Prof. MEHMET TORAN

Biography

Mehmet Toran is a Professor of Early Childhood Education at Istanbul Kultur University. He received his professional degrees from KTU (Bachelor), Hacettepe University (Master) and Gazi University (PhD) in Early Childhood Development and Education respectively. He was a visiting doctoral researcher funded by the Swedish Institute at the University of Gothenburg between 2009 and 2010. He worked as a preschool teacher in public schools from 2001 to 2005 and then started working as a research assistant in Child Development and Education at Gazi University between 2005 and 2009. He also worked as an Assistant Professor and took on administrative duties at the Girne American University in North Cyprus for 5 years between 2010 and 2015. In addition, he has been working as an associate professor at the Faculty of Education at Istanbul Kultur University since 2015. Apart from these academic duties, he is also effectively involved in volunteer organisations and fulfils their duties such as EECERA Turkey Coordinator since 2011, a member of World OMEP since 2004, a member of the Childhood, Law & Policy Network since 2022 and a member of INEE  since 2024. He is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Childhood, Education & Society (JCES). His research focuses on early childhood curricula, early childhood approaches, early childhood policy, child poverty, children's rights and critical pedagogy.