The project created an international consortium and partnership of workplaces focused on early childhood education and care in order to promote and ensure real multicultural and inclusive pre-school education at all relevant levels based on clear and adhered principles. The partner participants in the project were Trnava University (Slovakia), University of Sv. Cyril and Methodius Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria), Sopron University (Hungary), where representatives and authorities of workplaces (departments), which at the national and international level have long and intensively devoted to early and pre-school education and have a recognizable influence on this sector. At the same time, targeted kindergartens from all the mentioned countries were also involved in the project: from Slovakia there were two kindergartens, from Bulgaria and Hungary one kindergarten each. They were kindergartens that have excellent experience in the implementation of multicultural and inclusive education, quality staff and high motivation for further work in the field, to develop their approaches, to cooperate with each other and to share the results of good practice. A special participant in the project was a non-European university institution: Univeristas Negeri Semarang in Indonesia and its department of pre-school education. Within the central theme of the project, it was a partner workplace, which on the one hand represented completely different cultural conditions, those that have long and actively stood on the multicultural and inclusive foundations of Indonesian multicultural society, be it ethnicity, social status or religiosity. The partnership was based on a long-term cooperation in this area. The basic goal of the project was to ensure that pre-school education incorporates the principles of inclusive education as expressed in the national curricular documents of pre-school education. The aim was for ECEC institutions to understand together the ideas and principles of inclusive education, to be able to apply the open education model to all, to be able to create a school curriculum that integrates diversity and inclusion into everyday work. All project activities led to the creation and management of the main project outputs. The intellectual outputs include a comprehensive Methodological Handbook for Cultural and Social Diversity in Kindergartens, which was prepared in four languages ​​(Slovak, Hungarian, Bulgarian, English) and elaborated in detail the principles of education capable of ensuring inclusion and targeted work with diversity (children and their environment). It was about the application of these principles in creating the school curriculum of kindergartens, for creating an inclusive educational environment and planning specific educational activities for the needs of heterogeneous groups of children, as well as for creating children's sense of cultural diversity. The handbook has a balanced theoretical and applied character, while its main addressees are employees of ECEC institutions.The second key outcome were the policy recommendations to put forward concrete proposals and changes that need to be made at the political and national level for a real and widespread application of inclusive pre-school education. It is an analytically argued proposal of specific legislative measures for the real provision of inclusive education, the provision of a cohesive national curricular policy, and international analyzes of the implementation of inclusive education policies in relation to the national policies of the project participants.The third key output were the national workshops, which applied intellectual outputs in practice through direct multiplication with kindergarten teachers, who can transfer these outputs to the work of their institutions and help disseminate results through their initiatives and application of activities. Unfortunately, the planned workshops were not fully implemented in person, in two countries (Hungary and Slovakia) it was necessary to implement workshops online due to the pandemic situation. The participants of the workshops expressed their satisfaction with the created material and appreciated the possibility of an accessible website, which should also be used for further sharing of good practice within the inclusion in kindergartens.

The development and promotion of Early Childhood Care and Pre-school Education (ECEC) is undoubtedly one of the major priorities of educational (and social) policies on the international stage and in the national circumstances of European (and non-European) countries. We see this in an effort to improve the conditions for extending early childhood care (under 3 years of age), to increase the number of children enrolled in the network of pre-school facilities, but also in an increasing number of countries introducing and implementing compulsory pre-school education one year (or more) before starting school. We also see this in the changes in the education programs for ECEC, which expect a high degree of professionalism in ECEC facilities. All these measures and steps are based on evidence that early care and pre-school education are a significant measure that improves the prospects of children succeeding in school, gaining quality education, and making good use in life. Early childhood care and pre-school education contribute to this goal in particular by balancing children's social chances, helping everyone to acquire the starting cultural capital and skills that are needed to succeed in school socialization.The project is a concrete contribution to the basic objective of improving the quality of ECEC and pre-school education, in line with the European Union and national education (and social) policies. In its specific definition, the project focuses on ECEC workers, their professional support and growth, in order to align their professional profile with the objectives that current ECEC development policy expects and requires.Within the European area, the project creates a targeted network of partner workplaces in terms of its geographical (historical and political) background. The project includes the so-called post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, namely Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovenia. As mentioned above, in the ECEC, these countries have similar historical roots and have been confronted with identical transformation challenges and problems. The transformation processes have already led these countries to the autonomous development of the ECEC, so that, both at the structural level and in the areas of preparation and qualification and professional provision of the ECEC, the participating countries have different settings. These differences are of great benefit to the project, as it enables us to find the best experience for the development of ECEC and the professional development of workers in the field on an international background and to apply them in the preparation and implementation of competence development programs in harmonized cooperation.The project from these countries enters academic workplaces as well as specific ECEC facilities from participating countries, including the professional organization of ECEC staff working in the international network. Partner academic workplaces from the participating countries represent a leading platform for the development of ECEC and pre-school education in their countries, whether in terms of staff training in this area or in significant participation in shaping and implementing national ECEC policies. All involved workplaces have rich experience in designing, training, research and conceptual activities in this area, with a high prerequisite for a successful solution to this project.Specific ECEC facilities from each participating country are also involved in the project to include public and private sector institutions as well as institutions representing the full range of ECEC's (childcare for three years of age, kindergartens) facilities is the starting point for a good interconnection of project plans to practice as well as to its regional anchoring. The professional training organization of ECEC staff (seated in the project coordinator country) will also make a significant contribution to the project activities aimed at training courses.The project activities have a proportional intellectual character linked to training activities and ongoing dissemination activities. Intellectual outputs aim to thoroughly map, compare, and harmonize the professional profiles of ECEC workers in the participating countries, linked to training activities and ongoing dissemination activities. Existing professional profiles are defined and compared to create an optimal professional profile structure applicable in a transnational perspective. Dissemination activities will also be in the form of accompanying published texts, outputs at seminars and conferences, presentation of the project through social networks and media outputs.