Stay in solidarity and share equally: An open access journal in childhood studies

Journal of Childhood, Education & Society (JCES) was founded as a product of collective thought under the leadership of Dr. Mehmet Toran in July 2019 by a group of early childhood researchers who conduct both collaborative and independent academic research. Under the light of scientific research, current publishing policies cannot eliminate inequalities in public access for transfer and access of knowledge that is generated for the public weal (Beall, 2013). Particularly, having a limited access to the knowledge in early childhood studies is acknowledged as the first step for constitution of JCES. In this context, we would like to underline that independent researchers who are voluntarily taking part in the emergence of JCES are involved in a very courageous endeavour. This collective constitution takes an important responsibility for the public as well, and we point out that to fulfil this responsibility, it embraces moral and ethical rules as a reference point. Objectives, scope and ethical principles of JCES are determined with the contribution of the editorial board. In addition, we make promise to the larger research community of early childhood area that we will make sure to contribute to the area by giving a priority to high quality of research with robust evidence. JCES adopts open science perspective in early childhood studies. Therefore, JCES has a high opinion of sharing the knowledge among people who are in children’s ecology democratically. Attaching importance to open science policy, JCES defends scientific knowledge as public property that should be shared with all without depressing its value (Tonta, 2015). In the light of this target, -as JCES editorial board- we believe that scientific information that has been produced as public property should be shared with everyone through open access. The scientific communication enhanced between researchers-practitioners-readers is aimed to put into practice through the “open access” method. In this context, as open access policy within JCES, we embraced non-profit, voluntary editorial operations without charging a fee either from the reader or authors. Our experiences during publishing our first issue promise that it can be put into practice with a collective movement voluntarily on a digital platform. Solidarity is possible to carry out editorial process not only in Turkey but also with a contribution from every corner of the world. We have given extra importance to research ethics as our publishing policy. While specifying ethical principles, we aimed to take researcher’s attention to this issue. In this sense, after discussions with EECERA and then with the permission from Trustees of EECERA, we decided to embrace EECERA Ethical Code for Early Childhood Researchers that is formulated by Chris Pascal, Tony Bertram, Julia Formosinho, Colette Gray and Margy Whalley (2012). The ethical code bears qualification as a guide for researchers working in the early childhood area. We would like to indicate that applicant articles to the JCES are also evaluated in terms of those ethical codes during the editorial preliminary consideration process. After calling for papers for the inaugural issue, we had a considerable amount of article applications. Those applications studiously evaluated by the referees after preliminary considerations. In this process, constructive feedback from the referees and the revisions authors made in consideration to given feedback contributed to quality of articles concurrently to the quality of the journal. Peer review process that is held studiously, on time and constructively demonstrated that solidarity is built correctly and truthfully. Therefore, we would like to especially thank the referees for the inaugural issue. As you will see in the journal, there are six articles for the inaugural issue from five different countries: Belgium, Colombia, Israel,  Tanzania and the USA. This variety is a result of effective publicity of the journal by editorial board and efficient use of digital platforms with open access policy. Besides that, especially the call for papers announcements by EECERA in their member mail groups and social media accounts demonstrated once more how important solidarity is. As a result of this solidarity and cooperation, we would like to underline that the geographical variety of applicant articles strengthen our faith and self-confidence as well. After publishing first issue, we will continue pertinaciously working to strengthen international collaborations and to ensure continuity of the journal. Being aware of responsibility we are carrying and the risks we may face in the process, we would like to state that we have already taken necessary precautions. To ensure long running path and continuity of publishing for the journal, Gizem Alvan, Kerem Avcı and Taibe Kulaksız - doctorate students- have already started gaining experience in journal publishing and editorial administration process. These experiences would play an important role to provide sustainable publication of the journal. We would like to congratulate them to take part in a constitution courageously. We would like to thank all partners who contributed to spreading information to publish interest with open access with their articles and their supports in the editorial process for the inaugural issue. We would like to state that the call for papers continues for the second issue of JCES which will be published in August 2020 and we are open to early childhood researchers’ original contributions

The Lions Quest program in Turkey : teachers’ views and classroom practices

This is a pilot study to explore the classroom implementation of the Lions Quest Program in Turkey. Teachers of first through eighth grades at two elementary schools who applied the program were interviewed about the program and their classroom practices while they were also observed and their classrooms were also observed. Considerable program implementation differences were found within and between the schools. Three main issues were raised in the interviews, namely that the teachers were not clear about whether social emotional learning (SEL) skills should be taught to students as a separate lesson or not; they seemed to doubt whether school personnel should be responsible for SEL implementation; and although they had positive views of the implementation, they underlined that students’ social and emotional wellbeing is dependent on family background and the developing maturity of the child. In conclusion, the teachers expressed positive views about the Lions Quest Program, yet lacked strong opinions about when, where, and by whom the program needed to be included in the curriculum. Limitations, implementation challenges, and implications for SEL in the Turkish context were also identified.peer-reviewe

Exploring Paternal Involvement from Greek, Greek - Cypriot and Turkish Fathers’ and Mothers’ Perspectives: Cross-National Differences and Similarities

Although European fatherhood is “in the process of reconstruction and transformation” (O’Brien 2004, as cited in Lero, Ashbourne and Whitehead 2006, 5) and there is a need to create a clear picture about paternal involvement, few studies have explored perceptions on the actual father involvement as well as the factors predicting and relating to father involvement, especially in Southeastern European countries. The present study aims at exploring the role of the father and the types of paternal involvement in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey both from mother’s and fathers’ perspectives. Research results revealed statistically significant differences in terms of the role of the father and the parental styles adopted in a country level and in the way fathers are involved in a parent level. Further, results confirm the hypothesis that father involvement is a multidimensional concept since statistically significant correlations were revealed among scales and subscales

