Poznań is not the type of city that usually garners international attention for discussions about education. This university town in western Poland is more well-known for its museum of croissants and Renaissance town hall than for its policy disputes regarding the treatment of its youngest residents. However, Poznań will host the 78th OMEP World Assembly and Conference from July 14 to 18, 2026. The theme chosen by the organizers, “When a Child Speaks…” Korczak’s Inspirations for Education and Children’s Rights,” is specific enough to indicate that this will not be a typical event.
Though perhaps less so among the general public, Janusz Korczak is a well-known figure in Polish and international education circles. Korczak was a Polish-Jewish educator, writer, and pediatrician who operated an orphanage in Warsaw. When the Nazis deported the children under his care to Treblinka in 1942, Korczak famously refused to leave them. He accompanied them on their walk to the trains. His educational writings, which were published decades before the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, made the case that children should have the same autonomy, dignity, and voice as adults.
This viewpoint is still seen as radical in the majority of educational institutions today. Korczak’s selection as the conference’s intellectual focal point is an intentional provocation, implying that OMEP’s leadership feels the early childhood sector has strayed from the values it professes to uphold.
OMEP is a large organization in and of itself. Since its founding in 1948, the World Organization for Early Childhood Education has grown to include 67 nations and national committees on every continent. Over 400 presentations and 700 attendees attended its 2025 conference at a different venue. The organization has a seat, if not always a loud voice, in international policy discussions concerning education, care, and children’s rights because of its consultative status at the UN and UNESCO. Mercedes Mayol Lassalle, who just finished her term as World President, spent years advocating for OMEP to take a more active stance on matters such as peace education and the right to early childhood care as a legal requirement rather than just a policy preference.
That effort seems to be continuing at the 2026 conference. Early promotional materials describe a symposium that invites advocates, leaders, and educators to participate in “a global conversation about peace, democracy, and the rights of children.” It seems that the framing is deliberate, focusing more on addressing systemic shortcomings than on exchanging best practices for classroom management. A call for papers on “Peace in Early Childhood: Foundations for Just and Inclusive Societies,” a topic that feels both idealistic and urgently practical given the number of children currently living in conflict zones, has been issued by OMEP’s academic publication, the International Journal of Early Childhood.
How much of this will result in tangible results is still unknown. Even well-attended academic conferences often produce position papers and consensus documents that circulate among professional networks but fail to reach the officials who actually draft legislation and write budgets. OMEP’s own advocacy record is uneven; for years, the organization has advocated for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to be more legally incorporated in nations like the UK, but there hasn’t been much progress.
However, the choice to focus this conference on Korczak is worth considering. There was no abstract theory in his work. It originated from spending time with kids on a daily basis, observing them, listening to them, and taking their grievances and suggestions seriously in ways that the majority of adults still do not. The discussions may be more significant than the typical conference proceedings indicate if the Poznań keynote speakers are able to channel even a small portion of that candor. The more difficult question is, as usual, whether those who need to hear it most will be present.
