Pedagogical Innovations Between Ethiopia and Sweden
In this episode, Kassahun Weldemariam—senior lecturer at the University of Gothenburg and originally from Ethiopia—shares his cross-continental journey through education, from teaching in Ethiopia to researching sustainability in Sweden. His path across the Global South and North has given him a unique vantage point on what it means to reimagine pedagogy in diverse contexts.
For Kassahun, pedagogical innovations are not simply about shiny new methods or technologies. Instead, he frames it as something much deeper:
“For me, pedagogical innovation refers to intentional, reflective and transformative change in teaching and learning that responds to evolving societal, cultural, ecological and epistemic realities within the field of education. It is not merely about adopting new methods or technologies, but about reimagining the purpose and the process of education itself.”Drawing from both Sweden’s well-resourced, child rights–oriented early childhood system and Ethiopia’s resource-constrained but community-rich practices, Kassahun emphasizes that innovation must always be context-sensitive. In Sweden, innovation might mean embedding children’s rights and sustainability into everyday practice. In Ethiopia, it might emerge through community-based care or multilingual education, despite structural challenges.
Across both settings, Kassahun highlights the crucial role of professional agency, collaboration, and leadership. Innovation, he argues, flourishes when educators are trusted as reflective, creative, and ethical agents—able to take risks, reclaim forgotten wisdoms, and co-construct knowledge with children, families, and colleagues.
His reflections invite us to see pedagogical innovation not as a universal formula, but as a dynamic, context-driven practice—always responsive to the realities, challenges, and possibilities of the communities it serves.
Happy listening!
Early Childhood Innovation Across Borders
In this episode, Gloria Quiñones—Associate Professor at Monash University and originally from Monterrey, Mexico—takes us on a cross-cultural journey through early childhood education. Drawing from her experiences in both Mexico and Australia, she redefines pedagogical innovation as something deeply personal: “doing something new for you”—no grand gestures required. Instead, the magic unfolds through reflective, child-led, and collaborative processes that honor context, relationships, and the everyday.
Gloria explores the contrast between Australia’s play-based curriculums—steeped in outdoor and bush kindergartens—and Mexico’s more structured, motor-skill-oriented approaches, particularly in urban and private educational settings. Yet, in rural Mexican communities, she observes a beautiful freedom in child-led, exploratory play.
As an immigrant, Gloria describes her dual cultural lens as a powerful asset—fostering empathy, openness, and the ability to see strengths across systems, without placing one above the other. She emphasizes that true innovation isn’t only about outcomes—it’s about the process, the relationships, the space for ideas to surface through slowing down and being responsive.
“Slowing down and having those supportive conditions are really important… innovation in early childhood for me is really allowing that space for exploration, creativity… it shouldn’t be rigid, it should be about the process.”Gloria frames slowing down as essential for giving innovation the time and space to emerge, rather than forcing it into quick, outcome-driven timelines.
Whether it’s navigating different educational traditions or crafting new, meaningful connections with families and children—Gloria’s reflections invite us to embrace pedagogical innovations as a deeply relational, inclusive, and context-sensitive practice.
What if innovation in early childhood education isn’t about the new—but about returning to the wisdom of the past?
In this powerful episode, Māori educator and researcher Ngaroma Williams invites us to rethink “pedagogical innovation” through an indigenous lens. With over 40 years of experience, she shares how land, language, and ancestral knowledge shape truly transformative education in Aotearoa. From climate change projects guided by lunar cycles to reimagining teacher training in mainstream settings, this episode is a call to listen, unlearn, and reconnect.
Place matters. Language matters. Relationships matter.
Tune in to a conversation rooted in respect, resistance, and radical care.
Join us for a powerful conversation with Adefunke Ekine, Professor and Deputy Director at Tai Solarin University of Education and President of OMEP Nigeria, as she shares insights into the heart of early childhood education in Nigeria. From tackling school-related gender-based violence to pioneering innovative, culturally rooted teaching methods, Adefunke brings over 25 years of wisdom and unwavering advocacy for children and educators.
Discover how intergenerational storytelling, drama, and digital tools are reshaping classrooms—and why Nigeria’s early years sector is at a critical turning point.
“Pedagogical innovation is any method or strategy that you use to improve the learning of children or the students that makes it more effective, makes them more engaging, and is developmentally appropriate to them.” — Adefunke Ekine
Tune in now to explore how passion, policy, and play come together to create real change for the future of education in Nigeria.
