Date: 6th October 2017
Venue: Woburn House, London WC1H 9HQ

Professor Peter Moss

PETER MOSS is Emeritus Professor of Early Childhood Provision at UCL Institute of Education, University College London. He has researched and written on many subjects including early childhood education and care, and the relationship between early childhood and compulsory education; the relationship between employment, care and gender; and democracy in education. Much of his work has been cross-national, and he has led a European Commission network on childcare and an international network on parental leave. From 2005 to 2016 he co-edited the book series ‘Contesting Early Childhood’, whose aim is to question “the current dominant discourses surrounding early childhood, and offer instead alternative narratives of an area that is now made up of a multitude of perspectives”.

His books include Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care (with Gunilla Dahlberg and Alan Pence);; Radical Education and the Common School (with Michael Fielding); Social Pedagogy and working with Children and Young People (edited with Claire Cameron); and Transformative Change and Real Utopias in Early Childhood Education. Most recently he has worked with Reggio Emilia to produce an English-language book of the work of Loris Malaguzzi, which was published in 2016 – Loris Malaguzzi and the Schools of Reggio Emilia: A selection of his writings and speeches, 1945-1993.

Nicola Boyce

NICOLA BOYCE is social pedagogy trainer for St Christopher’s Fellowship, a charity which provides fostering, residential and support services for children and young people.  Her background is in residential child care where she became involved with developing social pedagogy at Essex County Council, doing participatory action research with children and staff to explore their experiences of social pedagogy in practice.  She joined St Christopher’s in 2012 to open a new children’s home based on social pedagogic principles and in her current role provides training to staff and leads on strategic organisational development work to embed social pedagogy systemically.

Nicola has a keen interest in the relationship between theory and the complex, messy realities of relational practice with adolescents and their families, particularly those labelled most “challenging” or “hard to reach”.  She has particular expertise in social pedagogy in practice with young people who have experienced abuse, trauma, mental health issues and sexual exploitation and is a passionate advocate for ethical, empowerment-based practice.