The Young Scholar Award is established in honor of Professor Emeritus Bernard Spodek, who founded PECERA to promote the exchange and dissemination of Early Childhood Education (ECE) research conducted in the Asia Pacific region. The aim of the ‘Young Scholar Award’ is to recognize outstanding research of postgraduate students and/or early career scholars in ECE and encourage their participation in the PECERA International Annual Conference for the advancement of our field, especially in the Asia Pacific region.
This Award is granted annually at the PECERA International Conference. To apply for this Award, please visit this year’s conference website from https://pecera-int.willxis.com/conference.
Award Details
- Up to 5 awardees will be selected annually, based upon submission of abstracts of paper presentations for the PECERA International Annual Conference.
- All applicants for ‘Young Scholar Award’ should indicate their intention to apply, and confirm their eligibility, when submitting their abstracts online.
- All awardees must present their accepted papers at the conference. Absence would automatically imply forfeiture of the Award.
- Each awardee will be given an Award Certificate and complimentary two-year membership to PECERA International.
- To ensure fair competition, past awardees are ineligible to apply again.
- The Young Scholar Award Committee may consider regional representation in their selection of awardees.
Eligibility of the Applicants
The applicant should be
- Either a postgraduate student (masters or doctoral) or an early career researcher (within 5 years from gaining doctoral degree); and
- The first author-presenter of the submitted abstract; and
- Not a past or present awardee of this Award.
Selection Criteria
- Importance and originality of the research topic as presented in the abstract submission.
- Clarity and informativeness of the presentation title.
- Originality and relevance of research aims and questions.
- Suitability and rigor of research methods.
- Validity of data analysis, findings, and conclusions drawn.
- Ability to inform future research and/or implications for ECE practice in the Asia Pacific context.