Learning and care for the youngest refugees – a critical priority across Europe

Dr. Mihaela Ionescu is Program Director at ISSA (the International Step by Step Association), a membership association that connects professionals and organizations from European and Central Asia working in the field of early childhood development. She is an early childhood education expert, holding a BA in Education Sciences, a master’s degree in management and School Administration and a Doctorate in Education Sciences. In the past 30 years she has been working in many capacities in the education field: primary school teacher; researcher; education policy developer (curricula, early childhood national strategies, quality standards); trainer and manager of programs aiming to improve the quality of early childhood education and care services, from small to national scale. She has coordinated the development of several resources in ISSA, most of them focused on process quality and professionalism in early childhood services (see Roads to Quality, Quality Framework for Early Childhood Services for Children Under Three) and on promoting cross-sectoral coordination in early childhood systems (see the INTESYS toolkit for strengthening integration in early childhood systems and the Primokiz approach).