We acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands, waterways, mountains and beaches on which our professional conversations take place.
We pay our respect to elders past and present and hope that their spirits walk with us and guide us as we navigate a shared future.
About us
Asia Pacific Early Childhood Consultants was established in Singapore and Australia in 2002
Our intent is to provide high quality early childhood professional learning opportunities that uphold the principles of equity, social justice and the mandates of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Asia Pacific Early Childhood Consultants is interested in supporting early childhood professionals to re-imagine the work they undertake with children. We see APECC as a critical friend that respectfully challenges long held beliefs, looks at the familiar in new ways, helps you see what you cannot yet see and support individuals and teams to be the best they can be.
We are also interested in promoting an interpretive and contextual understanding of a range of respected approaches to early childhood, including the key principles of the Reggio Emilia Educational Project, with specific reference to honouring children, professional inquiry, educational documentation and the impact of the physical and temporal environment. We respect that the ideas lent to us by colleagues in other contexts are their intellectual property, and we refer to these ideas to develop our own interpretations and actions in order to translate them in to other contexts and cultural nuances.
In 2025 we will begin to collaborate with early childhood communities on the notion of slow pedagogy and the approach we take to time within our early childhood settings. Our aim is to examine children's right to 'slow time' in order to reclaim the essence of being present with children, their ideas, their theories, and their thinking.
With these aspirations in mind, APECC would like to engage early childhood professionals in dialogue and debate about professional practice, educational research and quality, from a range of settings in Australia, SE Asia and beyond.
Watch our Executive Consultant, Dr Deborah Harcourt, as she joins the panel session
"How do we grow a good person?" with His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
and Dr Simon Longstaff (St James Ethics Centre),
Prof Carla Rinaldi (Reggio Children) and Yassmin Abdel-Magied (Youth without Borders)
Our online courses: start at any time
An approximately 12 week online course that focuses on educating professionals who work with children to examine the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and its implications for professional practice.
This course will give participants an opportunity to explore the UNCRC as it relates to their own practice and interact with Deborah around the issues and provocations that arise. This course is relevant to any person who works with children and young people in any capacity.
SERIES 1: TRANSLATING REGGIO EMILIA
(a series of four short courses)
- An interpretation of the key principles of the Reggio Emilia Educational Project
- Working with the competent child
- Building relationships with people, spaces and materials
- Meaningful observations to support teaching and learning
SERIES 2: RE-IMAGING EDUCATIONAL DOCUMENTATION
(a series of four short courses)
- An introduction to educational documentation
- Giving visibility to teaching and learning
- Expressive languages and children's thinking
- Linking documentation and assessment
Coming soon!!
The joy of slow: re-imagining pedagogy alongside unhurried children
Our other amazing professional learning!
Planning for the possible:
An inquiry curriculum for educators and children
This is our new initiative that provides teams with the opportunity to use our eBook series, podcasts and 'the atelier for dialogue & debate' platform to explore a new way of thinking about professional practices, strongly linked to our translation of Reggio Emilia in to other contexts.
THINKER - IN - RESIDENCE PROGRAM
Planning for the possible:
An inquiry curriculum for educators and children
For those who prefer face to face support and mentoring, Dr Deborah Harcourt can provide you with exceptional in-practice guidance as you investigate the possibilities of the principles of Reggio Emilia as a professional inquiry in your setting and context.
FREE PODCASTS via Podbean
Provocations and opinions from Deborah's desk
An opportunity for early childhood educators to join in a dialogue in order to debate and unpack current issues, events, challenges, viewpoints or niggles in professional practice.
WEBCAST SEMINARS via Zoom or our LMS
Hosted by Deborah straight to your team: Choose from a range of 'off the shelf' topics or suggest your own - make a time with Deborah and you are away!
MASTER CLASSES in your setting
Most suitable for those already engaging with the principles of Reggio Emilia, Educational Documentation or Children's rights based pedagogy. These can be done for individual settings or within clusters of settings, with Dr Deborah Harcourt as your facilitator.
Acknowledging Country
APECC would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land upon which it meets with early childhood educators across Australia. This land was, is and will continue to be an important place for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, who have travelled across our vast country since time began. We pay our ongoing respect to Elders past and present, and thank them for their guidance, courage and support and promise to tread gently and respectfully across this beautiful shared land of ours. We also offer our deepest thanks to those First Nations people who may choose to engage with us at APECC.
We would like to acknowledge that some of the images we offer on this website, as illustrative examples of content only, have been accessed through publicly available sites and blogs such as the Garden Gate Development Centre, Let the children play, Reggio Inspired Centres, Michelle Pratt, Flinders Early Learning Centre, Pinterest and the Boulder Journey School. Should viewers of our pages have any issues with the images, please contact us immediately so that we may offer an appropriate acknowledgement or remove. We apologise in advance if we have overlooked any acknowledgements.
Office locations:
New Farm, Brisbane
Buderim, Sunshine Coast
Call us on (+61) (0)418307689
Email: info@deborahharcourt.com
Humjodesa Pty Ltd ACN 602961937 T/A
Burke Family Trust ABN 76474783972
T/A Asia Pacific Early Childhood Consultants
© 2024 Deborah Harcourt
All rights reserved for all ideas, titles and content