Attending the 78th OMEP World Assembly and Conference in Poznań was an extraordinary experience, and I am extremely grateful to the OMEP Australia Committee for awarding me the Rosamunde Coombe Travel Award. After almost ten years of membership and contribution to OMEP Australia, including more than a decade serving as Treasurer, it was a privilege to participate in the World Assembly and meet colleagues from across the international OMEP community.
The conference gave me the opportunity to see the breadth and importance of OMEP’s work internationally and to better understand how our Australian contribution fits within this global community. I was particularly proud to see the Australian contribution represented by Kym Simoncini and so well respected by our OMEP International colleagues. Meeting colleagues from across the world, sharing ideas and learning about their work reinforced for me the importance of international connections in advocating for young children and their rights. The program was rich and thought-provoking, with the conference theme, When the Child Speaks: Korczak’s Inspirations for Education and Children’s Rights, providing a powerful thread throughout the Assembly and Conference. The conference brought together issues of children’s rights, voice, equality, justice, dignity, sustainability, peace and the role of teachers as human rights defenders.
I presented my research on socially just leadership in early childhood education alongside an inspiring group of international researchers and colleagues. Drawing on more than a decade of qualitative research, my presentation explored how leadership can enable children’s rights to protection, provision, and participation, and how organisational cultures, professional learning and collective responsibility can create the conditions for social justice. The strong alignment between this work and the conference focus on children’s rights and listening to children’s voices made presenting particularly meaningful.
One of the most profound experiences of the conference was visiting Treblinka and planting a tree in the Janusz Korczak Forest with Kym. It was a deeply sobering experience. Learning more about Korczak’s life and work also prompted me to reflect on how influential his ideas have been for contemporary understandings of children’s rights. His insistence that children are people deserving of dignity, respect, voice, and participation resonates strongly with my own research and professional commitments. The conference’s focus on Korczak provided an opportunity to connect these historical foundations with contemporary work in early childhood education and children’s rights.
The experience also reinforced for me the value of the work I have undertaken through OMEP Australia over the past decade. My contribution to governance, financial stewardship, advocacy, and equitable participation — including supporting funded membership for colleagues in Pakistan and Pacific Island nations feels even more worthwhile after experiencing the international community firsthand.
I returned from the conference with renewed enthusiasm for contributing to OMEP Australia and to OMEP internationally. I look forward to strengthening our international connections, contributing to advocacy for children’s rights, and supporting OMEP’s work to ensure the voices, dignity, and rights of young children remain at the centre of education and society.
I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity provided by the OMEP Australia Rosamunde Coombe Travel Award. It was a wonderful opportunity to attend the Assembly and International Conference and also to connect, learn, contribute, and reaffirm why this work matters.
