Abstract
All children have a right to early childhood education, but preschool‐aged fostered children are less likely than others to access formal early childhood education and care (ECEC) services such as nurseries and playgroups. The home learning environment is crucial for this group. Building on an earlier pilot study where foster carers of young children saw education as something that largely happens outside the home, this paper presents a knowledge exchange project that aimed to build foster carers' self‐concept as educators. The design of the project aimed to exchange knowledge between academic researchers and practitioners through an experientially based training programme, which focused on extending the specific ECEC practice of treasure baskets. The programme was theoretically grounded in social pedagogy, which takes an educative approach to social issues. Although there were clear difficulties in recruitment, there were promising signs that the knowledge exchange dialogic approach promoted the acquisition of new knowledge and skills and enhanced foster carers' sense of self‐confidence as educators for the young children they look after.
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