The fact that Poland will host the world’s most significant conference of early childhood educators in July has a subtle significance. Not subtly noteworthy in the sense of a diplomatic press release, but truly significant in the sense that the location occasionally carries weight that no agenda item could.
Poznań, a city in western Poland with broad boulevards and a self-assured sense of its own history, is getting ready to host the 78th OMEP World Assembly and World Conference, which will bring delegates from all over the world. The event, which takes place from July 13 to July 18, 2026, has the theme “When a Child Speaks…” Korczak’s Inspirations for Education and Children’s Rights, which seems almost purposefully awkward. It makes us wonder if we are truly paying attention, which is uncomfortable.
For those who don’t know, Janusz Korczak was a Polish-Jewish pediatrician and educator who lived and worked in the early 20th century. He oversaw orphanages where kids had their own parliaments, courts, and newspapers. His conviction that children were citizens now rather than in the future cost him his life in the Treblinka extermination camp in 1942. His theories were about fifty years ahead of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is no coincidence that this conference is being held in his native country. It is more akin to a reckoning.
For many years, OMEP, the World Organization for Early Childhood Education, has brought together educators, researchers, and decision-makers. The topic of discussion at the conference, which took place in Bologna last year, was early learning and the arts, creativity, and cultural expression. That framing had an almost joyous quality, a celebration of what kids can create and envision. Poznań moves the register. Here, voice, agency, and rights—that is, what children are entitled to rather than just what they enjoy—are the main points of emphasis.
The week’s sessions will be organized around seven thematic axes, which range from the role of play and empathy-based pedagogy to education for sustainability and teachers’ duties as human rights defenders. It is worthwhile to take a moment to consider the final category, which is teachers as rights advocates. Even in 2026, the majority of school systems would consider this framing to be subtly radical. The conference seems to be attempting to make a point that the mainstream hasn’t yet fully grasped.
Many attendees may find the week in Poznań to be a reaffirmation—familiar concepts, reliable coworkers, and conference-room discussions that resemble those from Bologna or Tashkent. There are rhythms to these circuits. However, the context continues to intrude. Families are displaced by wars. Access to early education is being undermined by growing inequality. Childhood is changing more quickly than anyone can observe thanks to the digital world. Korczak used a pedagogy of dignity to confront the tragedies of his own time. Whether the field currently has anything similarly grounded to offer is the question that looms over July.
When you stroll through Poznań in the weeks leading up to a significant international event, you’ll notice that the city doesn’t put on a show for visitors. Old market square, university buildings, the quiet hum of a regional capital that doesn’t need to make an announcement—it just is. In some way, that seems fitting for a conference that is based on the notion that the most significant voices in a room may be the ones we have been consistently undervaluing.
In a global conference held in his honor, it’s difficult not to believe Korczak would have discovered something worth criticizing. He had doubts about big gestures and institutions. However, it’s possible that he would also acknowledge the need for spaces where educators can still debate, question, and recommit. Poznań is providing that area. To be honest, it’s still unclear if the conversations within it make a difference.
