Prof. Dr. Fatma Elif ERGİN
Prof. Dr. Fatma Elif Ergin was born on July 12, 1976, in Safranbolu, Turkey. She received her bachelor’s degree in 1997 from the Department of Child Development and Education at Selçuk University’s Faculty of Vocational Education. She completed her master's degree at the same university with a thesis on emotional intelligence.
Between 2001 and 2005, she conducted studies in the United States on mother-child interaction, alternative educational approaches, children's literature, and children's librarianship in various schools and institutions. She earned her Ph.D. in 2011 with a dissertation focused on mother-child interaction.
She began her academic career as a research assistant at Selçuk University in 1998 and continued in this role at the Department of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University, where she was appointed as an Assistant Professor in 2012. Between 2010 and 2012, she played an active role in establishing the Preschool Education Practice and Research Center at BAİBÜ and served as its director.
From 2012 to 2014, she served as an advisor to the President of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) and taught as a visiting lecturer at Ankara University’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Between 2014 and 2016, she was a member of the Board of Education and Discipline at the Ministry of National Education.
Since 2016, she has been the Head of the Department of Child Development at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University. She earned her Associate Professorship in 2019 and served as Vice Dean from 2019 to 2021, while also chairing the faculty administrative board and serving as a member of both the institute board and university senate.
From 2022 to 2023, she served as Director of the Institute of Health Sciences, in addition to her roles as a senate member, quality board member, faculty board member, and chair of the institute executive board.
She has served as a coordinator, researcher, and expert in various projects supported by the European Union, TÜBİTAK, and university funding. Her research interests include family education, mother-child interaction, alternative educational approaches, the Montessori method, cognitive and language development, children’s literature, interactive reading, environmental education, children's rights, values education, and differentiated instruction.
She has published articles in national and international journals and presented papers at various conferences. Prof. Dr. Ergin is a board member of the Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Alumni and Members Association and actively engages in research and development work as a volunteer in several non-governmental organizations.