Close of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group Sturt Scheme

In the afternoon after the launch of the Early Childhood Voices 2024 Conference (ECV2024) we had the celebration and closure of the 3-year Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group Sturt Scheme. We have achieved so much over the past three years and are so grateful for the funding to employ Dr Carolyn Gregoric, buy some time for our leadership team, fund a research student, and some scholarly activities.

ECIR members in Bathurst

Dr Carolyn Gregoric, A/Prof Sarah Verdon, Dr Suzanne Hopf,
Dr Libbey Murray, Prof Sharynne McLeod

Most ECIR meetings were conducted via Zoom - so our cake celebrated this!

ECIR Leadership Team

The Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group has been funded by the Sturt Scheme for the past 3 years (2022, 2023, 2024). The distributed leadership team consists of: Sharynne McLeod (administrative lead), Julian Grant, Suzanne Hopf, Libbey Murray, and Sarah Verdon. Carolyn Gregoric is the Research Officer for ECIR. There are over 50 people (staff, adjuncts, HDR students) across all three faculties of CSU who are members. We are a very supportive and productive group. Current team projects are: the ECV2024 conference, two edited books, and the Children Draw Playing Global Online Gallery. There are also a number of grants, books, and research projects that are being undertaken by the team.

We are currently working on the transition to the exciting new Children's Voices Centre. 

I am very pleased to be working with such wonderful people - and to have the support of the leadership team at our meeting today.

Carolyn, Sharynne, Suzanne, Libbey

Welcome Tamara

Today I had the pleasure of showing Dr Tamara Cumming around The Treehouse. The Early Childhood Research Group was founded by Tamara in 2020 and she invited me to co-lead it. She was the first co-chair of the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2020) and helped write the application for the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme. She has been working at Macquarie University for the past 2.5 years. We have continued to collaborate - last month this chapter was published:

McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Cumming, T., & Downey, B. (2024). Refusing to silence early childhood voices: The establishment of the Early Childhood Voices Conference. In L. Mahony, S. McLeod, A. Salamon, & J. Dwyer (Eds.), Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals (pp. 251-269). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56484-0_18

ECIR Research Retreat in Bathurst and online (9-11 October, 2023)

Our ECIR research retreat was a wonderful time of building bonds, collaborative conversations and robust interdisciplinary discussions. Members travelled to Bathurst + joined online. What a wonderful time together celebrating our achievements, learning together, planning our grant writing and ECV2024 for 2024. Thank you to Dr Carolyn Gregoric for her amazing organisational skills, Holly McAlister and Belinda Freizer for making us think about how to listen to children, to the Research Office (Dr Emmaline Lear, Dr Lisa Limbrick, Dr Dale) for your excellent workshops and FOAE Admin team for joining us to begin planing ECV2024.

ECIR Children Draw Talking - Last official meeting

This afternoon was the last official meeting of the ECIR Children Draw Talking team before we submit our manuscript at the ECIR Research Retreat on 9th October. 

This research was undertaken by members of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group funded by the Charles Sturt University Sturt Scheme. The following people contributed to the research and analysed the data: Jessamy Davies, Lysa Dealtry, Laura Delli-Pizzi, Belinda Downey, Sheena Elwick, Julian Grant, Carolyn Gregoric, Suzanne C. Hopf, Nicola Ivory, Holly McAlister, Sharynne McLeod, Elizabeth Murray, Azizur Rahman, Shukla Sikder, Van H. Tran, and Cherie Zischke. The Children Draw Talking Around the World Global Online Gallery was profiled at the Early Childhood Voices Conference 2022 (ECV2022) https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-1-the-world/.

Carolyn Gregoric, Sharynne McLeod, Cherie Zischke, Suzanne Hopf, Nicola Ivory, Jessamy Davis, Libbey Murray, Belinda Downey, and Van Tran

Here is how we will reference our journal article once we submnit it: McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Davies, J., Dealtry, L., Delli-Pizzi, L., Downey, B., Elwick, S., Hopf, S. C., Ivory, N., McAlister, H., Murray, E., Rahman, A., Sikder, S., Tran, V. H., Zischke, C., & Grant, J. (2023). Children draw talking around the world [Manuscript submitted for publication]. Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group, Charles Sturt University.

Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme

Today I have had three excellent meetings with members of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme.

1. Leadership meeting

2. Weekly meeting with Dr Carolyn Gregoric

3. Children Draw Talking research meeting

We are such a productive research group. Our distributed leadership model enables such richness of experience and collaboration.

