Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wilfried Smidt

Research

8/2023 – 8/2024: Research project “Education for sustainable development in early childhood and social education institutions” (SENSE) (funded by the Euregio Mobility Fund, with Prof. Dr. Iris Nentwig-Gesemann, University of Bolzano and Prof. Dr. Simona De Falco, University of Trento)
Brief description: The project aims to outline Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as a global challenge, to discuss various social and early childhood education concepts and to gain an in-depth insight into examples of good practice of sustainability-oriented education and educational work.

6/2023 – 5/2025: Research project “The quality of preschool teachers’ training in Austria and Ukraine: A comparative analysis” (funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research; Joint Project with Univ.-Prof. Dr. Oresta Karpenko, Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University, Ukraine)
Brief description: The research project conducts a comparative analysis of preschool teachers’ training at pedagogical colleges (Austria) and universities (Ukraine) by doing document analyses, surveys, and guided interviews.

9/2022 – 8/2023: Research project “Assistenzkräfte in Kindergärten – eine bedeutende, aber kaum beachtete Berufsgruppe“ (Assistant teachers in preschools - an important, but hardly noticed vocational group) (funded by the Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Tirol; with Prof. Dr. Bernhard Koch, University College of Teacher Education Tyrol)
Brief description: The research project investigates different aspects of the professionalization of assistant staff in preschools in Tyrol.

3/2021 – 4/2022: Research project “COVID-19 Pandemie und elterliche Förderung von Early Literacy” (COVID-19 pandemic and parental support for early literacy) (funded by the State of Tirol)
Brief description: The research project examines aspects of parental support for the competencies of children in the field of early literacy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is targeted primarily at parents of children in preschools who are almost of school age (last year of preschool). 

7/2020 – 12/2020: Research project on home learning environments during the COVID-19 pandemic (with Junior Prof. Dr Melanie Jester, University of Koblenz-Landau, internal University funds)

10/2018 – 3/2022: Research project InKi “Interaktionsqualität von Kindern im Kindergarten” (Quality of Children´s Interactions in Preschool) (funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF)
Brief description: Children primarily acquire fundamental skills through interactive processes. The quality of these interactions is very important for their linguistic, cognitive, social and emotional development as well as for the educational success of the children. Particularly in the context of disadvantages in access to education, findings about the quality of interactions in preschools are therefore extremely relevant. The study’s goal consists in examining the quality of the children’s interactions with preschool teachers and peers as well as the quality of task orientation in preschools in a cross-sectional and longitudinal study of a sample of 360 preschool teachers from 90 preschools in Austria (Tyrol).

9/2018 – 8/2021: Research project LeiKi  Leitungsqualität in Kindertageseinrichtungen” (Quality of Leadership in Preschools) (funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research, Germany; with Dr Thilo Schmidt, University of Koblenz-Landau)
Brief description: In the project “Leadership quality in kindergartens”, the researchers investigate the role of people in leadership positions in kindergartens with regard to their pedagogical process quality. The study will also highlight the institutions and the personal characteristics of the leadership staff (including professional qualifications and subject background, professional goals), in order to capture the relation between leadership quality and pedagogical process quality. A special focus will be on the leadership behaviour in heterogeneous educational teams. The project will make use, amongst other tools, of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System commonly used in English-speaking countries to gather the data.

10/2017 – 6/2018: Research project “Qualitätsindikatoren von Waldkinderbetreuungseinrichtungen in Tirol”(Quality Indicators of Forest Day Care Centers in Tyrol) (funded by the State of Tyrol and the Vice-Rectorate for Research of the University of Innsbruck)

2013 – 2015: Participating scientist of the project „Teaching and Learning Processes” (funded by the German Research Foundation, DFG, Information at: http://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/person/230656202)

2011 - 2015: Research associate in the BMBF project ÜFA "Transition of specialist and university-trained educational specialists into the labour market"

2006 - 2011: Research assistant in the DFG research group BiKS "Educational Processes, Competence Development and Selection Decisions in Pre-School and School Age".

Selected publications

Journal Articles (Peer Review, *Web of Science)

Smidt, W., Karpenko, O., Czepil, M. & Embacher, E.-M. (2024). Predictors of burnout of preschool teachers working in the warzone Ukraine. Manuscript submitted for publication.

