11. Biennial IFS Conference (31.07. - 02.08.2025)

Early Bird: 350€

Standard: 400€

The fee for the conference includes regular drinks and food during the conference as well as dinner on Friday. The discounted price is valid for registration by 29.03.2025. 

Registration via ConfTool.

The conference will be held at the NYX Hotel Erfurt

Juri-Gagarin-Ring 127, 99084 Erfurt

This is where the conference rooms reserved by us are located.

 

Mixed Sessions I (15-16)

• Dr Yukiyo Nishida, Dr John Mynott & Dr Maria Gregoriou "Toys in Early Childhood Education: Are toys necessary for play?" Thelma Miller "The Value of Clay in a No Toy Nursery"
• Dr Helen Lyndon, Sue Bennett, Anne Denham & Sally Cave "Being and Becoming a Froebelian Community of Evidenced Practice"
• Helle Halsboe-Larsen "Blockplay & Architecture" Catriona Gill & Jane Whinnett "Encounters with Blocks"
• Catriona Gill & Jane Whinnett “Encounters with Blocks” Michael Rumbelow "AI object recognition and 3D modelling apps as tools for recording and representing children's physical block play constructions"
• Dr Kate Smith "'Ahoy there, Captain': Symbolic puppet play as a unifying literacy experience" Sabine Plamper & Titia Sprey "Understanding Through Your Hands: 10000 scribbles are 10000 neural connections"
• Dr Lynn McNair "Threads of Connection: Unravelling Froebelian kinship and the art of shared knowing" Fatemeh Sadeghi “A Froebelian Early Learning Space: What Does It Offer? What Should It Offer?”

Mixed Sesssions II (16:30-17:30)

• Dr Fengling & Rachna Joshi "Intergenerational practice and dance with the Gifts: a spiritual journey of sustaining the Froebelian heritage" Bridget Steenkamp "Crafting connections: developing reflective practice through feltig a ball"
• Stefanie Vochatzer “Kindergarten as Loanword Around the World - Insights Into Kindergarten Pedagogy in United States Around 1860” Prof Ulf Sauerbrey “The reception of Froebel's ideas on children's play by childhood researcher Martha Muchow” Mie Nojiri "Creative Storytelling and Froebelian Pedagogy: The Early Reception of Froebel's Methods and Building Blocks in Japan" (Poster)
• Luke Addison & Dr Lynn McNair "Entanglements with Life, Beauty and Knowledge: Story-making as a practice in Sustainable Froebelian Pedagogies" Prof Niamh Fortune & Sinéad Magee “Visions of Irish Froebelian graduates’ professional identities through a dynamic systems lens”
• Dr Amanda Norman “A Froebelian perspective toward 'Restorative Care' during infant rest and sleep routines and rituals in the 21st century domestic home” Steph Harding & Paula Lester “Froebel's Mother Songs and Finger Plays”

Mixed Sessions III (11:30-12:30)

• Dr Christiane Konrad “Froebel's forms of life, beauty and knowledge. Can we also find them in his familiy book of the mother and nursery songs?” Steve Grocott "Beyond the Mother Songs - A Froebelian approach to early childhood music for the 21st century"
• Marcella Towler & Dr Alison Moore "Being and Becoming: Reflections on Froebelian Journeys" Dr Busra Kumru “The ownership of wisdom: provocations on early years as a context for 'thinking together'”
• Caroline Walsh & Dr Lynn McNair "Is it possible to have a children's outdoor nursery within a botanic garden?" Susan Wood & Melissa Samples "21st century ways to incorporate Froebel's gifts and occupations into the classroom"

Mixed Sessions IV (13-14)

• Dr Stella Louis & Julia Manning-Morton “How do open ended resources support representation through forms of life, beauty and knowledge?” Marcella Towler "Fuzzy Play? An exploration of how play is portrayed on early childhood education websites"
• Prof Andrea Schmid & Dr Nikolas Rathert "Froebel Pedagogy: The Nexus between Then & Now" Dr Ines Freitag-Amtmann "Froebel today - Explorer dialogues with children"
• Prof Naoko Matsumura “Numbers, Shapes, Words and Communication Using Origami. A Case Study of Froebelian Group Work in the Training of Early Childhood Educators and Elementary School Teachers in Japan” Grace Choi "Educational Policies and Trends in China in the Age of AI: What role can Froebel pedagogy play in early childhood education in the AI era?"

Download

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On Friday, there will be the opportunity to visit various places of Fröbel education in Thuringia: Keilhau, Bad Blankenburg | Bad Liebenstein, Schweina

Flyer for the special exhibition FRIDLINat the Fröbelmuseum Bad Blankenburg

Fröbel sites in and around Bad Liebenstein

Flyer for the exhibition in the Erfurt University Library| Nordhäuserstraße 63

In addition, on the sidelines of the conference, the exhibition "Rethinking Froebel", which is organized by the JugendKunstschule Schweina, can be visited. 
The FRÖBELmobil is a mobile art school that invites you to get to know Fröbel's basic ideas in a playful way.