1982: Legislation for the establishment of the Pedagogical Departments of Primary Education and the Pedagogical Departments of Preschool Education in Greek universities (ΦΕΚ 87/16.7.1982 τ. Α). [pdf]
1983: Legislation for the structure and operation of the newly established Pedagogical Departments [pdf]. Their mission is defined as follows:
- To cultivate and promote the Sciences of Education with academic and applied teaching and research,
- To provide to their graduates the necessary knowledge for their scientific and professional development,
- To contribute to the improvement of and cover the increasing needs of Education in Pedagogical aspects
- To contribute to the handling and solution of pedagogical problems
Academic year 1987-88: The Pedagogical Department of Preschool Education (initial name of the Department) in the Democritus University of Thrace (Alexandroupolis) opened its doors to receive its first students.
1992: The Department became administratively independent.
1998: Establishment of the School of Education Sciences that includes the Department of Primary Education and the Department of Preschool Education. (ΦΕΚ 37/27.2.1998) [pdf]
2002: The Department was renamed to Department of Education Sciences in Early Childhood. (ΦΕΚ 114/24.5.2002 τ. Α) [pdf]
Faculty Members that served as Head of the Department
- Dionysios Kladis (from May 27, 1992 until August 31, 1996)
- Loukia Beze (from September 1, 1996 until August 31, 2000 and from September 1, 2002 until August 31, 2006)
- Thomas Vougiouklis (from September 1, 2000 until December 13, 2000)
- Vasiliki Kontogianni (from December 13, 2000 until August 31, 2002)
- Paraskevi Koufaki (from September 1, 2006 until August 31, 2010 and from November 16, 2012 until December 31, 2012)
- Lela Gogou (from September 1, 2010 until November 15, 2012)
- Galini Rekalidou (from January 1, 2013 until August 31, 2014 and from September 1, 2016 until August 31, 2018)
- Anastasia Dimitriou (from September 1, 2014 until August 31, 2016)
- Dimitrios Prentzas (from September 1, 2018 until August 31, 2022)
Faculty Members that served as Vice Head of the Department
- Loukia Beze (from May 27, 1992 until August 31, 1996 and from December 13, 2000 until August 31, 2002)
- Dionysios Kladis (from September 1, 1996 until April 3, 1998)
- Evangelos Zoumas (from September 1, 1998 until August 31, 2000)
- Lela Gogou (from September 1, 2002 until August 31, 2008)
- Konstantinos Petrogiannis (from September 1, 2008 until January 24, 2011)
- Anastasia Economidou (from September 1, 2016 until August 31, 2018)
- Maria Moumoulidou (from September 1, 2018 until August 31, 2020)
- Georgios Mavrommatis (from September 1, 2020 until August 31, 2022)