Arianna Lazzari is currently Senior Assistant Professor at the
Department of Education Science of Bologna University. She has been
working in the field of early childhood education for over ten
years, gaining professional and academic experience both in Italy
and abroad (UK, Ireland, Sweden). Her research focuses on:
- professionalism and professional development of practitioners
working in early childhood settings across Europe;
- pedagogical approaches to the education and care of young
children elaborated within different European traditions;
- ECEC policy developments in cross-national perspective.
She awarded the title of
European Doctorate at Bologna
University in May 2011, with a thesis titled ‘
Reconceptualising
professional development in early childhood education: a study on
teachers' professionalism carried out in Bologna province'.
During the same year (September 2011) her doctoral research
received the
Best Student Research Award at the 21st EECERA
conference in Geneva.
During the last year (October 2013 - August2014) she has been
involved as a researcher in the Eurofound project ‘
Assessing
childcare services in Europe' (2013/S 117-198914) on the impact
of continuing professional development and working conditions of
staff on the quality of ECEC provision. Over the same period, she
also participated, as a country-expert for Italy, in the project
commissioned by the DG Education and Culture of the European
Commission ‘
Study on the effective use of early childhood
education and care (ECEC) in preventing early school leaving
(ESL)' exploring the link between high quality ECEC, successful
educational transitions and student's educational achievements in
compulsory school.
From September 2012 to August 2013 she worked as Post-Doctoral
Research Fellow at Department of Education of Bologna University,
where she carried out the project ‘
Enhancing early childhood
teachers' professionalism: participatory research on professional
development strategies' under the supervision of prof.
Balduzzi. This was a practice-based research project aimed at
investigated how teachers' professionalism is played out in
everyday practices in order to identify strategies that effectively
promote their professional growth within ECEC settings.
As an independent researcher for SOFRECO (September 2011-June
2012), she carried out – under the supervision of Michel
Vandenbroeck (Department of Social Welfare Studies, Ghent
University) – a literature review on the participation of
disadvantaged children and families in ECEC services in Europe
within the project '
Early childhood education and care (ECEC) in
promoting educational attainment including social development of
children from disadvantaged background and in fostering social
inclusion'. The study was commissioned by the DG Education and
Culture of the European Commission and jointly conducted by SOFRECO
(lead researcher: John Bennett) and EIESP (study coordinator/policy
expert: Jean Gordon). Over the same year, she compiled as a country
research expert, the case study report of Italy within an
international study on continuing professional development of the
early years workforce coordinated by Pamela Oberhuemer and
commissioned by the Deutsches Jugendinstitut of Munich
(
‘Fort- und Weiterbildung frühpädagogischer Fachkräfte im
europäischen Vergleich' ) .
From January 2010 to October 2011 she was involved in the
European project ‘Study on competence requirements for staff in
early childhood education and care' commissioned by the
Directorate General for Education and Culture (DG EAC) of the
European Commission and jointly conducted by the University of East
London (Mathias Urban) and by the University of Ghent, Belgium
(Michel Vandenbroeck, Jan Peeters and Katrien Van Laere).
