About SARAECE
Who are we?
The South African Research Association for Early Childhood Education (SARAECE) strives to be a leading voice for the advancement of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) field, focused on children from birth to nine years. SARAECE is committed to being
an inclusive, collective, and critical voice for ECE with the intention to advance the quality of early childhood development,
care, education, and research in South Africa. The Association serves as a platform for promoting, producing, and sharing
knowledge among the ECE community, and as a catalyst for early childhood research (ECR).
The association aims to attract academics, researchers, teacher trainers, NPOs, students, educators, professionals, government
institutions, policymakers, and leaders who strive to establish and advance ECE as a critical field in South Africa. SARAECE
membership houses the leading voices in ECE across all sectors and its leadership consists of current and future experts in the field.
What we do
The Association actively promotes the advancement of the ECE field, including the theories, conceptual ideas, educational
practices, policies, curricula, subjects, contexts, and issues in early childhood development, care, learning, and education. Since
the ECE field is dynamic and rapidly evolving, the Association actively encourages the exploration of new paradigms, research
methodologies, pedagogies, and concepts as well as their application to local contexts, whilst preserving and promoting the
rich tradition of African early childhood thought.
SARAECE endeavours to
• Provide an academic and practice-based forum for the development and dissemination of early childhood research in
South Africa and beyond
• Facilitate collaboration and cooperation among multiple significant stakeholders nationally and internationally (e.g.
through hosting stakeholder meetings, knowledge-sharing seminars)
• Strengthen the link between research, policy, and practice to bridge the fragmentation and polarisations in the ECE sector in South Africa
• Raise the authority and impact of early childhood research through its academic development and mentorship activities
(e.g. workshops, knowledge-sharing seminars) and dissemination via various platforms (website, SARAECE conferences,
open-access e-publications, scientific journal)
• Raise the visibility and status of the ECE profession