*Scharnagl, V. & Smidt, W. (2024). Parental support of emergent literacy in the final preschool year in Austria during COVID-19-induced lockdowns. International Journal of Early Years Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2024.2322935

*Embacher, E.-M. & Smidt, W. (2023). Associations between teachers’ professional competencies and the quality of interactions and relationships in preschool. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1222369. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1222369

*Embacher, E.-M., Zöggeler-Burkhardt, L. & Smidt, W. (2023). Closeness and conflict in teacher-child relationships in preschool: The role of child personality types. Early Child Development and Care, 193(11-12), 1240-1256. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2023.2236318

*Smidt, W. & Embacher, E.-M. (2023). The importance of structural characteristics for interaction quality in Austrian preschools. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 31(5), 752-771. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2023.2195675

*Smidt, W. & Embacher, E-M. (2023). Does personality matter? The relationship between child personality and interaction quality in preschools. Research Papers in Education, 38(1), 45-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2021.1941217

*Smidt, W. & Embacher, E.-M. (2023). Examining the factorial validity of the Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System in preschools in Austria. International Journal of Early Years Education, 31(3), 675-687. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2021.1893158

*Smidt, W. & Embacher, E.-M. (2020). How do activity settings, preschool teachers’ activities, and children’s activities relate to the quality of children’s interactions in preschool? Findings from Austria. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 28(6), 864-883. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2020.1836586

*Lehrl, S. & Smidt, W. (2018). Differential effects of preschool quality on children’s emergent literacy skills during preschool in Germany. Research Papers in Education, 33(4), 492-514. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2017.1362718

*Schmidt, Th., Smidt, W. & Roux, S. (2018). What do pedagogues in daycare do? Empirical analyses of the occupational activities of pedagogues in children’s daycare centres in Germany. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 26(3), 446-460. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2018.1463910

*Smidt, W., Kammermeyer, G., Roux, S., Theisen, Ch. & Weber, Ch. (2018). Career success of preschool teachers – The significance of the Big Five personality traits, locus of control, and occupational self-efficacy. Early Child Development and Care, 188(10), 1340-1353. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2017.1314275

*Smidt, W. (2018). Early Childhood Education and Care in Austria: Challenges and Education Policies. Early Child Development and Care, 188(5), 624-633. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2017.1403431

*Hachfeld, A., Anders, Y., Kuger, S. & Smidt, W. (2016). Triggering parental involvement for parents of different language backgrounds: the role of types of partnership activities and preschool characteristics. Early Child Development and Care, 186(1), 190-211. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2015.1007370

*Smidt, W. (2016). Occupational activities of nonacademic and academic pedagogues working in the field of childhood education - an Investigation of differences and predictor variables. Early Child Development and Care, 186(1), 2-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2015.1005613

*Smidt, W. & Rossbach, H.-G. (2016). Educational process quality in preschools at the individual child level: Findings from a German study. Early Child Development and Care, 186(1), 78-95. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2014.913585

*Smidt, W. (2015). Big Five personality traits as predictors of the academic success of university and college students in early childhood education. Journal of Education for Teaching, 41(4), 385-403. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2015.1080419

*Smidt, W., Kammermeyer, G. & Roux, S. (2015). Relations between the Big Five personality traits of prospective early childhood pedagogues and their beliefs about the education of preschool children: Evidence from a German study. Learning and Individual Differences, 37(1), 96-106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2014.11.002

*Smidt, W. & Roux, S. (2015). How extraverted, open, agreeable, conscientious, and neurotic are prospective early childhood pedagogues? A comparison with the German Socio-Economic Panel. Early Child Development and Care, 185(5), 766-778. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2014.957691

*Lehrl, S., Smidt, W., Grosse, Ch. & Richter, D. (2014). Patterns of literacy and numeracy activities in preschool and their relation to structural characteristics and children’s home activities. Research Papers in Education, 29(5), 577-597. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2013.792865

*Smidt, W., Lehrl, S., Anders, Y., Pohlmann-Rother, S. & Kluczniok, K. (2012). Emergent literacy activities in the final preschool year in the German federal states of Bavaria and Hesse. Early Years - An International Journal of Research and Development, 32(3), 301-312. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2011.642851

Editorships

Karpenko, O., Smidt, W., Ziv, Y. & Resnick, G. (Eds.). (in preparation). Preschool Education in War and Conflict Zones [Special Issue]. Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

Zöggeler-Burkhardt, L., Embacher, E.-M. & Smidt, W. (Eds.) (2023). Social relationships, interactions and learning in early childhood - theoretical approaches, empirical findings and challenges [Special Issue]. Early Child Development and Care. 193(11-12) [Guest Editor, Special Issue].

Spannring, R., Smidt, W. & Unterrainer, Ch. (Eds.) (2022). Institutions and Organizations as Learning Environments for Participation and Democracy? Opportunities, Challenges, Obstacles. Cham: Springer Nature.