#PedPod #EarlyChildhoodEducation #PedagogicalInnovation #OMEP #NigeriaEducation
Pedagogical Meets Responsible Innovation: Rethinking Early Childhood Teacher Education
Episode recorded live during a hybrid webinar with HVL Media Lab and NORBARN, April 29, 2025
How can we create meaningful change in early childhood teacher education (ECTE)? In this special episode of PedPod, recorded live during a NORBARN webinar, I was joined by Professor Liv Torunn Grindheim and Associate Professor Svein Gunnar Sjøtun to explore the intersection of pedagogical innovation and responsible innovation.
Together, they reflect on why many current reforms in ECTE fall short—and how a more ethical, inclusive, and practice-based approach might offer a better way forward. Drawing from theory, lived research, and international collaboration, they introduce the concept of Responsible Pedagogical Innovation (RPI)—a systemic, value-driven model for rethinking change in teacher education.
In the episode, expect thoughtful insights, cross-disciplinary perspectives, and a call to reflect on your own role in shaping the future of education.
In this PedPod by EX-PED-LAB episode, Margaret Kernan explores how pedagogical innovations emerge not from novelty for novelty’s sake, but from responding meaningfully to real-world challenges—especially those affecting children in vulnerable situations. Drawing from decades of international work with the International Child Development Initiatives (ICDI), Margaret shares how initiatives like the Together Old and Young Project (TOY Project) (*note that the new website is being revamped), Toy for Inclusion and Toy for Participation use intergenerational learning to build stronger, more inclusive communities.
As in the vignette above, she emphasizes that innovation must begin with asking, “Where is the pain?”—a guiding question that helps educators and organizations design responsive, community-rooted solutions. From play hubs that bring together young children and older adults, to support for migrant families and underserved communities, Margaret advocates for creative, context-sensitive approaches that center play, belonging, and child participation.
Highlighting the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration, cultural sensitivity, and reflective practice, Margaret reminds us that innovation often lies in reclaiming the wisdom of the past—not by repeating it, but by adapting it to today’s complex educational landscapes.
With this, we welcome you to another inspiring episode of PedPod by EX-PED-LAB. Happy listening!
Welcome to another episode of PedPod by EX-PED-LAB! Today, we are honored to have a conversation with Mercedes Mayol Lassalle, the World President of OMEP—the World Organization for Early Childhood Education. With decades of experience in policy, advocacy, and education, Mercedes is an Argentinian-based global leader in the fight for inclusive, high-quality early childhood education.
In this episode, Mercedes shares her journey, the challenges facing early childhood education worldwide, and the critical role of pedagogy and pedagogical innovations in shaping future generations. We discuss the power of play, the politics of education, and why early learning must be a global priority. Plus, an exclusive invitation to the OMEP World Conference in Italy!
Tune in for an inspiring discussion on transforming the field of early childhood education and care. Happy listening!
Welcome to the 2nd season of PedPod by EX-PED-LAB podcast!
This season, we will be exploring more perspectives through different formats. Apart from having guests from the continents of Asia, South America, and Africa, there will be episodes that feature global and local (GLOCAL) project initiatives from Banrkunne and EX-PED-LAB researchers.
We kick off this season with a conversation with Dr. Vina Adriany who is a Professor at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, and also currently the Director for the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Centre for Early Childhood Education Care, Education and Parenting (SEAMEO CECCEP). Vina's research interests lie in the discourses of gender and social justice in early childhood education and care (ECEC), and she is also interested in the impact of neoliberalism in ECEC.
In this episode, Vina shares:
“I think when we are talking about pedagogical innovation, it's not simply about new teaching methods or, you know, it's not simply about bringing new technology to the classroom. I'm not saying they are not important. They are extremely important. But I think we need to redefine what we mean by pedagogical innovation. So for me, pedagogical innovation is an attempt to challenge dominant discourse. It can be a Western production theory of knowledge. It can be an economic discourse, which is very strong when we talk about early childhood education. Economic discourse is everywhere. And it's also our attempt to decolonize and perhaps democratize our education because we are trying to create the bridge between Western knowledge and indigenous knowledge. Throughout our conversation, I hope it's clear that I'm not trying to completely deny the existence of Western theories, but I think there is a need to go beyond Western theories. So having local theories, in my opinion, can really complement Western theories on children's development. And also because we talk about, you know, that in Southeast Asia, communities play a very important role so I think when we talk about pedagogical innovation it's not only limited to teacher training programs but what can we do in order to also empower our communities because communities I think play a very important role in shaping educational practices of our children and also believing that teachers and our community are co-constructors of knowledge. So they are not a passive recipient of any programs, or any training that the government wants to implement, but they are also actively participating in the construction of knowledge. So I think that perhaps my understanding of pedagogical innovation really calls for, you know, a more decolonized perspective and also a culturally responsive approach to seeing education in general, especially early childhood education.”
