Conference Agenda

As European societies become increasingly diverse and democracy faces growing pressure, early childhood classrooms play a crucial role in fostering inclusion and equal opportunities. Creating learning environments where children from different origins, national backgrounds, socio-economic contexts, genders, and abilities feel valued is essential for supporting their development and participation. Unacknowledged biases among educational professionals can negatively affect inclusion and diversity in education and may lead to creating a hostile learning environment in which children from certain groups are marginalized and deprived of equal learning opportunities, and stereotypes and prejudices are reinforced. Studies across Europe found, for example, that prejudiced teacher attitudes enlarge the achievement gap between ethnic minority and majority pupils (Costa et al., 2021); that educators’ biases can decrease their attention towards children with lower language skills or lower socio-economic status (Albers et al., 2013; Duthois et al., 2026) or children with special needs (Schell et al., 2025). While there is a consensus that greater inclusion and diversity in classrooms cannot be achieved without qualified teachers equipped with anti-bias competences, multiple studies have shown that practitioners often feel insufficiently prepared to teach in diverse contexts and require further professionalization (OECD, 2025).

These considerations have informed an ongoing research and development project, 'Anti-Bias Education for Early Childhood Teachers: Learning Through Video Coaching' (ABC4T), which will be the focus of this symposium. Conducted by researchers from Belgium, Norway, Poland, Austria and Spain within the Erasmus+ framework, the project aims to contribute to the strengthening of early childhood educators' anti-bias competences by constructing a professional development program (PDP) based on video coaching. The procedure employed is the Educational Design Research (McKenney & Reeves, 2012), comprising three phases: analysis, design and evaluation. Video coaching is a professional development approach in which educators record teaching episodes and engage in sustained, video-based one-to-one or group discussions under the guidance of a coach (van der Linden & McKenney, 2020). This procedure is promising in deepening early childhood educators' understanding of their own implicit beliefs and daily practices, thereby supporting learning about diversity and inclusion (Migliarini et al., 2019).

The objective of this symposium is to share and discuss the project's insights and preliminary results. The symposium comprises six papers divided into two sessions, guided by the following research questions:

• What are the needs of early childhood educators in Austria, Belgium, Norway, Poland and Spain in the field of anti-bias education? (Session 1),
• How can video coaching be employed in a professional development program to support educators’ anti-bias competences? (Session 2).

The three papers in the first session focus on the findings from the initial phase of the PDP project, in which the needs of early childhood educators regarding anti-bias education were assessed through quantitative (Paper 1) and qualitative (Papers 2 and 3) research with educators and student teachers in the five participating countries. The second session concerns the PDP design process, with a specific focus on video coaching as an approach to supporting teachers’ professional learning. The first paper discusses the findings from a scoping review of literature on video-based guidance in early childhood education. The remaining papers concentrate on the process of developing the PDP. Paper 2 discusses the results of a pilot of a video coaching program conducted in Belgium, while Paper 3 presents the development process and the preliminary version of a PDP constructed in the framework of the present international project in Belgium, Norway and Poland. Taken together, these papers offer a comprehensive overview of a novel approach to supporting educators in developing competences necessary for working in diverse classrooms, in the interest of social justice in early childhood education.

In this part of the symposium, we present a scoping review of empirical research on video-based guidance as a form of professional development in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). While video-based professional development is well established within school-based teacher education, its use in ECEC remains comparatively underexplored. At the same time, increasing diversity in European early childhood settings has intensified the need for professional learning approaches that support educators in reflecting on implicit beliefs, everyday interactions, and pedagogical practices related to inclusion and anti-bias education. In particular, the analysis focuses on: (1) the theoretical frameworks and concepts underpinning video-based guidance, including reflection, dialogic learning, and professional vision; (2) practical and methodological features of video-based approaches, such as forms of facilitation, degrees of structure, and modes of interaction (individual versus collective); and (3) the role of video as a mediating resource for making tacit, relational, and often taken-for-granted aspects of pedagogical practice visible for analysis. Across the reviewed studies, video is commonly positioned not merely as a tool for documentation, but as a catalyst for reflection, stimulated recall, and dialogic engagement with practice (Cherrington & Loveridge, 2014; Lafton, 2019; Soni, 2023). The review identifies substantial variation in how video-based guidance is framed and enacted. Some studies emphasise dialogic, relational, and collaborative processes that foreground educator agency and collective meaning-making (Cherrington & Loveridge, 2014; Lafton, 2019), while others rely more strongly on structured feedback models, predefined criteria, or expert-led facilitation (Ostrosky et al., 2013; Figen et al., 2024). These differences point to underlying assumptions about professional learning, guidance, and reflection, and raise methodological and ethical questions concerning the transfer of school-based video coaching models to ECEC. As applied research, this scoping review is closely connected to the overall objectives of the Erasmus+ project Anti-Bias Education for Early Childhood Teachers: Learning Through Video Coaching (ABC4T). By mapping conceptual and methodological tendencies in existing research, the paper informs the design of a professional development program that uses video coaching to support early childhood teachers’ learning in relation to diversity, inclusion, and anti-bias education, and contributes to the second session of the symposium, which focuses on video coaching as a key approach to strengthening teachers’ anti-bias competences.

