News

This Chair, awarded in 2025 for a five-year term, is part of the new network of eight chairs in scientific diplomacy established by the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ). It is led by Professor Carmen Dionne in partnership with two international co-principal investigators: Nidia Arias Becerra of the Universidad CES (Colombia) and Oumar Barry of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar (Senegal).

The Chair is organizing the symposium “Inclusion in Early Childhood Education: Research to Inform Action” for the 93rd ACFAS Conference. The event will bring together some twenty researchers from several countries, as well as students at all three levels of study.

This 5th invitation-only symposium took place in Lisbon in September 2025 and brought together the developers of the ASQ and world experts to discuss this screening tool. The findings of the SSHRC Research Partnership “Together for Inclusive Child Care Settings” (2027–2027), which focused on the use of the ASQ in inclusive child care settings in Quebec, were presented.

C. Dionne served as a co-organizer, alongside Ching-I Chen and Hsiu-Wen Yang, of the symposium “Cross-cultural Research in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education: Methodological and Ethical Considerations” as part of the 8th Conference of the International Society on Early Intervention, held in Lisbon in September 2025. C. Dionne, A. Paquet, and M. Londono presented four communications on the topics of cultural adaptations, collaborative practices, family involvement, and the current state of knowledge regarding the implementation of inclusive practices.

At this event organized by OMEP, the Chair, together with R. Diawara of UNESCO’s Education Program, presented a paper titled “Inclusion in Early Childhood Education and Care: Why Indicators?”

On October 7, 8, and 9, 2024, the International Forum on Inclusion in Early Childhood Care and Education was held, jointly organized by UNESCO and the UNESCO Chair: Early Childhood and Inclusive Early Intervention. This invitational event provided an opportunity to reflect on the importance of inclusive early childhood education and care in a variety of contexts. Participants from Colombia, Senegal, Algeria, Ireland, France, the United States, and Canada discussed actions to be taken following the Tashkent Declaration and the recommendations of the World Report on Early Childhood: The Right to a Strong Foundation.

On April 18, 2024, in Vancouver, Annie Paquet and Carmen Dionne, professors in the Department of Psychoeducation and Social Work at UQTR, made a presentation as part of the World Forum on Early Care and Education which brought together more than 275 professionals from early childhood in 37 countries.

The celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Salamanca Declaration took place at UNESCO in Paris on March 13, 2024. Professor Carmen Dionne attended the event as the moderator of a panel discussion on involving parents and communities.

In Paris, on March 14 and 15, 2024, the “Global Inclusive Schools’ Forum” was held, co-organized by UNESCO and the International Forums of Inclusion Practitioners (IFIP).

Ching-I Chen, Carmen Dionne, Lema Kabashi and Jennifer Grisham were present at the Conference on research innovations in early intervention, in San Diego, to discuss the cultural adaptation of early intervention measures.

On September 28, the UNESCO Chair in Early Childhood and Inclusive Early Intervention was pleased to welcome Ms. Rokhaya Fall Diawara for a conference on the Tashkent Declaration and commitments to action for the transformation of early childhood care and education.

The International Seminar on Inclusive Practices took place in the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada between the 19th and 22nd of June 2023. This seminar was organized as part of the project "Social innovation for inclusive educational environments in early childhood: digital contribution," funded by the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF). The event brought together 22 researchers and students from three partner countries: Colombia, Senegal and Canada, to develop a digital platform for inclusive early childhood. Among the participants were researchers Oumar Barry and Alassane Sow from Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar; Jenny Amanda Ortiz Munoz, Angela Maria Penaranda Saavedra and Adriana Duarte Valderrama from Universidad del Rosario; Daisy Mariana Moreno Martinez from Universidad Nacional de Colombia; Nadia Semenova Moratto Vasquez from Universidad CES; and Carmen Dionne, Annie Paquet, Colombe Lemire and Claude Dugas from Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.

On 18 May 2023, at the 23rd edition of the International Early Childhood Inclusion Institute, the conference "Panel on International Approaches to Inclusion: Changing Systems, Practices and Attitudes" was held. The panel was led by Elena Soukakou, Chih-Ing Lim, Shivani Pandit, Carmen Dionne and Johanna Lundqvist.

This conference, organized by UNESCO, was held in November 2022 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, with the aim of reaffirming young children’s rights to quality care and education from birth. UNESCO Chairholder Carmen Dionne, along with psychology doctoral student and research assistant Maria Camila Londono, participated as speakers.

The new publication “Inclusive early childhood care and education: from commitment to action” aims to support the diverse stakeholders involved and committed to inclusion in early childhood education! On July 8, 2021, Professor Carmen Dionne, UNESCO Chair in Early Childhood: Inclusive Early Intervention, presented the publication at the online conference Right from the Start: Ensuring inclusive, quality early childhood care and education for all, organized by UNESCO and the Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM).