EECERA/ Routledge Annual Practitioner Research Award

EECERA is announcing a new Practitioner Research Award for the 2010 EECERA conference which is jointly sponsored by Routledge and EECERA.

Aims:
The aims of the award are:

• To encourage excellence and high standards of scholarship in practitioner research
• To give status to the contribution of practitioner researchers
• To give visibility to the integration of research in practice
• To disseminate the results of practitioner research and practice
• To help practitioners to improve the quality of their research work by example

Eligibility:

The Practitioner Research Award is open to practitioners from any country who work directly in children’s and family services and who have used research to develop their practice in early childhood education and care over the last three years. They can be working in any aspect of ECEC provision, including schools, early years, social care or health settings, where practitioners are working in face to face contact with children and families. The research is not restricted to any particular methodology and entries can be submitted by an individual, a practitioner team or by a researcher on behalf of an organisation or institution. The practitioner research project should have been completed or written up within the past three years. Entrants should be members of EECERA and also intending to be present at the annual EECERA conference to present their research. Awards are presented at the Conference Dinner.

Entry Requirements:

Entries must consist of a 3000 word account of the research project and supporting statements from two referees which confirm the action reported in the account. The submission can be in a variety of forms but there should be a clear link between research and practice by the practitioners. The account should include:

1. The focus of the research
2. The purpose and aims of the research
3. The reason for the choice of methodology
4. How ethical issues are addressed
5. The process of the research and how it impacted on practice
6. A reflection on its contribution to practice
7. Any further plans for development

The deadline for submissions is 1st July 2010 and all entries will be scrutinised by the EECERA Awards Committee against a set of academic and scholarly criteria. The entry exhibiting the highest standards of scholarship and practitioner research originality will be awarded:

• a certificate
• free membership of EECERA for one year
• a free EECERA conference fee
• a subscription to two Taylor and Francis journals of their choice for one year.

Criteria for Judging Award:
In the submitted account the EECERA Annual Awards Committee will look for evidence of:

• the academic strength of the work and its level of scholarship
• the impact of the research on policy or practice
• the original and innovatory nature of the research and its applications
• Its potential contribution to the field

Please submit your paper to Selma Manjee ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) before 1st July. Please put 'EECERA 2010: Practitioner Research Award' in the subject line of the email. Thank you!