We provide an internship model of peer-to-peer research capacity building where people actively contribute to research with the support of mentors. Research activities include: organising conferences, editing books, writing book chapters, running research projects, analysing data, writing journal articles, and supporting members to apply for promotion and grants. 

 

Submitted book: "Early childhood voices in the lives of children, families, and professionals"

On 30th June 2023 we submitted the following book for publication by Springer who have just advised us that it is currently under review. The book began after the successful Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2020). It has been an exciting collaboration as a result of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme. 

Book title: Early childhood voices in the lives of children, families, and professionals  

Series title: International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development 

Editors: Linda Mahony, Sharynne McLeod, Andi Salamon, Jenny Dwyer 

Table of Contents 

1 Why the Voices of Young Children Matter Linda Mahony, Sharynne McLeod, Andi Salamon and Jenny Dwyer 

2 Space, Voice, Audience, and Influence: The Lundy Model and Early Childhood Carmel Ward and Laura Lundy 

3 Language and Life: Going into Space Stephen Kemmis and Andi Salamon 

4 Infant Emotional Capital Practices as Voice in Research and Pedagogy Andi Salamon 

5 Contributing to SDGs through Conceptual PlayWorlds: Changing the STEM Story for Children, Families and Teachers Anne Suryani, Susan March, Marilyn Fleer and Prabhat Rai 

6 Children’s Mathematical Graphics Illustrating Inner Voices: A Literature Review Jenny Dwyer, Amy MacDonald and Shukla Sikder 

7 After the Disaster: Facilitating Children to Talk of their Feelings and Experiences Sarah Eagland, Michael Curtin and Tracey Parnell 

8 Giving Voice to Young Children Navigating Complex Life Challenges through a Strengths Approach Linda Mahony and Angela Fenton 

9 Sustainable Leadership Approaches to Retain Early Childhood Educators Belinda Downey, Will Letts and Sharynne McLeod 

10 Multimodal Analyses of Children’s Voices as a Means for Critical Teachers’ Education Fernanda Liberali, Emilia Cipriano Sanches and Sandra Cavaletti Toquetão 

11 Peep in the Pandemic: Peep Practitioners Listening to Parents and Families Hannah Hale, Elspeth McCartney and Muriel MacKenzie 

12 Early Childhood Friendships as a Significant Value of Education for Sustainability: The Voices of Young Children and Educators Tamara Pribišev Beleslin and Sanja Partalo 

13 “Ears to Listen so I can Hear”: A Holistic Self-Report Tool of Children’s Listening at Preschool Lysa Dealtry and Laura McFarland 

14 Jamaican Children’s Drawings of Talking in Jamaican Creole and English Karla Washington, Rachel Wright Karem, Corrine Macaluso, Cecilia Schwartz and Sharynne McLeod 

15 Vietnamese-Australian Families: Children’s Language Competence and Home Language Maintenance Van H. Tran, Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon, Kate Margetson and Ben Phạm 

16 Many Voices, Many Languages: Listening and Learning from South African Children Michelle Pascoe, Mikateko Ndhambi, Olebeng Mahura, Nomfundo Peaceful Buthelezi, Nicole Husselmann and Babalwa Ludidi 

17 When are Speech Sounds Learned and Why is this Important for Children to be Heard? Sharynne McLeod, Kathryn Crowe and Jane McCormack 

18 Refusing to Silence Early Childhood Voices: The Establishment of the Early Childhood Voices Conference Sharynne McLeod, Carolyn Gregoric, Tamara Cumming and Belinda Downey

The book includes the following international interdisciplinary contributors

1. Sandra Cavaletti Toquetão Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil 
2. Emilia Cipriano Sanches Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil 
3. Kathryn Crowe University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland; Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia 
4. Tamara Cumming Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia 
5. Michael Curtin Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia 
6. Lysa Dealtry Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia 
7. Belinda Downey Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia 
8. Jenny Dwyer Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia 
9. Sarah Eagland Royal Far West, Sydney, NSW, Australia 
10. Angela Fenton Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia 
11. Marilyn Fleer Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 
12. Carolyn Gregoric Charles Sturt University, Australia 
13. Hannah Hale University of Stirling, Scotland, UK 
14. Nicole Husselmann University of Cape Town, South Africa S
15. tephen Kemmis Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia 
16. Will Letts Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia 
17. Fernanda Liberali Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil 
18. Babalwa Ludidi University of Cape Town, South Africa 
19. Laura Lundy Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland 
20. Corrine Macaluso Butler Educational Service Center, USA 
21. Muriel MacKenzie Stirling Council, Scotland, UK 
22. Linda Mahony University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, QLD, Australia 
23. Olebeng Mahura Charles Sturt University, Australia 
24. Susan March Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 
25. Elspeth McCartney University of Stirling, Scotland, UK 
26. Jane McCormack Australian Catholic University, North Sydney, NSW, Australia 
27. Amy MacDonald Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia 
28. Laura McFarland The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 
29. Sharynne McLeod Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia 
30. Mikateko Ndhambi University of Cape Town, South Africa 
31. Tracey Parnell Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia 
32. Sanja Partalo University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina 
33. Michelle Pascoe University of Cape Town, South Africa 
34. Nomfundo Peaceful Buthelezi University of Cape Town, South Africa 
35. Ben Phạm Hanoi National University of Education, Vietnam; Charles Sturt University, Australia 
36. Tamara Pribišev Beleslin University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina 
37. Prabhat Rai Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 
38. Andi Salamon Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia 
39. Celia Schwartz Springfield City School District, USA 
40. Shukla Sikder Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia 
41. Anne Suryani Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 
42. Van H. Tran Charles Sturt University, Australia 
43. Sarah Verdon Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia 
44. Carmel Ward Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK 
45. Karla Washington University of Toronto, Canada 
46. Rachel Wright Karem Indiana University, USA

New ECIR blog

We have just begun a blog for the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group:

https://earlychildhoodinterdiscresearch.blogspot.com/

Here is the first blog entry 

Welcome to the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Group Blog at Charles Sturt University in Australia. 

• ECIR is a transformative research program promoting social justice for children, families and practitioners within early childhood 

• We build capacity for engaging in transformative research within our group and with other researchers. 

We are funded by a Charles Sturt University Sturt Scheme grant from 2022-2024 and have approximately 40 interdisciplinary members who are educators, nurses, speech pathologists, physiotherapists, psychologists, linguists, and data scientists. Our members are academics, adjuncts and research higher degree students at Charles Sturt University. Find out more about us here: 

ECIR: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains 

CRO: https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/organisations/early-childhood-research-group

Visiting Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme colleagues in Albury

On Thursday and Friday I had the opportunity to visit Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme colleagues in Albury and discuss research plans for 2023. I spoke with:

• A/Prof Sarah Verdon
• Dr Jessamy Davis
• Dr Lysa Dealtry
• Josephine Bampoe
• Sarah Piper

and drove from Albury to Bathurst with 

• Prof Julian Grant

Sharynne, Jessamy Davis, Lysa Dealtry, Julian Grant

Sharynne, Josephine Bampoe, Lysa Dealtry, Jessamy Davis

Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Lysa Dealtry, Prof Stan Grant, Dr Jessamy Davis

 

Sharynne and Sarah Verdon

Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme leadership meeting

Today we had a 4.5 hour Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme leadership meeting to celebrate 2022 and plan for 2023 and 2024.

The ECIR leadership team consists of

• Professor Sharynne McLeod (Education) - team leader for 2023
  
• Professor Julian Grant (Nursing)
• A/Professor Sarah Verdon (Allied Health)
• Dr Libbey Murray (Education)
• Dr Carolyn Gregoric (Research Officer)

We have fabulous plans for our research to support children around the world to thrive, and to support their families, the professionals who work with them. We also have plans for mentoring the 30+ researchers (academics, HDR students and adjuncts) who are associated with ECIR.

Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Prof Julian Grant, Dr Libbey Murray, A/Prof Sarah Verdon

ECV2022-FINAL DATA

Congratulations to everyone on ECV2022

https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/

Here are the final numbers during our conference (5-11 December 2022)

• 1,956 registrations 
• Registrations from 72 countries: Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Germany, Ghana, Granada, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Korea, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Réunion, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom (includes England, Regno Unito, Northern Ireland, Scotland), United States of America, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

*Google Analytics

• 6,431 views from 1,358 users
• A total of 51 countries viewed the ECV2022 website that were registered using Google Analytics. The top 10 countries were: Australia (681 users), UK (125), US (105), Ghana (77), Bangladesh (73), Ireland (48), Canada (38), Indonesia (28), Iceland (15) and Netherlands (14). The remaining countries were: Latvia, New Zealand, Spain, Vietnam, Philippines, Fiji, China, Croatia, Germany, South Africa, Iran, Luxembourg, Belgium, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR China), Turkey, Bolivia, Finland, France, Portugal, Singapore, Sweden, Armenia, Denmark, Hungary, India, Myanmar (Burma), Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Austria, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Italy, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Thailand, Uganda.
  