Bloch, B., Kuhn, M., Schulz, M., Smidt, W. & Stenger, U. (Eds.) (2021). Early Childhood Education in Germany – Exploring Historical Developments and Theoretical Issues. London: Routledge.

Smidt, W. & Lehrl, S. (Eds.) (2020). Teacher–child interactions in Early Childhood Education and Care classrooms: characteristics, predictivity, dependency and methodological issues. London: Routledge.

Smidt, W. & Lehrl, S. (Eds.) (2018). Teacher–child interactions in Early Childhood Education and Care classrooms: characteristics, predictivity, dependency and methodological issues. Research Papers in Education, 33(4) [Guest Editor, Special Issue].

Smidt, W. (Ed.) (2017). Contemporary issues in early childhood education in Germany. London: Routledge. [Special Issue as Books].

Smidt, W. (Ed.) (2016). Contemporary issues in early childhood education in Germany. Early Child Development and Care, 186(1) [Guest Editor, Special Issue].

Book chapters

Drieschner, E. & Smidt, W. (2022). Agency and participation: A critique of the epistemological, psychological, pedagogical and ethical premises. In R. Spannring, W. Smidt & C. Unterrainer (Eds.), Institutions and Organizations as Learning Environments for Participation and Democracy? Opportunities, Challenges, Obstacles (pp. 17-37). Cham: Springer Nature.

Spannring, R., Unterrainer, C. & Smidt, W. (2022). Participation in organizations and institutions across the life course. In R. Spannring, W. Smidt & C. Unterrainer (Eds.), Institutions and Organizations as Learning Environments for Participation and Democracy? Opportunities, Challenges, Obstacles (pp. 1-13). Cham: Springer Nature.

Schulz, M., Kuhn, M., Bloch, B., Smidt, W., Stenger, U. (2021). Historical Development and Current Frameworks. In B. Bloch, M. Kuhn, M. Schulz, W. Smidt & U. Stenger (Eds.), Early Childhood Education in Germany – Exploring Historical Developments and Theoretical Issues (pp. 23-34). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429275593-3

Stenger, U., Kuhn, M., Schulz, M., Bloch, B. & Smidt, W. (2021). The Matrix of the Academic ECEC Discourse. In B. Bloch, M. Kuhn, M. Schulz, W. Smidt & U. Stenger (Eds.), Early Childhood Education in Germany – Exploring Historical Developments and Theoretical Issues (pp. 11-22). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429275593-2

Lehrl, S. & Smidt, W. (2020). Differential effects of preschool quality on children’s emergent literacy skills during preschool in Germany. In W. Smidt & S. Lehrl, S. (Eds.), Teacher–child interactions in Early Childhood Education and Care classrooms: characteristics, predictivity, dependency and methodological issues (pp. 82-104). London: Routledge.

Smidt, W. & Kraft, S. (2019). Fostering children’s intrinsic motivation in preschool. In O. N. Saracho (Ed.), Contemporary perspectives on research on motivation in early childhood education (pp. 153-173). Charlotte: Information Age Publishing.

Smidt, W. (2019). Early Childhood Education and Care in Austria: Challenges and Edu-cation Policies. In K. Rentzou & R. Slutsky (Eds.), Early Childhood Education and Care Quality in Europe and the USA. Issues of Conceptualization, Measurement and Policy (pp. 141-150). London: Routledge.

Hachfeld, A., Anders, Y., Kuger, S. & Smidt, W. (2017). Triggering parental involvement for parents of different language backgrounds: the role of types of partnership activities and preschool characteristics. In W. Smidt (Ed.), Contemporary issues in early childhood education in Germany (pp. 190-211). London: Routledge.

Smidt, W. (2017). Occupational activities of nonacademic and academic pedagogues working in the field of childhood education - an Investigation of differences and predictor variables. In W. Smidt (Ed.), Contemporary issues in early childhood education in Germany (pp. 2-22). London: Routledge.

Smidt, W. & Rossbach, H.-G. (2017). Educational process quality in preschools at the individual child level: Findings from a German study. In W. Smidt (Ed.), Contemporary issues in early childhood education in Germany (pp. 78-95). London: Routledge.

Smidt, W. (2015). Educational processes in early childhood education: activities of target children in preschools. In W. Schnotz, A. Kauertz, H. Ludwig, A. Müller & J. Pretsch (Eds.), Multidisciplinary research on teaching and learning (pp. 3-18). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Talks and presentations (selection)

Smidt, W., Embacher, E.-M. & Zöggeler-Burkhardt, L. (2022). The role of children's personality in relationships between preschool teachers and children. SiG-5-Conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), Utrecht, Netherlands.

