Advisors

Davide Zoletto is an Associate Professor in General and Social Education at the Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society (DILL) at the University of Udine – Italy.
His primary areas of research are educational theory, educational research in diverse learning environments and intercultural education, which also encompass a focus on children and youth cultures and on cultural and postcolonial studies in education.
He has participated in research projects on issues related to education and learning in socially and culturally heterogeneous schools and neighbourhoods.
He has published on topics such as intercultural education and education in diverse learning environments. In 2015 his book on Pedagogia e studi culturali (ETS 2011) was awarded the “Italian Pedagogy Award” by the Italian Society of Pedagogy (SIPED).
He is also active in both pre-service and in-service training of teachers and educators. At the University of Udine, he currently teaches Intercultural Education within the single cycle (5 years) Master degree in Primary Teacher Education (Scienze della Formazione Primaria), which is specifically aimed at training pre-primary and primary teachers.

Ljiljana Vasić is the Director of Pomoc Deci, Serbia and Treasurer of Eurochild Management Board.

Naomi Eisenstadt is currently the Independent Advisor on Poverty and Inequality for Scottish Government. She has recently published her report to the Scottish Government Shifting the Curve, identifying fifteen recommendations that could significantly reduce poverty in Scotland.
After a long career in the NGO sector, in 1999 Naomi became the first Director of the Sure Start Unit. The Unit was responsible for delivering the British Government’s commitment to free nursery education places for all three and four year olds, the national childcare strategy, and programmes aiming to reduce the gap in outcomes between children living in disadvantaged areas and the wider child population. After Sure Start, Naomi spent 3 years as the Director of the Social Exclusion Task Force working across government to identify and promote policies to address the needs of traditionally excluded groups. Since retiring from the Civil Service, Naomi has chaired the Camden Equalities Commission, the Milton Keynes Child Poverty Commission, published a book and several articles relevant to child development and child poverty. She is a trustee of four charities: Save the Children, the Standard Life Foundation, the Dartington Social Research Unit, and the Trust for London.
Naomi is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford Department of Education and the Department of Social Policy and Intervention. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Open University in 2002 and in 2005 became a Companion of the Bath, an honour awarded by the Queen to outstanding civil servants.

Tove Mogstad Slinde is a Senior Adviser in the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research in the Department of Early Childhood Education and Care. Since 2012 she is the elected Chair of the Network on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in OECD.

In the Ministry of Education and Research Tove Mogstad Slinde has been working on policy development on topics related to quality in ECEC, such as curriculum, staff competencies, governance, research and developmental work. Ms. Slinde has worked within the ECEC sector in Norway on different levels since 1987. Among other things she has been working with management and developmental work and the implementation of national policies on the regional and local levels. This has entailed cooperating closely with municipalities, kindergarten owners and other relevant institutions and stakeholders including teacher education and staff-organizations. Representing the Department of ECEC in international cooperation, she has been involved in the work of the OECD ECEC network (since 2008), as well as the Thematic Working Group on Early Childhood Education and Care in EU. She has also been engaged in the advisory committee for the research project CARE, funded by the EU (2014-2016).

Since 1992 Peter van der Heijden is professor of statistics for the social and behavioural sciences. He chairs the department of social sciences. He also chairs the Ethical Review Board of the faculty, and the committee for scientific integrity.

Arno Engel is an Analyst and Project Manager with the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) team at the OECD's Directorate for Education and Skills. He has been co-ordinating a policy review on ECEC quality and the OECD ECEC Network. Mr. Engel played a leading role in the first-ever international survey of ECEC staff, TALIS Starting Strong, and co-ordinated a review of Norway’s ECEC system. He is the co-author of several OECD reports on ECEC policies and transitions from ECEC to primary school in the Starting Strong series and contributed to the scoping phase of the OECD's International Early Learning and Child Well-being Study. He previously worked on European social, economic and development policies. He grew up in his native Germany and spent time in Portugal, Scotland, Mozambique and Belgium before settling in France. He holds a Master’s degree in International Public Management from Sciences Po Paris.