Ms. Colleen Vesely, a graduate student at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, recently participated in the World Forum on Early Care and Education (WFECE) in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The forum brought together 700 early childhood practitioners and researchers from 80 countries to discuss the important issues related to early childhood education. During the forum, Ms. Vesely took part in a panel discussion entitled "Hope, Aspirations and Plight: The Stories of Families in the Current of Global Immigration," which examined the experiences of immigrant children and families across the world.

Ms. Vesely was invited to join the panel because of her current research on immigrant families and early childhood education through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), where she works as a consultant.

"The panel was comprised of individuals from Australia, Canada, Colombia, and the U.S. who are all particularly interested in the experiences of immigrant children and families," Ms. Vesely said, adding that "an out-growth from this session was the creation of a WFECE working group on immigration, which will facilitate information and idea sharing among WFECE participants from around the world who are working with immigrant families."

At the University of Maryland, Ms. Vesely is a third year doctoral student in the department of family science. She has extensively studied the experience of immigrant children and families, and under a project funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation in the Netherlands, she is preparing to gather more data on early childhood centers across the world.

"We are headed into the field for data collection beginning in the early fall," Ms. Vesely said. "We will be conducting six in-depth case studies, consisting of interviews and observations within ECE centers in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to creating materials and tools for ECE practitioners working with immigrant families, from this initial qualitative study, we hope to apply for more funding to conduct further research using mixed methods on this important and timely topic."

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