Childhood Education Innovations
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Childhood Education: Innovations is an education magazine that provides unique, stimulating information about educational programs around the world. Articles explore solutions to specific challenges affecting schools, teachers, and learners and showcase the most recent innovations being developed and implemented to address those challenges. Readers will find inspiration for transforming education to better serve children and society. Published 6 times a year, CE Innovations provides a window into the work being done to bring quality, equitable education to all children. It stands alongside the Journal of Research in Childhood Education as one of our signature publications.
CONTENTS
March/April 2025
“In Their Shoes: Active Empathy Through Emotional Literacy With Theatre of Awareness”
In Their Shoes is a pedagogical intervention model for preschool, primary, secondary, and special education centers. The program promotes emotional literacy through consciousness theatre for the entire educational community — teachers, students, families, and non-teaching staff — with the goal of improving coexistence and preventing violence. The program is built on the understanding that the root of violence can be found in the inability to manage emotions, especially anger, and unhealed emotional pain. Violence also stems from the inability to empathize — “to put oneself in another person’s shoes” and act accordingly — and from a lack of skills in resolving conflicts positively. The assumption is that aggressive or violent behavior in some children may be driven by unrecognized and unaddressed emotional pain.
“Cultivating Creativity Through Books: A Story of Underserved Readers”
Nigeria is facing a situation where many children cannot read and those who can are often not attaining grade-level fluency and have gaps in comprehension due to reduced opportunities to practice reading. The Mobile Reading Room recognized this need and has been working to meet it in a unique manner. The main objective is to give children, especially those in the rural (underserved) areas surrounding the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, access to different genres of books and to teach explicit comprehension skills, such as inferring, making connections, making predictions, drawing conclusions, questioning, and summarizing in a fun and interactive manner. In a creative component of the sessions, called creative response tasks, participants make crafts related to the read-aloud story of the day, which helps them realize that things described in books can be transferred from the realm of the theoretic or abstract into applicable and relatable activities that can be applied to other aspects of life.
“Transformative Arts Education: Interview With Ssekitto Kalule Emmanuel, CEO of Faces Up Uganda”
Faces Up Uganda is a youth-led organization in Uganda that focuses on empowering young people through creative arts, education, and community development initiatives. The program leverages artistic expression, including poetry, music, and drama, to amplify voices on critical social issues such as gender equality, environmental conservation, and mental health. Additionally, it offers educational workshops and skill-building opportunities aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and employability among the youth. By creating a platform for young people to share their stories and talents, Faces Up Uganda seeks to inspire positive change and drive community transformation. This article presents an interview with Faces Up CEO, Ssekitto Kalule Emmanuel.
“The Heart of Education: Being Called to Teach”
The teaching profession is filled with innumerable challenges — from students to their families to the policies at workplaces and institutions. A call or passion for teaching transcends these obstacles and helps teachers understand the value of their profession. A calling to teach helps teachers look at students as more than consumers of knowledge and to recognize their potential and uniqueness. It helps provide a respectful and supportive environment for learning, leading to lifelong learning habits. The call to teach helps teachers stay in the profession and look at teaching as more than a job, to instead view it as their life’s work and mission. To support teachers in developing such a calling, we also need better ways of looking at teaching as a profession, respecting the dedication, commitment, and passion of teachers who respond to their calling to shape the future, one student at a time.
“Digital Access, Literacy, Fluency, and Agency: Enabling Conditions for Teacher Learning and Leadership”
Digital access, literacy, fluency, and agency are essential to teachers’ ability to grow professionally and participate in vital online spaces and communities that offer resources, support, and diverse perspectives essential in education. Unfortunately, these aspects are uncommon among teachers in low-resourced, displacement, crisis, and conflict settings. Rather, digital exclusion is the norm, with negative consequences for teachers and students alike. This article reflects on digital life and education, through the experiences of Hadizatou Amou Ali, a secondary-school English teacher in Niger. Her story raises questions and concerns about the growing digital divide that is exacerbating inequities in education systems at national and global levels. It also shines light on the transformative potential of digital inclusion for teacher well-being, innovation, learning, and leadership.
“Training Early Childhood Educators in Disadvantaged Urban Schools: The Gonaives Experience, Haiti”
Well-trained teachers are arguably the driving force to improve the quality of early childhood education and care in classroom settings. Qualified teachers positively impact children’s development in all aspects: social, emotional, physical, linguistic, and cognitive. Yet many Haitian teachers currently working with young children are not trained in best practices and standards and lack the knowledge of topics essential to young children’s education and well-being. The Child Development in Haiti Innovation Project (CDHIP) was created to reverse this trend. It aims to empower teachers so they can more effectively respond to children’s developmental needs. The innovative training model consists of reimagining early childhood services by linking professional development, mentoring, and educators’ cultivation. The initiative has become a beacon of hope in the targeted schools.
“Empowering Dreams in Uganda: The Inspiring Journey of Go So High Foundation”
Go So High Foundation is a transformative social impact and not for profit organization dedicated to empowering marginalized children in Uganda through innovative education and social entrepreneurship. Founded by Ronald Jem Wasswa to address the significant gaps in traditional educational systems, Go So High Foundation provides a nurturing environment where children can discover and develop their potential. Since its inception, the foundation has been committed to offering more than just academic instruction; it provides holistic support that includes life-coaching, mentoring, and skills development, as well as basic needs of life (e.g., safe clean drinking water, food, medical treatment). With this support, children can achieve their dreams and contribute meaningfully to society.
“Ganbare! We Are the Champions in Japanese Preschools”
According to the Kōjien (the Japanese dictionary), ganbare means to endure hardship without giving up (persisting). The Japanese people consider ganbare to be a very important quality or skill that one should learn early in life. People practice ganbare when they are facing difficulties in their lives. It is associated with self-discipline or self-control, attributing success to diligence, effort, and endurance. There is a common belief that if one tries hard, one can achieve anything. Because the introduction of persistence during the preschool years in Japan is a strong indicator of later success in school, teachers and adults foster this disposition in children.
“Fueling Curiosity: How Formula 1 Racing Sparked an Educational Adventure”
A father describes how his young son’s interest in Formula 1 racing became an motivation for deep learning in line with his Montessori schooling. Noah’s passion for motorsports led to enhanced memory, design, math, science, and soft skills.
“Children’s Diary Drawings and Their Inner Voice”
Diary drawing is a form of emotional expression for children. Through original art, children can illustrate their inner worlds directly and purely as they capture their feelings and perceptions about their everyday lives. It also provides a bridge for adults to connect with children and a tool for learning more about children’s emotional and psychological needs and development. New concepts and ideas are gained during the sharing process, benefiting children’s knowledge and cognition construction. Instructors and parents can offer guidance that helps improve their understanding of details and meanings related to their surroundings. At the same time, their cultural identity and belonging will develop.