Exploring Paternal Involvement from Greek, Greek - Cypriot and Turkish Fathers’ and Mothers’ Perspectives: Cross-National Differences and Similarities

Although European fatherhood is “in the process of reconstruction and transformation” (O’Brien 2004, as cited in Lero, Ashbourne and Whitehead 2006, 5) and there is a need to create a clear picture about paternal involvement, few studies have explored perceptions on the actual father involvement as well as the factors predicting and relating to father involvement, especially in Southeastern European countries. The present study aims at exploring the role of the father and the types of paternal involvement in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey both from mother’s and fathers’ perspectives. Research results revealed statistically significant differences in terms of the role of the father and the parental styles adopted in a country level and in the way fathers are involved in a parent level. Further, results confirm the hypothesis that father involvement is a multidimensional concept since statistically significant correlations were revealed among scales and subscales

The Lions Quest Program in Turkey: Teachers’ Views and Classroom Practices.

This is a pilot study to explore the classroom implementation of the Lions Quest Program in Turkey. Teachers of first through eighth grades at two elementary schools who applied the program were interviewed about the program and their classroom practices while they were also observed and their classrooms were also observed. Considerable program implementation differences were found within and between the schools. Three main issues were raised in the interviews, namely that the teachers were not clear about whether social emotional learning (SEL) skills should be taught to students as a separate lesson or not; they seemed to doubt whether school personnel should be responsible for SEL implementation; and although they had positive views of the implementation, they underlined that students’ social and emotional wellbeing is dependent on family background and the developing maturity of the child. In conclusion, the teachers expressed positive views about the Lions Quest Program, yet lacked strong opinions about when, where, and by whom the program needed to be included in the curriculum. Limitations, implementation challenges, and implications for SEL in the Turkish context were also identified

Inclusão social e bem estar de famílias de crianças com necessidades especiais - relatório de estudo transnacional

BUILDING BRIDGES: PROMOTING SOCIAL INCLUSION AND WELLBEING FOR FAMILIES OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS – PSI-WELL The project entitled Building Bridges: Promoting Social Inclusion and Wellbeing for Families of Children with Special Needs (PSI_WELL) proposes an innovative approach aimed to facilitate social inclusion and wellbeing for families confronting with disabled children through adult education for parents. The project is addressing to the specific needs of families parenting children with special needs (SN) and it is designed to help parents to improve their coping strategies and to enhance their parenting skills in order to foster their social inclusion and wellbeing. The first aim of our project is to assess the wellbeing, stress related factors and couple relationship of parents of children with special needs. The second aim is to enhance personal resources (such as individual coping, emotion regulation), family resources (such as dyadic coping) and social support for parents of a child with special needs through development, implementing and validating a psycho‐educational and social intervention program. The general aim of the project is promoting social inclusion, equity and wellbeing for risk families in Europe through an intervention program for parents of children with special needs. This will be reached through objectives: (1) Diagnose the level of social inclusion, stress and wellbeing of 1500 families parenting children with special needs through a cross‐sectional and cross‐national research; (2) Developing a psychoeducational & social intervention program for fostering wellbeing for families of children with SN; (3) Validating the psychoeducational &social intervention program for risk families through the implementation with 360 parents from European countries of partnership; (4) Raising the awareness of the communities regarding the specific needs for social inclusion of risk families and disadvantaged parents of children with special needs through conducting an information campaign; (5) Developing a psychoeducational kit comprising two working tools for trainers specialized in working with disadvantaged parents by the end of the project; (6) Improving parenting skills and parent‐child relationships through developing na integrative handbook for parents by the end of the project. The target group comprises 360 parents from six European countries who will be involved in training activities and social network in order to enhance their personal and parental skills for a better social inclusion. The activities describe specific interventions such as a crossnational research on social inclusion, stress and wellbeing of families of children with SN to diagnose the level of stress and wellbeing of parents and the implications for adult education; designing and validating of a Psycho‐Educational & Social Intervention (PESI) Program for enhancing social inclusion and wellbeing of families of children with special needs; developing specific and comprehensive tools to sustain the intervention program (such as: a handbook for parents of children with special needs; a psycho‐educational kit for social‐emotional learning training for parents of children with SN, comprising the trainer’s manual and the trainee’s workbook), developing and implementing a training course for trainers; delivering the training program for parents; creating a network of support groups for parents of children with special needs in order to facilitate knowledge and experiences sharing, fostering social inclusion as well; dissemination of project’s activities and results; sharing the project’s deliverables through website, workshops, symposium, conferences. The expected impact on target groups is twofold: on the one hand is expected a personal development process and on the other hand is expected acquiring specific parenting skills (the results will consist in 360 parents of children with SN more resilient and enabled to practice different parenting strategies in order to respond exactly to their children growing and development needs; they will overcome the social exclusion becoming active involved in the process of raising and supporting their own children with SN). The project expect a community more inclusive and sensitive to the specific needs of families with children with SN and the university will be recognized as an importante resource for quality knowledge and experience (provider of an evidence‐based program). At the national and international level is expected raising the awareness of the political deciders regarding the specific needs of families of persons with SN. The research conducted within the project draws some implications for family’s life within social environment and it will propose some solutions for intervention to enhance the life quality of these families and their social inclusion, so that the results of the Project could serve as a base for developing an educational policy for parents and families of children with SN. Strategic partnership KA2 Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania ‐ coordinator Lleida University, Spain Politechnik Institute Braganca, Portugal Zagreb University, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, Croatia Klaipeda University, Lithuania Bogazici University, TurkeyErasmus+ 2016‐1‐RO01‐KA204‐024504info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio