Conference Agenda

Improving educational effectiveness and quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a central concern within European education systems. While participation in preschool education has expanded considerably across Europe, ensuring that this access translates into high-quality and equitable learning experiences remains a critical challenge. In inclusive education, quality cannot be evaluated solely through structural indicators, such as enrolment rates or the availability of support services. Instead, it requires systematic analysis of pedagogical processes and teachers’ capacity to design learning environments that respond to learner variability. This proposal addresses this challenge by examining inclusive education quality in preschool settings through the lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), positioning UDL as a pedagogically grounded framework for assessing educational effectiveness across diverse European contexts.

The study is theoretically anchored in UDL, a framework derived from neuroscience and learning sciences that conceptualises inclusion as proactive educational design. UDL is structured around three interrelated principles: Multiple Means of Engagement, Multiple Means of Representation, and Multiple Means of Action and Expression. These principles correspond to motivational, cognitive, and strategic dimensions of learning and provide a coherent structure for evaluating how effectively teaching practices support diverse learners. In early childhood education, UDL aligns with developmental perspectives emphasising play-based learning, emotional regulation, autonomy, and communication. Within Network 11’s focus on educational effectiveness, UDL offers a means of linking inclusive values with measurable aspects of teaching quality, enabling the assessment of how pedagogical design contributes to equitable and effective learning outcomes.

The research focuses on the assessment of inclusive education quality by analysing teachers’ UDL-aligned practices in preschool education. A cross-national comparative approach is employed to explore how educational effectiveness is shaped by different policy frameworks, teacher education pathways, and institutional conditions. The study addresses the following research questions: 1) Which teaching strategies and methods are employed and considered essential by in-service preschool teachers to implement UDL principles across different European countries; 2)Which UDL-aligned strategies do pre-service preschool teachers perceive as crucial for effective and inclusive preschool education; 3)What contextual challenges and enabling conditions influence the quality and effectiveness of UDL implementation in preschool settings?

The overarching objective is to assess and compare inclusive education quality in preschool education by examining the extent to which UDL principles are valued and enacted by teachers. Specifically, the study aims to: 1)Identify cross-national similarities and differences in UDL-based teaching practices in preschool settings;2)Compare in-service teachers’ reported implementation with pre-service teachers’ conceptions of effective inclusive practice;3)Examine gaps between general endorsement of inclusive education and detailed pedagogical implementation;4)Generate evidence relevant to quality improvement strategies in early childhood education.

Rural school is a well-established topic in the field of educational research(Bard, Gardener & Wieland, 2006; Barley & Beesley, 2007), and it continues to attract sustained attention in an international framework particularly in terms of equity, quality and territorial cohesion (Ingersoll & Tran, 2023; Kjellsdotter & Erlandson, 2025; Welsh, 2025). Across Europe, reports and empirical studies have highlighted that delivering high-quality education in rural areas entails a distinctive set of challenges (constrained resources, the need to teach small yet highly heterogeneous groups, and the particular working conditions of teachers associated with rural teaching), factors that call for pedagogical, organisational and didactic approaches considering the rural contexts (Echazarra & Radinger, 2019; Fargas-Malet & Bagley, 2022; López-Gómez et al., 2020).

Spain is no exception and, in recent years, the discussion has intensified in connection with the debate of “España vaciada” (Empty Spain), which has underscored that rural schools fulfil functions that extend beyond strictly academic purposes (del Moral-Pérez et al., 2023). At the same time, research has documented tensions related to pedagogical coordination, teachers’ itinerancy, and the management of multi-grade classrooms (Raposo et al., 2024; Arroyo et al., 2025).

With this framework, the present contribution aims to conduct a situational diagnosis of the challenges faced by Early Childhood and Primary Education teachers in rural schools, with the objective of providing an empirical basis to inform context-sensitive professional development programmes and organisational decision-making in the context under study. The research focuses on the Ávila region, characterised by a high proportion of small municipalities and, consequently, a geographically dispersed student population. The relevance of this work is further reinforced by the lack of a recent and systematic assessment of the challenges perceived by Early Childhood and Primary teachers in Ávila’s rural schools.