• Top 20 pages: Children Draw Talking Gallery 1 (277), Keynote 1 (261), Keynote 5 (143), Keynote 6 (142),  Children Draw Talking Gallery 3 (138), Keynote 2 (124), Keynote 3 (116), Keynote 4 (116), Yarning circles (99), Paper 224 (66), Paper 202 (65), Children Draw Talking Gallery 4 (58), Paper 265 (57), Paper 201 (55), Paper 212 (55), Paper 211 (49), Paper 278 (49), Paper 283 (49), Paper 243 (47), Paper 228 (45), Paper 272 (41), Paper 225 (40).
  
• People went to ECV2022 directly (1,402 sessions), via social media (462), by searching (192), referral (169), and other means.
• People viewed via web/mobile (697), web/desktop (640), web/tablet (22)
  

*YouTube data

• 3,517 views (1,284 unique views) - 243 hours of viewing
• Top videos: Keynote 1 (175), Children Draw Talking Gallery 1 (156), Keynote 6 (148), Keynote 5 (106), Keynote 2 (105), Paper 220 (99), Keynote 3 (83), Paper 224 (78), Paper 269 (74), Children Draw Talking Gallery 3 (70), Keynote 4 (69), Paper 289 (62)
   

*Yarning circle summary (attendees/registrations) 

• YC1 Families  - 13/65 
• YC2 Communication  - 23/67 
• YC3 Professional  - 13/50 
• YC4 Children  - 15/50 
• YC5 Children's rights and Sustainable Development Goals  - 12/47
  

*Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-1-the-world/

• 191 drawings
• 21 countries: (Africa), Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Croatia, Fiji, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom, United States
  

All the videos will remain online – so everyone is able to continue viewing the content.

 

 

ECV2022 Day 5

What an amazing conference we have held this week. Some of the world still haven't woken to Friday 9th December, so these are not quite the final figures - but they give us good insight into the reach of the conference.

1,952 registrations from 72 countries: Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Germany, Ghana, Granada, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Korea, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Réunion, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom (includes England, Regno Unito, Northern Ireland, Scotland), United States of America, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe 

*Yarning circle summary (attendees/registrations) 

• YC1 Families  - 13/65 
• YC2 Communication  - 23/67 
• YC3 Professional  - 13/50 
• YC4 Children  - 15/50 
• YC5 Children's rights and Sustainable Development Goals  - 12/47 

*Google Analytics - 5,679 views from 1,233 users. The top 10 countries were: Australia, UK, Ghana, US, Bangladesh, Ireland, Canada, Indonesia, Iceland, and Netherlands. People went to ECV2022 directly (1,219 users), via social media (424 users), by searching (168 users) and other means.

*Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery - 191 drawings

This morning at 8am I supported Dr Jessamy Davies to host the Yarning Circle focussed on Children's rights and Sustainable Development Goals. Some of the comments that the participants wrote in the chat:

• “This conference has been fantastic for hearing lots of different perspectives from people from different professional backgrounds and disciplines. I've been learning a lot, thank you!”
• “It's definitely a prompt to re-read [the Convention on the Rights of the Child] as it's been quite a while since I have read them, and I don't think we listen enough to children, families and educators!”
• “Thank you very much for organising the conference. It was a great experience. It it valuable to have access to the resources after the last day of the conference.” 

Dr Jessamy Davies and Sharynne after Yarning Circle 5

At the end of the day, Dr Carolyn Gregoric and I met to celebrate how wonderful ECV2022 was this week - and how nothing seemed to go wrong :)

Dr Carolyn Gregoric and Sharynne at the end of ECV2022

ECV2022 first committee meeting

ECV2022 has begun with a huge level of interest.

In just one week we have had 540 registrations from 48 countries and 3 abstracts submitted!

