International Week Conference entitled Cooperation across actors in child and youth care. Conference participants included early childhood teacher education faculty and professionals from Canada, Rwanda, Slovenia, Finland, Uganda, and China, as well as early childhood pre-service teachers from AUAS. The workshop component of this presentation brought to light the highly divergent, often culturally-based perspectives that can come into play as decisions are made with regard to the educational experiences of young children.