Methods and materials

This project will include (N) countries from six continents: Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, South America, and Africa.

Specific OMEP national teams will be invited to participate in the project.

a) From each participating country, the OMEP national executive committee will appoint one person to oversee the activities of the project in their respective country;

b) For countries with minority and disadvantaged groups, we encourage their participation whenever socio-contextual circumstances allow,

c) Explore how water is conceptualized and presented in the existing documents related to early childhood education; Select (N) schools which will be involved in the project based on pre-set criteria.

The OMEP national executive committee accepting the invitation means:

  1. In each participating country there will be a person termed as ‘National Project Coordinator’ who so far should be national president of OMEP or the person the national president delegate.  
  2. The National Project Coordinator shall, with support from the national OMEP Committee, plan how to spread information about the project to OMEP members and invite participants.  
  3. The National Project Coordinator need to check and apply for ethical approval for children’s involvement and participation in the project. We attach information letter and consent form for parents and children which the coordinator needs to collect and keep in a safe place until January 2025 and then destroy them.  
  4. As this is a coordinated OMEP World Project, participants must work within the same framework. They must be given instructions and they shall use the project Guide. It is very important that the project follow the procedure. Thus, we can compare and bring forward the creative and critical thinking and expressions, quotes, and drawings of water for washing and drinking, from children from all over the world.   

Data collection instruments

Data will be collected using children’s drawings which will be conducted at school premises or any other relevant natural learning environments where teachers will happen to be facilitating early childhood lessons. Children will be ethnographically observed in their natural settings, and their drawings and photos (without children) about water and landscape will be collected for analyses. Further, whenever possible field notes and personal communications will be collected for reflexivity purposes. The field notes and personal communication will broaden and deepen understanding of children’s conceptualization of water and landscapes. The national research panel overseeing this project will collect, analyse, and store various documents related to water in preschool education and settings.

Ethical issues

OMEP upholds high ethical standards and is committed to the wellbeing of children and their families. Given the international nature of the project and variations in countries’ laws and regulations guiding research practices; in each country, the OMEP executive committee should take a leading role in observing ethical research practices including applying and obtaining ethical clearance.

Data storage, analysis, dissemination plan

The OMEP national executive team responsible with this project will oversee storage of collected data. The collected data will be shared with the KINDknow team and the OMEP national executive committees may keep copies of the data. Collected data from all countries will be stored in the data bank to be created at the KINDknow and open to researchers for analyses upon requests. The overall qualitative and quantitative analyses will be carried out at the KINDknow and disseminated in the form of OMEP conference papers, IJEC journal articles, policy briefs, and posters.