Prof. Dr. Ebru Aktan Acar

She graduated from the Boğaziçi University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Department of Psychology in 1993. She completed her master’s degree in 1996 in Preschool Teaching at the Marmara University, Institute of Social Sciences, and her doctorate in Preschool Education in 2001 at the Institute of Education Sciences of the same university. Aktan Acar joined the Department of Early Childhood Education of The Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University School of Primary Education in 1997 as a Research Assistant, becoming Assistant Lecturer in 2002, followed by Lecturer in 2010 and Professor in 2017. She continues her lectures at the Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Department of Early Childhood Education.

Acar, who focuses on literacy skills, varied early childhood education models and approaches throughout the world, peace education, and respect for diversity, has traveled extensively with national and international scholarships awarded by organizations such as DAAD, MASHAV, TÜBA, and YÖK to carry out research and observation activities throughout the world in countries such as Germany, Israel, England, and India. She is also the author and creator of numerous national/international research papers and projects. Acar has been the Turkish Representative of The World Forum Foundation (WFF) since 1999 and has been the Chairwoman of the Persona Dolls Education Initiative Association since its foundation in 2019. Acar is also a Member of the Çanakkale Cooperative of Modern Education.

Believing Early Childhood Education to be the earliest opportunity to address social injustice, Aktan Acar founded The ÇABA Multi-Purpose Early Childhood Education Centre (ÇABAÇAM) as an exemplary model on cooperation between non-governmental and regional administrations with support from ÇABA and the Municipality of Kepez in 2008 as a community-based system to provide early childhood education services to Turkish children and their families as well as children and their families under temporary protection whose development is at risk due to socio-economic reasons and to create opportunities for student teachers to bring together theory and practice and to strengthen their personal/professional practices, in short, to create an ecosystem where the individual empowers the society and vice versa. For its inspiring story and the valuable contribution to social change it made, ÇABAÇAM was given the 'Turkey’s Changemakers' Award by the Sabancı Foundation in 2017.