Linnaeus University, Sweden
Thesis: A study of the development of preschool children’s emergent sciencethroughout a chemistry play-based learning activities’ intervention
Research supervisor: Assistant Prof. Karina Adbo
In my particular case, since my supervisor’sspecialty is chemistry teaching in high-school stage, I have been brought into the team as the early childhood expert because of my psychology degree and ten years of expertise working as a preschool teacher. This means she cannot give me advice about the theoretical framework, as it is as new to her than to me and we are progressing together.
Since I did not know the latest trends in child development and education at an academic level and I lacked a network within my university or around Sweden, I decided to get in contact with Dr. Marilyn Fleer after my literature background check and realizing the she is a world-wide authority in the field of early childhood science education.
During my stay at Monash university in November 2017, I met Dr. Nikolai Veresov and we have kept contact since then, meeting regularly in his cultural-historical reading group, which has helped me understand Vygotsky’s texts. Another great opportunity I am very thankful to him too, was the chance to participate in the ISCAR Special Interest Group held in Sydney in December 2018, which allowed me to deepen my knowledge about cultural-historical theory through the discussions with senior scholars.
Entering the third year in my PhD training, it is time for me to take the challenge of writing an article all by myself. Hence my interest in participating in the ISCAR Summer University, an environment in which everyone is familiar with cultural-historical theory and very interesting and fruitful discussions can take place between students and professors that will definitely help me move forward in my work.