ECE Conference 2026

Kirsty Liljegren is an education consultant, workshop designer, author, writer, speaker and pedagogical leader whose work invites new possibilities for children, educators and learning. Working across Australia and internationally, she partners with schools and organisations to bring coherence to ideas, purpose to practice and collective energy to the work that matters most within their communities.
Drawing from extensive experience as a teacher and leader, Kirsty is known for her deeply relational and contextual approach. Through listening with intention, building trust and working collaboratively alongside communities, she helps educators uncover meaningful pathways for growth that are responsive to their unique strengths, aspirations and contexts.
Recognised for her innovative approaches to teaching and learning, Kirsty collaborates with educators and leaders to develop shared pedagogical approaches that connect vision, values and everyday practice.
Kirsty is co-author of The Creative Collection, a series of books designed to reimagine teaching and learning through the arts, with a focus on inquiry, creativity and children’s many ways of making meaning. She is also a long-standing Board Member of Reggio Emilia Australia Information Exchange (REAIE).
Nothing delights Kirsty more than seeing educators come alive to new possibilities, those moments when purpose is renewed, thinking is stretched, and collective energy gathers around a shared vision for what education might become.

Horizons of Possibility - Education as Research, Courage and Shared Inquiry

This keynote illuminates education as a living act of research, care and courage, where curiosity and possibility fuel learning, growth and professional practice. Drawing on possibility thinking and the generative question “What if?”, it invites educators to move beyond certainty and embrace teaching as an evolving, shared inquiry with children, colleagues, families and communities. It is an invitation to stay curious, look again at the everyday, explore new perspectives, and imagine what else might be possible when we learn, think and grow together.

Key Threads:

• Education as research: Research as a stance of curiosity, listening, questioning and interpretation in everyday practice.
• Attention as an ethical and pedagogical act: What we pay attention to shapes what grows. What educators notice, value and make visible influences the culture of learning children experience.
• Our view of children: How we see children shapes everything: the environments we design, the materials we offer, the conversations we enter and the opportunities we create.
• Agency beyond choice: Agency as participation, contribution and influence, where children’s ideas are taken seriously and help shape learning.
• Environments, materials and relationships as conditions for inquiry: Learning expands through rich encounters with people, places, materials, ideas and dialogue.
• Creativity, imagination and meaningful learning: Creativity as a way of thinking, researching and responding to complexity, not simply an activity or product.
• The future and the present together: Children are not only being prepared for the future; they are already thinkers, citizens and contributors. Honouring their present strengthens the future they can help shape.
• Courage and care in practice: Educators need courage to remain open, question assumptions, welcome uncertainty and care for the questions, contexts and people that make education meaningful.

Windows into Possibility - Designing Environments that Invite Agency, Creativity and Inquiry

Every environment tells a story about what we believe is possible for children. This workshop explores how intentional decisions about space, materials, relationships and time can create conditions where curiosity, creativity, agency and inquiry flourish. Participants will consider how environments can expand perspectives, make learning visible and invite children to actively contribute to the culture of learning.

Key Threads

• Environments as expressions of our beliefs about children and learning.
• Designing spaces that invite curiosity, creativity, collaboration and inquiry.
• Agency as participation, contribution and influence.
• Materials as tools for thinking, researching and making meaning.
• The role of aesthetics, intentionality and provocation in learning environments.
• Creating conditions that support children's questions, theories and investigations.
• The physical, relational and temporal dimensions of environments.
• Designing for multiple perspectives, cultural context and diverse ways of knowing.

Tricia Mohamed is the founder of Play Practitioners and an early childhood specialist. She grew up hiding her home, her language and her food to fit in at school, and she has spent over twenty years making sure today's children do not have to. Drawing on her research with children aged four and five, she challenges educators across the UK and international schools to look again at the unique child. Her work is built on one belief: see their spark, grow their confidence, honour their story.

When a Child Can't See Themselves

Strand: Mirrors of the community
Audience: Whole group
As a child, I learned to hide my home, my language and my food to fit in. Drawing on my research with children aged four and five, this keynote asks why so many young children still feel they cannot bring their whole selves to school, and what we can do to change that.

Seeing the Unique Child

Strand: Mirrors into our practice
How much of what a child knows at home reaches your planning, your environment and your assessments, and how much disappears? This practical workshop sets a deficit view against a strengths view, using real examples. You leave with an audit tool and a term of short reflective prompts you can start next week.

Home is the First Mirror

Strand: Mirrors of the community
The small, everyday things at home, talking, cooking, and sharing stories in any language, are where a child first sees themselves. In this practical session, we treat home languages and cultures as strengths, follow a real family and setting, work as partners, and rehearse the conversations that build trust with families. You leave with a set of conversation scripts for talking with parents and a clear plan for a stronger partnership you can put to work straight away.