Happy listening!
In this PedPod by EX-PED-LAB episode, Anthony Okely emphasizes that pedagogical innovations in early childhood education should prioritize rethinking and adapting existing practices to fit specific contexts rather than introducing entirely new methods. His work highlights the importance of play, high-quality educator-child interactions, and creating supportive environments for physical activity and development. He stresses that innovation should align with cultural, spatial, and resource-specific realities, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where challenges like limited educator training and space constraints often exist.
Tony advocates for integrating movement and play into daily routines in ways that do not add extra burdens on educators, fostering collaboration with families, communities, and other sectors like health and urban planning. He highlights the need for evidence-based approaches, such as those developed through his Sunrise Project, which collects global data on movement behaviors in young children. Ultimately, he views innovation as being about small, meaningful changes that encourage creativity, strengthen relationships, and provide children with autonomy through play-based learning.
With this, we welcome you to the 10th episode of PedPod by EX-PED-LAB. Happy listening!
Welcome to the 9th episode of PedPod by EX-PED-LAB. In this episode, I had a dialogue with Jayne White, a full Professor in the University of Canterbury New Zealand, when she visited Barnkunne some months ago. Jayne specializes in dialogic philosophy, pedagogy and methodology, and she also is the Editor-in-Chief of the Video Journal of Education and Pedagogy.
In this episode, Jayne emphasizes the critical role of pedagogical innovations in early childhood education. She highlights pedagogy as both process and product, rooted in historical concepts of guiding learners, while evolving to incorporate strategies that enhance learning opportunities. Jayne underscores that children are natural innovators, urging educators to foster curiosity by adapting to children's concerns rather than adhering to rigid, outdated curricula. Teachers, as pedagogical innovators, must be courageous, creative, and responsive, embracing dialogic practices that promote collaborative inquiry and interdisciplinary perspectives:
I see that pedagogical innovation is both an attitude and an aptitude to respond to the never-ending potential of young learners who are by their very nature already innovative.
Happy listening!
Welcome to the 8th episode of PedPod by EX-PED-LAB. In this episode, I had an online conversation with Marilyn Fleer, a Professor Emerita in early childhood education and development and leader of the Conceptual PlayLab at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia where she is also a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellow. Her research interests lie in the areas of early childhood science, engineering and technologies with particular attention on digital visual methodology framed through cultural-historical theory.
In this episode, when asked about pedagogical innovations, she responded:
I think that as a field of early childhood educators and researchers and community-based people working with young children, we've actually conceptualised it in different and new ways. And for me, what I draw out of what we have as a community is that our innovations around early childhood education have been fundamentally about thinking about children and their development in practices and thinking about it and progressing it in relation to evidence-informed ways. And this is something that I think has been very powerful.We know in the medical sciences, that there's always been evidence-based approaches. I think in early childhood, our innovation is that we have consistently and deeply over the last 20 years had early childhood educators who have come from that tradition actually do the research in practice as collaborators to inform and to develop our own evidence-informed ways of doing things. So rather than researchers coming in and telling us, what and how we should do things.Happy listening!
Welcome to the 7th episode of PedPod by EX-PED-LAB. In this episode, I had a conversation with Mathias Urban, the Desmond Chair of Early Childhood Education and Director of the Early Childhood Research Centre (ECRC) at Dublin City University, Ireland (DCU). His research interests lie in answering questions of policy related to diversity and equality, social justice, evaluation, and professionalism in education and care systems for young children, families, and communities in diverse socio-cultural contexts.
In this episode, Mathias talked about some of his projects where they ask: What is it that makes early childhood systems resilient, responsive to disruption, but also leads to them, well, ensuring more just and more equitable outcomes for all children? Further, he shares that we "can talk about innovation in a way in a technical sense and can say actually sort of what kind of new programs do we need or should we talk about artificial intelligence and the benefits of it. I would say that the critical task of, and you might want to call it innovation, you might find other terms for that, is to actually fundamentally rethink the purpose of education in our times, as I said, in the second quarter of the 21st century, and to look at whether the purpose of education can still be preparing children for a future that we think is largely known in terms of this is what you need to learn now in order to be able to cope in 20 years time."
Find out more about Mathias' thoughts on pedagogical innovations--click on this link to listen to the podcast!
