Innovative approaches to continuous professional development (CPD) in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Europe: Findings from a comparative review

This article explores innovation as an aspect of in-service continuous professional development (CPD) in ECEC. Based on a literature review and a cross-country analysis conducted in ten European countries, we found that innovation in CPD was understood as a way to improving quality in ECEC. CPD no longer solely deals with practitioners’ knowledge and skills. Rather, it encompasses processes such as critical thinking, reflexivity and co-creation within and across ECEC systems. Two overall approaches to innovation in CPD emerged: one can be characterised as developing in systems that lack a national definition for innovation, where there is nevertheless a growing awareness of the need to finding new solutions for ECEC; and one as highly innovative in systems that have a history, culture and societal tradition of innovation. Also, three additional insights were identified as crucial aspects of CPD in terms of innovation: (a) critical reflection; (b) communities of practice; and (c) a growing focus on politics that address social inequality through ECEC. This analysis contributes to filling the gaps in research on innovative CPD in ECEC at three levels: system (macro), inter-organisational (meso) and individual, organisational (micro). Further research is needed to explore more in-depth the identified approaches to innovation related to CPD and their impact on quality development in European ECEC.