Philip Selbie

Philip is a qualified primary school teacher who taught 4 - 6-year-old children in the south of England from 1993 until 1999, when he and his family moved to Prague, Czech Republic. After teaching young children at two international schools and gaining an MA in Early Childhood Education from the University of Sheffield, Philip returned to England in 2007. He then taught Early Childhood Studies on the BA, BEd and MA programmes at the University of Plymouth and regularly organised student study trips to Central Europe. In 2015 he wrote Spirituality and Young Children’s Well-being which was included in the fourth edition of ‘Early Childhood Studies: an introduction to the study of children's worlds and children's lives’ published by Sage.

After taking early retirement in 2018, Philip returned to the Czech Republic and now teaches Education Studies to Erasmus+ students at the Faculty of Education at Charles University in Prague. Alongside his part-time teaching, he has contributed to two Erasmus+ international research projects - the most recent being the European Culture Project focussing on the role of culture and education in developing European identity, values and citizenship.

Philip has a long-term interest in the life and work of the 17th century social and educational reformer, Jan Amos Comenius who spent most of his life in exile during the Thirty Years War that ravaged Europe at the time. Philip is also interested in comparative education systems for young children in Europe and in 2022 he co-edited ‘Educating Pre-primary and Primary Teachers Today: Quality Initial Professional Studies for Teachers in Six European Union Countries’ published by Charles University. Philip is available for advice, support and conversation at philip.selbie@pedf.cuni.cz