This contribution is framed within the project “Rural school in the region of Ávila: challenges and teaching proposals. A study with Early Childhood and Primary teachers”, funded by the Council of Ávila under its 2025 call for proposals.

The starting point for this study was to develop, together with the teachers, a transition cooperation in pre-primary and primary education in a northern Finnish municipality. The research question was what kind of tensions teachers identify in the transitions between pre-primary and pre-primary education, and how transition practices are developed, and common understanding is built around tensions. The material for the study consisted of peer group discussions (n= 4 times) conducted by teachers during the academic year 2023-2024. In the analysis of the data, a situational mapping method based on anchored theory was applied. The theoretical starting point of the study is the idea that people live their daily life in certain operating environments, which are influenced by relationships between different environments and broader contexts. The results of the study identified tensions in relation to children, parents, the work community, and guiding documents. In the development of transition practices and in the construction of shared understanding, first, the emphasis was on structuring the meaningfulness of work, especially the child's point of view. In addition, key aspects of the development work were shared practices and everyday situations, valuing the expertise of different parties, and the importance of structures.

Children enter compulsory education at different ages across countries, but the literature broadly agrees that the first year of schooling plays a critical role in shaping educational trajectories and long-term outcomes (Tymms, Merrell, & Henderson, 1999; Tymms et al., 2009). Previous studies using longitudinal design and regression discontinuity conducted in England indicate that children make more learning progress during their first year of formal schooling than in any subsequent year, highlighting the importance of early educational experiences (Tymms, Merrell, & Henderson, 1999, Luyten, Tymms, Jones, 2009). Likewise, several studies indicate that attending preschool is an effective measure to ensure greater equality of educational opportunities. That is, it contributes to the development of cognitive and socio-emotional skills in the short and medium term, impacts future school trajectories, and has a more pronounced effect on vulnerable children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds (Barnett and Boocock, 1998; Campbell et al., 2001; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2006; Peisner-Feinberg et al., 2001; Sylva et al., 2010).

In Brazil, compulsory education begins at age four when children are enrolled in preschool. Recent longitudinal studies have contributed to a better understanding of what children know and can do during the first two years of compulsory education (Bartholo et al.; 2020; Koslinki; Bartholo, 2020). However, despite their methodological rigor, these studies have typically relied on relatively small samples, have often been limited to a single city, and have predominantly focused on public schools. More broadly, there remains a scarcity of high-quality causal evidence from developing countries on the effects of preschool on children learning, particularly those living in poverty.

This paper addresses these gaps by analysing a unique dataset comprising a representative sample of five-year-old children from three Brazilian states. The data are part of an international study conducted in nine countries during the first semester of 2025. In Brazil, a total of 2,520 children attending 210 schools were assessed across three developmental domains: cognitive development, executive function, and socioemotional development.

The paper is guided by two main research questions. The first examines the impact of attending one year of compulsory preschool in Brazil on children’s cognitive development, with a particular focus on emergent literacy and numeracy. A regression discontinuity design is employed to estimate the causal effect of preschool attendance, allowing an assessment of how schools contribute to children’s learning, especially among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. The large and diverse sample enables, for the first time, an analysis of school effects across the public and private sectors, across different city sizes, and across urban and rural contexts in Brazil.

The second research question aims to describe socioeconomic inequalities in early cognitive development. Preliminary evidence from the city of Rio de Janeiro suggests that, at the start of compulsory education, the gap in cognitive development between children from low- and high-socioeconomic status (SES) families is approximately one standard deviation, corresponding to nearly 12 months of learning. This study provides more robust evidence on these inequalities using data collected from 89 municipalities across Brazil. Understanding such disparities at school entry is particularly relevant for the design and implementation of social and educational policies aimed at reducing inequality at a critical stage of human development.

Early learning is a strong predictor of later success across a wide range of educational and life outcomes. The first five years of life represent a period of both significant opportunity and heightened vulnerability. Cognitive and socioemotional skills developed during this phase have lasting effects throughout schooling and into adulthood. While school quality remains important, strong early learning tends to accelerate subsequent development, whereas a weak start can have enduring negative consequences.