RECE Conference 2026, the 32nd Annual International Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education Conference, is confirmed for 20-24 November 2026 in Dunedin, hosted by the University of Otago College of Education.
RECE Conference 2026 is the 32nd Annual International Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education (RECE) Conference, confirmed on the organiser's own site for 20-24 November 2026 in Otepoti Dunedin, Te Waipounamu South Island, Aotearoa New Zealand (receinternational.org/2026conference). Its theme is "Localising ECE: Powerful children, families, languages, and cultures at the centre of ECE" (call for proposals, receinternational.org).
RECE is a long-running international scholarly movement concerned with critical and justice-oriented approaches to early childhood education. The 2024 edition was its 30th annual conference, held at the Erikson Institute in Chicago (easychair.org/cfp/RECE2024), which places the Dunedin gathering within a three-decade international series rather than a one-off.
The conference is run by RECE International and hosted locally by Te Kura Akau Taitoka, the University of Otago College of Education (receinternational.org/2026conference). The Conference Host Chair is Sonya Gaches of the University of Otago, with program co-chairs Lucinda Heimer and Katrin Macha. The University of Otago is named directly as host (as Otakou Whakaihu Waka University of Otago), confirming the claimed venue.
The audience is academics, researchers, teacher educators and postgraduate students in early childhood education internationally. Proposals were submitted through EasyChair (opened 28 February 2026) in three formats - themed panels, individual papers, and themed interactive or experimental sessions - each in 90-minute slots offered both in person and online, with an optional Indigenous Caucus strand identified in the proceedings (call for proposals, receinternational.org). The programme opens on Friday 20 November with a powhiri: delegates meet at 8:30am at the College of Education and travel by bus to Otakou marae, returning at 1:30pm for the Opening Plenary (rece2026participantinfo.org).
The host campus is the University of Otago College of Education in Dunedin; the University of Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and sits in a compact, walkable city. For delegate movement, Dunedin International Airport is about 30km from the city centre, roughly a 30-minute drive by taxi, coach or rental car, and the city offers more than 2,000 accommodation rooms with many within a short walk of the centre (Business Events New Zealand, Dunedin factsheet). Direct and connecting flights reach Dunedin via Auckland and Christchurch. A dedicated participant-information site (rece2026participantinfo.org) carries venue, lodging, transport and entry/visa (NZeTA) detail.
An international association conference of this standing, in its 32nd year and drawing an in-person and online scholarly audience to Dunedin for five days in late November, is a meaningful South Island association-sector booking - combining university-hosted academic sessions with cultural programming (marae powhiri) and multi-night delegate accommodation demand in a compact host city.
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