ETMU 2026

Trust, Belonging, and Early Childhood Education in Migration Contexts: India and South-East Asian Diaspora Perspectives

Session convener: Savita Kaushal skaushal@jmi.ac.in

Session description

This session examines the role of early childhood education (ECE) in shaping trust, migration experiences, and processes of belonging across both Indian and global contexts. Migration—whether internal or cross-border—profoundly affects young children’s early life experiences, influencing their sense of safety, identity, and connection to institutions and communities. While India presents a complex landscape of internal migration (rural–urban, seasonal, interstate), similar dynamics of displacement, diversity, and institutional negotiation are evident across many parts of the world. This session seeks to bring these perspectives into dialogue.

In India, early childhood spaces such as Anganwadi centres, preschools, and early primary classrooms often serve as the first point of interaction between migrant families and state systems. These encounters shape institutional trust, particularly in contexts marked by linguistic diversity, socio-economic inequalities, caste dynamics, and urban precarity. Globally, migrant and refugee children encounter early education systems that may either facilitate inclusion and belonging or reinforce exclusion through rigid policies, cultural insensitivity, or systemic discrimination.

This session will explore how trust is constructed, disrupted, and renegotiated in early childhood settings across diverse migration contexts. It foregrounds trust as a relational, contextual, and dynamic process—deeply embedded in everyday interactions between children, families, educators, and institutions. It also recognises that mistrust may function as both a barrier and a protective response, especially among communities that have experienced marginalisation, racism, or displacement.

Bringing together perspectives from India and other global contexts, the session will engage with interdisciplinary approaches from education, sociology, migration studies, and childhood studies. It will encourage comparative insights and cross-cultural learning, highlighting both shared challenges and context-specific practices in fostering trust and belonging in early childhood education.

We invite contributions that engage with, but are not limited to, the following themes:

  • Experiences of migrant and refugee children in early childhood education settings across different countries
  • Internal migration (e.g., India) and cross-border migration: similarities and differences in trust-building processes
  • Relationships between migrant families and ECE systems: institutional trust and barriers to access
  • Role of educators and caregivers in creating inclusive, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed learning environments
  • Language, identity, and belonging in multilingual classrooms
  • Impact of policies (e.g., ICDS and NEP 2020 in India; global ECE frameworks) on migrant children’s participation and inclusion
  • Structural inequities, racism, caste, and discrimination in shaping trust and educational experiences
  • Community-based and grassroots initiatives that foster trust and solidarity
  • Methodological innovations and ethical considerations in researching trust with young children in migration contexts
  • Intersections of research, policy, and activism in building equitable early childhood systems

The session will also reflect on how early childhood education can contribute to long-term social cohesion and sustainable futures by fostering trust and belonging from the earliest years. At the same time, it will critically examine tensions within institutions and policies that may undermine these processes.

Format and Participation
The session will be organised as an interactive panel featuring short presentations (10–12 minutes each) followed by a moderated discussion to encourage dialogue across contexts. We welcome contributions from researchers, teacher educators, practitioners, policymakers, and activists from diverse geographical regions.

Language Policy
The session will be conducted primarily in English to facilitate global participation. However, we encourage multilingual engagement and welcome presenters to incorporate other languages (e.g., Hindi or regional languages in the Indian context) where appropriate, with brief translations to ensure accessibility.