PECERA - Key Persons
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- Professor Emeritus of the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, USA
Bernard Spodek was the Founder and the first President of PECERA. He is Professor Emeritus of Early Childhood Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he has taught since 1965. He received his doctorate in early childhood education from Teachers College, Columbia University, then joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has also taught nursery, kindergarten and elementary classes in New York City. His research and scholarly interests are in the areas of curriculum, teaching and teacher education in early childhood education.
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- Immediate past President
- Member of the Executive Board
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Supporting Research Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Executive Board
- President
Dr. Betty Chan Po-king was re-elected the Immediate Past President of PECERA at its Annual Conference in July 2021. She previously served as the Immediate Past President, President, Vice President and Treasurer between 2004 and 2021, and was the Founding President of the PECERA Hong Kong Chapter since 2007. Dr Chan is the Chairperson of Yew Chung Education Foundation, operating a network of international schools in Hong Kong, China, and Silicon Valley (USA), providing Early Childhood, Primary, and Secondary education. She received her B.Ed. and M.Ed from the University of Hawaii, specialising in Early Childhood Education, and was later awarded the AAUW Scholarship to begin her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign under the mentorship of Prof. Bernard Spodek. After returning home to Hong Kong to succeed her mother, the Founder of Yew Chung, she later completed her doctorate in 1985 at the Union Institute and University, under the supervision of Prof. Roy Fairfield and Prof. Sarah Smilansky. Dr Chan is a well-known leader in the field of Early Childhood Education in Hong Kong, has introduced concepts such as "learning through play" and "open classroom" in the 1970s. She became a member of the Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation in 1973, and was Convenor and Chairperson of the UNICEF "Childhood in 21st Century" international conference in 1989. Later she focused her efforts on developing a new model of international education, uniting the best elements of the East and the West. She is the Chairperson of the Alliance for International Education (AIE) China Branch since 2008. She also served on various public government advisory committees in Hong Kong, e.g. the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) of the Education Bureau (2000-2007), Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications (ACTEQ) (2001-2007), etc. In recognition of her pioneering work in Early Childhood Education and consistent advocacy for excellence in all levels of education, Dr Chan was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the US in 2010, Honorary Fellowship from the Hong Kong Institute of Education, and an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Bath, the UK in 2015.
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- Chairman of the Young Scholar Award Committee
- Member of the Executive Board
- Member of the Journal Committee
Dr. Jeehyun Lee was the former editor of the APJRECE from 2010 to 2016 and now is working as a co-editor. She previously served as an associate editor of the APJRECE from the year of 2006 when the PECERA had launched its journal, APJRECE, until the year of 2010. Dr. Jeehyun Lee is currently working as a Professor in the Dept. of Education, College of Education, Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea, where she has been teaching for more than 20 years since 1997 in both undergraduate and graduate level. She graduated from Ewha Women's University in Seoul, Korea. She received M.A. in early childhood education from Ewha Women's University and her doctorate (Ed.D) with concentration of early childhood education from Boston University, USA. She was a recipient of Fulbright Graduate Study Award in 1989. Her academic interests are young children's language & literacy, mathematics, curriculum & instruction, and early childhood teacher education. She has worked to improve quality of early childhood education in Korea serving as a member of many committees in Korea such as Child Care Policy Committee, Evaluation Committee of Kindergarten Specialized Program, Comprehensive Kindergarten Consulting Committee, etc. She also has served as an editorial board member of many journals of early childhood education in Korea.
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- President
- Professor Emeritus of Early Childhood Education at Chung - Ang University
Dr. Won Young Rhee was elected the President of PECERA at its annual conference in July 2008. Dr. Rhee is Professor Emeritus of Early Childhood Education at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, where she taught for 33 years. She received her master's degrees from Ewha Womans University in Seoul and the University of Washington in Seattle, and her doctorate in Early Childhood Education from Ewha Womans University. After receiving her master's degree, she decided to work as a kindergarten teacher in order to acquire practical knowledge. She joined the faculty of the College of Education of Chung-Ang University in 1975.