Cherrington, S. & Loveridge, J. (2014). Using video to promote early childhood teachers' thinking and reflection. Teaching and Teacher Education, 41, 42–51. Figen, S., Yilmaz, A. Buldu, M., Aras, S. Buldu, M. Akhul. E. (2024).  Video Based Professional Development on Pedagogical Documentation: A Yearlong Study with Early Childhood Teachers. Educational Studies, 50(5), 996-1013. Lafton, T. (2019). Video som veiledningsgrunnlag i studenters profesjonsutvikling. Norsk pedagogisk tidsskrift, 103(2-3), 121-132. Ostrosky, M., Mouzourou, C., Danner, N., Zaghlawan,H. Y. (2013). Improving Teacher Practices Using Microteaching: Planful Video Recording and Constructive Feedback Young Exceptional Children, 16(1), 16-29. Soni, A. (2023). Empowering collective reflection: realistic evaluation of video enhanced reflective practice (VERP) in an early childhood setting in England. Professional Development in Education, 49(5). 827–841.

Teachers in Flanders, Belgium, continue to face challenges in effectively addressing and embedding diversity and social justice within their classroom practices (e.g. Hagenaars et al., 2023). This presentation focuses on findings from a Flemish pilot project that investigated video coaching as a method of professional learning to foster anti-bias competences of teachers in primary and lower secondary education (ages 6-14). The aim of this study is therefore to examine the potential (and perceived) impact of video coaching, embedded within a professional development program, as a method for strengthening anti-bias competencies. Grounded in the Educational Design Research (EDR) framework (McKenney & Reeves, 2012), this program was developed through three iterative phases. The analysis and exploration phase involved data collection through a literature review, a large-scale survey, classroom observations, and interviews, with a focus on identifying current educational practices and professional development needs in anti-bias education. These findings informed the design and construction phase, during which the professional development program (PDP) was iteratively designed and adapted in collaboration with eight expert teachers. In the same period, different methods of video coaching were tested by varying the instruction, guidance intensity and coaching format, and then revised based on triangulation of feedback from the expert teachers, observations by researchers, and input from external experts. The program was piloted with four teachers, allowing us to evaluate the potential and (perceived) impact of this video coaching. A mixed-method approach was used to assess the teachers’ diversity competencies, including pre and post intervention interviews, focusing on their experiences and perceptions, alongside three video coaching sessions per participant. Two independent researchers conducted a thematic analysis of the transcripts, paying particular attention to (or focusing on) changes in anti-bias competencies. Preliminary findings indicate that, within anti-bias education, video coaching creates opportunities for deep and shared learning and facilitates the transfer of acquired knowledge into classroom practice. Participating teachers demonstrate increased critical self-awareness and self-efficacy in anti-bias education. Nonetheless, specific contextual challenges and support conditions must be addressed to ensure effective implementation.

Hagenaars, M., Maene, C., Willems, S., Vantieghem, W., D’hondt, F., & Stevens, P. A. (2023). Diversity ideologies in Flemish education: explaining variation in teachers’ implementation of multiculturalism, assimilation and colourblindness. Journal of Education Policy, 38(6), 985-1006. McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. (2012). Conducting educational design research. Routledge.

This presentation provides an overview of the procedure and outcomes of collaboratively designing the professional development program (PDP) to strengthen European early childhood educators’ anti-bias competences through video coaching within the ABC4T project. The project draws on previous research on professional development on anti-bias education (e.g. Dierickx, Luyckx, & Ben Sliman-Ghomari, 2025; Romijn, Slot, & Leseman, 2021), including through video coaching (e.g., Balduzzi et al., 2020) – a promising yet demanding method involving technical, relational, and ethical complexities. In the presentation, we aim to share the lessons learned from designing a video coaching-based professional development program internationally, in collaboration with educators and experts. In the first part, building on other presentations at the symposium, we outline the program’s development using an Educational Design Research (EDR) approach (McKenney & Reeves, 2012). Following EDR, during the analysis and exploration phase, we aimed to understand European educational practices and identify teachers’ professional development needs in anti-bias education. Results informed iterative design cycles in which we co-created the video coaching-based PDP together with partner kindergartens in three countries (Poland, Norway, Belgium) to ensure contextual validity, enhance the reliability of the design process and support the international relevance of the PDP. The design was evaluated (evaluation phase) by 12 experts from Poland, Norway, and Belgium, as well as by the partner kindergartens, to ensure theoretical underpinning and practical applicability across different national contexts. In the second part of the presentation, we share the collectively designed PDP on anti-bias education, a blended program spanning four months that includes content-focused workshops and video‑coaching exercises. We discuss the perceived potential in fostering more inclusive and equitable learning environments; and address challenges of implementing this PDP, drawing on insights from its developers, participating educators and external experts. Furthermore, we examine the opportunities and tensions inherent in co‑constructing a robust and internationally relevant PDP through sustained collaboration among academic partners, early childhood practitioners, and experts.

Balduzzi, L., Lazzarri, A., Dalledonne Vandini, C., Furieri, L., Ślusarczyk, M., Woźniak, M., Majerska, U., Verschaeve, S. & De Mets, J. (2020). Video-coaching to support inclusive practice in ECEC: final recommendations from the TRACKs project: cross country comparative report. Jagiellonian University. Dierickx, E., Luyckx, K., & Sliman-Ghomari, H. B. (2025). Building anti-racist competences in early childhood education: Collaborative design and impact of a professional development program. Journal of Childhood, 6(3), 541-563. https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638X.202563656 McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. (2012). Conducting educational design research. Routledge. Romijn, B. R., Slot, P. L., & Leseman, P. P. (2021). Increasing teachers’ intercultural competences in teacher preparation programs and through professional development: A review. Teaching and teacher education, 98, 103236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103236