Embacher E.-M. & Smidt W. (2021). Does Personality Matter? Relations Between Child Personality and Interaction Quality in Preschools. ECER 2021, “Education and Society: expectations, prescriptions, reconciliation”, Geneva, Swiss Confederation.

Embacher, E. & Smidt, W. (2019). Examining the Factor Structure of the Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS). 18. Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), Aachen, Germany.

Burkhardt, L., Kraft, S., Mittischek, L. & Smidt, W. (2018). Educational Quality in Forest Day Care Centers in Tyrol/Austria – Benefits and Challenges for the Education of Young Children. European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Bolzano, Italy.

Smidt, W. (2018). Career Success of (Early) Childhood Pedagogues in Germany. International Conference in Early Childhood Education Research (ECER), Weingarten, Germany.

Schmidt, Th., W. & Smidt, W. (2016). The Promotion of Children in Preschool - Educational Beliefs of Early Childhood Pedagogues Concerning Self-Education and Instruction. European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Dublin, Ireland.

Smidt, W. & Roux, S. (2016). Career Success of Preschool Teachers – The Significance of the Big Five Personality Traits, Internal Locus of Control, and Occupational Self-Efficacy. European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Dublin, Ireland.

Lehrl, S. & Smidt, W. (2016). Differential effects of preschool quality on children’s emergent literacy skills during preschool in Germany. SIG-5 Conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), Porto, Portugal. (poster)

Smidt, W. (2015). Big Five as Predictors of Grade Point Average and Study Satisfaction of University and College Students in Early Childhood Education. Conference of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), Budapest, Hungary.

Smidt, W. (2014). Big Five personality traits of prospective early childhood pedagogues in Germany: A comparison with the German Socio-Economic-Panel. Sig-5-Conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), Jyväskylä, Finland.

Hachfeld, A., Kuger, S., Anders, Y. & Smidt, W. (2014). Family-preschool-partnerships: Influences of family characteristics and preschool quality on parents' involvement in early education. Annual Meeting of theAmerican Educational Research Association (AERA), Philadelphia, USA. (poster)

Schmidt, Th. & Smidt, W. (2013). Compensatory education of disadvantaged children - sig­nificance for early childhood education. 23rd Conference of the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA), Tallinn, Estonia.

Smidt, W., Schmidt, Th. & Roux, S. (2013). Educational goals of prospective teachers in early childhood education: The role of personality traits. 23rd Conference of the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA), Tallinn, Estonia.

Kuger, S., Smidt, W. & Rossbach, H.-G. (2012). Process quality in preschool – comparing assessment at individual child level with classroom level. SIG-5 Conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), Utrecht, Netherlands.

Smidt, W. (2011). Educational process quality in preschools on target-child-level. 14th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), Exeter, United Kingdom.

Smidt, W., Kuger, S. & Große, Ch. (2010). Patterns between group-related educational quality and target child related activities in German preschools. SIG-5 Conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), Luzern, Swiss Confederation.

• 3rd Innsbruck Conference on Elementary Education: "Interaction - Relationship - Bonding", 22-23.9.23 in Innsbruck
• 2nd Innsbruck Conference on Elementary Education: "Perspectives on Educational Pathways in Kindergarten and Primary School", 24.9.21 in Innsbruck
• 1st Innsbruck Conference on Elementary Education: "Professionalisation of Elementary Education Staff - National and International Perspectives", 13.7.18 in Innsbruck
• Empirical Working Group of the Commission for Early Childhood Education of the German Society for Educational Science (DGfE), 7.-8.7.17 in Hünfeld
• Annual Conference of the Commission for Early Childhood Education in the German Society for Educational Science (DGfE), 9.-11.3.17 in Hildesheim
• Conference of the Section for Elementary Education in the Austrian Society for Research and Development in Education (ÖFEB), 12.-13.9.16 in Innsbruck
• Empirical Working Group of the Commission for Early Childhood Education in the German Society for Educational Science (DGfE), 8.-9.7.16 in Fulda

• Federal Working Group on Childhood Education (BAG-BEK)
• German Society for Educational Science (DGfE), Section 4: Empirical Educational Research, Section 8: Social Pedagogy and Early Childhood Education
• Empirical Working Group of the Commission for Early Childhood Education in the DGfE
• European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI)
• Austrian Society for Research and Development in Education (ÖFEB), Section Elementary Education, Section Empirical Pedagogical Research