Dr Rhee's research and academic fields of interest are child-centered philosophy and education, and parent education. She has published many books for parents and has carried out extensive research in the field of early childhood education, mostly in Korean. From 1983 to 1984 she spent a sabbatical year at Sheffield University in the U.K., where she learned the child-centered teaching method of open education. Dr. Rhee worked in Korea extensively to improve the quality of young children's lives and the quality of early childhood education by persuading the Ministry of Education to pass the Early Childhood Education Act in 2004. She worked as a member of advisers' committees for two different presidents from 1996 to 1998, and from 1999 to 2003 for educational reform in Korea. In addition, she was president of the Korean Society for Early Childhood Education for five years from 1991 to 1995 and also was president of OMEP Korean Committee for three years.
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- Member of the Executive Board
- Treasurer
Dr. Worawan Hemchayart was the Founding President of the PECERA Thailand Chapter since 2008. Dr. Hemchayart is the Treasurer of PECERA at its annual conference in July 2021. She was elected as Head of Division of Early Childhood Education from 2007 to 2008. She is Assistant Professor in Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, where she has been teaching for 16 years. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Chulalongkorn University, and her doctorate from Teachers College, Nebraska University at Lincoln, USA. Dr. Hemchayart's research and academic areas of interest are multicultural education, curriculum, teaching and teacher education in early childhood education. Her teaching courses are in both undergraduate and graduate levels; such as Methodology of Teaching at the Early Childhood Education Level, Learning Areas Integration for Young Children, Teaching and Developing Strategies for Early Childhood Professionals, and Practice and Research in Early Childhood Education. Furthermore, she works as a member of the dissertation proposal approval committees and as a member of the annual book contest approval committees. She is a guest speaker of the Local Administrative Organization and a peer reviewer of Journal Education Studies, of Online Journal of Education (OJET), and of Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Jakarta State University / Indonesia / HEMCHAYART Worawan / Chulalongkorn University
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Quality Assurance Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Executive Board
- Member of the Journal Committee
- President
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- Chairman of the Supporting Research Committee
- Member of the Executive Board
- Vice - President of the Executive Board
- Associate Professor of Early Childhood Care
Sachiko Kitano is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Care and Education in the Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University. Her thesis on Professionalization of Early Childhood Education: the Works of Early American Kindergarten Professional Organizations" received Ph. D in education from Hiroshima University. She is interested in the professionalism in early childhood education and her most recent research interests are in the areas of the function of professional organizations, preparation and in-service training, action research in ECE, and policy. She is the chairperson of PCERA Japan and a member of the executive board of Japan Society of Research on ECCE, Japanese Society for the Education of Young Children, and Japan Association of Research on Child Care Social Work.
Her recent papers in English are The Benefits of Children's Outdoor Free Play Activities: Examining Physical Activity in Japan (2017); Building Children's Sense of Trustworthiness towards Empathy and Social Morality (2014); Promoting Action Research in Early Childhood Education (2011); Promoting Professionalism of Early Childhood Care and Education in Japan (2011); and Current Issues in Assessment in Early Childhood Care and Education in Japan (2011)
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- Chairman
- Member of the Journal Committee
- Secretary of the Executive Board
Shirley is a senior lecturer in child development in the Department of Educational Studies at Macquarie University. She has a PhD in developmental psychology. Her PhD research was in young children's outdoor play and learning and she continues to conduct research in this area. She is a chief investigator in a multidisciplinary team known as the Sydney Playground Project. They have investigated a range of physical and social outcomes for young children following our outdoor play intervention. Future research directions include an examination of outdoor play and executive functions. Her other research interests include: (i) children with disabilities, particularly low vision and blindness, and (ii) early bilingualism.
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
- Member of the Young Scholar Award Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Supporting Research Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee
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- Member of the Journal Committee