Argentina Armenia (Армения) Australia Bahrain Bangladesh Belgium Cambodia Canada Chile China Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Denmark Dubai England Ethiopia Fiji Germany Ghana Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Iraq Ireland Italy Latvia Malta Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Northern Ireland Philippines Qatar Réunion Scotland Singapore South Africa Switzerland the Netherlands Tonga Turkey United Kingdom United States Vanuatu Viet Nam Zambia 

ECV2022: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/ 

Free registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022-tickets-399348240337

Important Dates 

• Abstract submission closes Monday 19th September 2022 
• Abstract submission outcome Friday 7th October 2022 
• Pre-recorded presentations due Monday 7th November 2022 
• Online conference Monday 5th to Friday 9th December 2022 

Download flyer: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/CSU-ECV2022-flyer-220816-1.pdf

 

Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Team Meeting

Today our Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Team Meeting met face-to-face by the first time. We met in Bathurst, Albury and online. Over half of our team (16 people) were available for this inspiring day. We spent time working out WHY we are doing our research. We also established a Twitter community.

ECIR Albury

ECIR Zoom

Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme

Today the leaders of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme met to put into place plans for our ECIR  research, research assistant, PhD student, team meeting (27 June 2022), communication strategy, future conference, and potential international research agreement. I really enjoy working with the productive and supportive ECIR leadership team.

Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) research assistant and PhD student

Today we appointed our new Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research research assistant - Carolyn Gregoric.

We have also advertised the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research PhD Scholarship. https://research.csu.edu.au/study-with-us/scholarships/early-childhood-interdisciplinary-research Applications close 13 June 2022. The scholarship will be awarded on a competitive basis to students undertaking innovative research aligned with one or more of the priorities below: 

1: Early childhood interdisciplinary practice in regional Australia In this theme we explore models of interdisciplinary practice in the first 2000 days and how successful models could be translated to optimise outcomes for infants and children in regional Australia. 

2: International children’s communication In this theme we explore how interdisciplinary practice can be harnessed to privilege children's rights and communication capacity. 

3: Listening to children’s perspectives using drawing In this theme we explore how children's drawings enable communication to transcend the inherent disciplinarity within education, health and wellbeing

Launch of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme

Today we launched the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme with our colleagues.

The purpose of the Sturt Scheme is build research capacity through supporting new research groups within faculties that will improve our ERA results build research capacity through creating additional research FTE facilitate the development of research questions that will attract external funding provide support where government or industry investment is likely The scheme will be funded from the DVC Research Portfolio. 

Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme will focus on:

• Theme 1: Interdisciplinary Practice in the Early Years 
• Theme 2: International Children’s Communication 

A distributed leadership model will recognise existing research leadership and provide opportunities for interdisciplinary capacity building among leaders as well as with the broader group. 

• Professor Sharynne McLeod (School of Education) 
• Professor Julian Grant (School of Nursing) 
• A/Professor Sarah Verdon (School of Allied Health, Exercise Sport Science) 
• Dr Elizabeth Murray (School of Education)

CSU Sturt Scheme - Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR)

Today, our Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme grant was approved. We received our original approval some months ago, but after many negotiations the process has been signed off today and we are ready to begin. 

The Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Program presents a transformative research program and targets the following FoR-aligned research code: Early Childhood Systems (FoR 3903). ECIR capitalises on the existing disciplinary strengths of the Charles Sturt Early Childhood Research Group (ECRG). Using the ECRG strength as a foundation, ECIR aims to boost research performance within the School of Education through strategic interdisciplinary collaboration with colleagues from Schools of Nursing and Allied Health, Exercise and Sports Sciences. ECIR will also capitalise upon partnerships with industry, communities and the professions through innovative and impactful research, thereby establishing us as national leaders in multidisciplinary education research. 

The leadership team are: 

• Prof Sharynne McLeod - Education
• Prof Julian Grant - Nursing
• A/Prof Sarah Verdon - Speech Pathology
  
• Dr Libbey Murray - Education
  

Sturt Scheme Round Table

This afternoon I participated in the Sturt Scheme Round Table. I am one of four leaders on the Accelerating Interdisciplinary Education Research (AIER) Sturt Scheme that is funded by CSU for 3 years. The Group Leads of each Sturt Scheme gave a 10 minute presentation about their projects and project plans for 2022. Invitees to the Sturt Scheme Round Table were DVCR (on leave), PVC-RI, Executive Deans and Faculty Executive Officers, ADRs and Group Leads of each project.

Eureka Prize finalists

Congratulations to A/Prof Lena Danaia and A/Prof Amy MacDonald and their Little Scientists Australia team who are finalists in the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources Eureka Prize for STEM Inclusion. We are crossing our fingers that they are the winners; but what a HUGE accomplishment to be a finalist! https://australian.museum/get-involved/eureka-prizes/2021-eureka-prizes-finalists/

Here is their video profiling their work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juKCGYWOrlo