Reimagining Early Childhood Education

Funded by the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Reimagining Early Childhood Education (RECEPZ) initiative aims to understand what early childhood education looks like in different contexts and to examine emerging opportunities and challenges facing the field. Since the 2025 academic year, the project team has been engaging a cohort of educators in the UAE to develop new approaches to practice. While there are many models for quality early childhood education around the world, Project Zero and ADEK recognize that our changing times require new approaches to early childhood education that best equip young people for success in the decades ahead. By establishing a multi-year research agenda, the RECEPZ team is pursuing the following objectives:

1. Survey a dozen global field sites with unique curricular models, a commitment to quality teaching and learning, and an emphasis on holistic child development.
    
2. Interview early childhood education thought leaders including education and health specialists, academics, teachers, and caregivers.
    
3. Construct a new framework for early childhood education based on a collaborative inquiry with a cohort of educators in Abu Dhabi
    
4. Develop a teacher training model to educate, equip, and certify educators in the above-mentioned framework for early childhood education.

On the map below, the orange dots mark the RECEPZ global field study sites, while the green dots show the locations of the field leader interviewees. You can zoom in for more detail, including links to each field site organization.