Looking back at 2018 and looking forward to 2019

Well, what a whirlwind 2018 has been for me academically!

I started the year by sending in an abstract for EECERA 2018 on a whim really, not thinking I would get accepted but I did and the plans for heading to Budapest began!

In January I began by reflecting upon the year past and the year ahead, with a great deal of imposter syndrome going on. Not sure I am quite past that yet, if anything it has just gotten worse! The more I get asked to do the worse it gets. I keep expecting to be found out. But I suspect all academics feel like that at some point in their academic career.

Through the Beast from the East and the early spring months I began work on the early chapters of my thesis. I found writing the actual process of writing easy but it was slow and I struggled to 'find my voice'. However, practice makes perfect and once I discovered the mantra "don't get it right, get it written" things got a lot easier from then on. I spent less time fiddling with my writing and more time just getting the words down on paper! Things speeded up at that point.

In May I met Sue Palmer at a screening of Resilience, and we shared similar views and opinions about what we had seen. I posted my views here on this blog (May 2018) and shortly after Sue asked me if I would like to write a guest blog for Upstart, this was an amazing opportunity and brought about a lot of new connections https://www.upstart.scot/current-blog-2/page/7/.

One of those connections was Lisa, the Education Team Manager at Falkirk Council. She asked me if I would like to go along and share my research with a team of Early Learning and Childcare practitioners who were attending a training seminar. What an amazing group of practitioners. What always amazes me is that once I break through the fear and reticence to discuss love I can't get practitioners to stop talking about it. As my research has shown, love is already there in practice but the conversation and permission needs to be granted to allow practitioners to talk and deliver love-led practice freely.

Through July I got my head down and really started to crack on with my thesis. The chapters were coming together nicely with my paper copy folder growing by the week. It really was getting quite exciting. Meanwhile I had to start work on my PED talk for EECERA. At the same time I got a message on LinkedIn from Linda Harrison, an academic from Australia, who had been given my name by Dr Jools Page as a possible co-author for a chapter she was writing about the child's right to love. I met with Linda in Budapest and shortly afterwards, and have since written a draft for her to include in the chapter she is writing.

I really quite enjoy giving talks, particularly when I am so passionate about the subject, but this one was to be a challenge. The format for the short talk in Budapest was to take the form of a TED talk. No notes, no power point slides, ten minutes. I don't normally memorise what I am going to say, I usually just put together slides which prompt me to talk about different parts of my presentation and I usually just talk from the heart. However, on this occasion as I had to stick rigidly to 10 minutes, I thought I ought to write something and memorise it. My wonderful PhD friend Liz kindly took me for a walk along the shoreline at Dalgety Bay and listened to my talk. I just did not feel comfortable trying to remember what to say. So I decided on a checklist in my head of sections of my talk. This worked! My talk went down really well. I was approached by a number of people afterwards who had enjoyed it and in particular one woman from the Australian Government handed me her card and took mine. She said I should film my talk as it would be of interest to lots of people. More on this connection made later!

After an amazing trip I came home, uploaded the transcript of my talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu8-BYlhvQ4 .
After posting a comment on twitter I was approached by TESglobal to write a blog for them about my research. This was another amazing opportunity, one which I grabbed! Again this helped me make further connections with others interested in my research. https://www.tes.com/news/why-do-we-find-love-so-difficult-education. Shortly after this was posted I was approached by the team I work alongside at the Scottish Government to join them at their ELC Directorate huddle where they share new research and ideas around early years. By being able to present to them I really felt I was influencing policy to ensure children get the loving care they have a right to. This lead tome being told by one of the ELC team that 'love' was included in the introduction section of the Funding Follows the Child and National Standard document published in Dec 2018:
https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/publication/2018/12/funding-follows-child-national-standard-early-learning-childcare-providers-principles-practice/documents/00544341-pdf/00544341-pdf/govscot%3Adocument

I was also asked by the Care Inspectorate to take part in a working group developing a Compassionate Care Resource for use by all care services. Being able to influence policy development at these levels really makes the effort involved in my thesis worth it.

In November I was approached by Pupil Inclusion Network Scotland to speak at an event they were putting on to discuss love. Unfortunately timing was against us and I wasn't able to speak at what was a successful event however I was asked to contribute with a guest blog https://pinscotland.blog/ which I was thrilled to do. Again this opportunity generated opportunity to network with a number of other interested people.

I was also asked to speak at the SERA Early Years Network Spring Event in Feb 2019.


 Having all of these opportunities to share my research is fabulous and really feels like I am getting the message out there.

That brings us up to the end of November. After 2 months of working 5am - 1am (with work in between) I finally finished my thesis. It was exhausting but exhausting and fun to finally bring it all together into one huge 80,000 word document. I have to admit to crying after printing out the first copy! I spent a wonderful weekend in Keswick completing the final draft, interspersed with enjoying the Keswick festive offerings (Keswick Christmas Proms and the Keswick Victorian Fayre).

So with my thesis sent off to my three supervisors for a final edit, I sat back ready to enjoy the Christmas break. But just as I did that an email came in with a heading of "Touching base from Australia". Now initially I thought it was from Linda Harrison, who I spoke about earlier but this is what it said:

" Dear Jane

I am writing to you on behalf of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL). We plan to hold an early childhood leadership conference which showcases the current thinking and research from within and outside the early childhood education sector. I am reaching out to explore the possibility of you delivering a keynote address at our 2019 Conference which is scheduled to be held in Sydney on the 2^nd and 3^rd of May 2019. We expect to attract around 600-800 early childhood leaders from Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific region across all sectors of education. Your work is well known and regarded here and I am sure you will find the experience worthwhile as well.

The theme for the conference is Sharing the Responsibility – Inclusion in the Early Years. I have attached the initial announcement of the event which should give you more context.

I have given below a short overview of ACEL below. You can also get more information on our website – ACEL Website

ACEL short profile:

ACEL is the largest professional association operating in the education sector in Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific region. It is an independent, cross sectoral and progressive organisation As Australia's peak professional organisation ACEL is a forward thinking, relevant and responsive agent of change and innovation.  We have over 7000 members and over 60000 educators in our network around Australia, New Zealand and wider region.

ACEL actively supports the development of leadership capabilities across Australia through its national and Branch initiated professional learning activities, international conferences, publications, online programs, and other partnership initiatives in leadership development. Access to these leadership-focused opportunities is available for classroom to system leaders.

  

I look forward to hearing from you and would be happy to talk further in the coming days to give you a fuller understanding of the event.

Cheers".

I was blown away to say the least. Apparently there were a few people who listened to my PED talk in Budapest and were interested in my research. So having had a phone call with the organisers I am now planning a trip to Australia in April next year! Yikes that doesn't sound so far away now. 

And hopefully in late February or early March I will be submitting my thesis for examination and planning for my Viva in early summer. I have also started putting together my first journal article to lay claim to my thoughts from my findings. 2019 is going to be one hell of a year!

And 2018 wasn't all bad either....

Happy and prosperous new year to everyone

Love to all

Jane