Welcome to the 6th episode of PedPod by EX-PED-LAB. In this episode, I spoke with Hege Fimreite, an Associate Professor at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and the leader of the EX-PED-LAB project. For her PhD, she worked on a project titled "Kollegarettleiing og endring av den kollektive kunnskapen i barnehagen" (peer guidance and changes in the collective knowledge in the kindergarten).
In this episode, Hege used the metaphor of a wave to explain her thoughts on pedagogical innovations:
Click on this link to listen to the podcast! :)
What do we need to further develop sustainable pedagogical innovations?
We need skilled teachers who know, for example, if you go back to sustainability, the teacher must know what is it.This is a quote from this episode.
Welcome to the 5th episode of PedPod by EX-PED-LAB. In this episode, I had a dialogue with Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson, a Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Gothenburg. Ingrid once held the UNESCO Chair in Early Childhood Education and Sustainable Development and was once the president of OMEP (Organisation Mondiale pour l'Éducation Préscolaire). Her main area of research is early childhood education and early learning environments.
Happy listening! :)
Welcome to the 4th episode of PedPod by EX-PED-LAB. In this episode, I had a dialogue with Elin Eriksen Ødegaard, a professor at the University of Western Norway, KINDknow Centre's Research Director, and incidentally, was my PhD supervisor and still currently my mentor. Elin's role entails building capacity and creating opportunities for further research and development in the field of early childhood education and care not just in the Nordic region but also in different parts of the world. Elin's research interests and specialization lie in children's narrative meaning-making, play and exploration, co-creation, and pedagogical innovation for sustainability.
Happy listening! :)
Welcome to the 3rd episode of PedPod by EX-PED-LAB. In this episode, I spoke with Helle Marie Skovbjerg. Her ResearchGate profile says she is "Denmark´s first Professor in play and a part of Design School Kolding's overall focus on play, in close collaboration with the LEGO Foundation". Helle leads the Lab for Play and Design in the Design School Kolding where they work with play philosophy, playful design solutions, and childhood studies. As such, in this episode, we talked about the role of play in pedagogical innovations.
Happy listening! :)
Welcome to the 2nd episode of PedPod by EX-PED-LAB. In this episode, I had an exciting conversation with Ana Marjanovic-Shane, an Independent Scholar and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of "Dialogic Pedagogy: An International Online Journal." In talking about pedagogical innovations, she asked me if I knew the etymology of "pedagogy/pedagogue," and posed many interesting points about innovations in education for the youngest children. I have learned a lot from this conversation with her!
Ana had been awarded Fulbright Scholarships to pursue her research interests including dialogue, democracy, and drama in education in different countries. She is currently involved in a research project called “Play internal politics and self-governance among young players.”
Welcome to the 1st episode of PedPod by EX-PED-LAB. In this episode, I have had an interesting conversation with Prof. Dr Arjen Wals, who is a distinguished academic holding the position of Professor of Transformative Learning for Socio-Ecological Sustainability at Wageningen University, concurrently serving as the UNESCO Chair of Social Learning and Sustainable Development. Additionally, he holds a Guest Professorship at Norwegian University for the Life Sciences (NMBU) and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. Recognized with an Honorary Doctorate from Gothenburg University, Sweden, his scholarly pursuits concentrate on cultivating and evaluating learning ecosystems conducive to sustainable lifestyles, emphasizing relational, ethical, and critical epistemologies. His research predominantly explores the implementation of comprehensive sustainability frameworks within educational institutions, particularly focusing on Whole School and Whole University Approaches, along with endeavors in education decolonization. Arjen Wals also maintains a regular blog, disseminating insights into the burgeoning domain of sustainability education at www.transformativelearning.nl.
Welcome to PedPod by EX-PED-LAB, an exploration of pedagogical innovations in early childhood education and care. I am Eya Oropilla, a lifelong learner and a researcher in the Exploration and Pedagogical Innovation Laboratory project in the KINDknow Centre, and in this podcast, I invite you to join me as we embark on an exploration led by trailblazers in the field – leading researchers from different parts of the world who are redefining how we nurture the next generations. Through insightful discussions and interviews, we'll uncover what "pedagogical innovations" mean in the field-- latest trends, insights, and discoveries on transformative methods and practices that are shaping the present and future of early childhood education and care.
Whether you're a seasoned educator, a curious parent, or simply passionate about the development of young minds, PedPod by EX-PED-LAB hopes to be your compass in navigating the evolving landscape of pedagogy. Tune in, and let's journey together into the exciting world of pedagogical innovations!