Julie M. Davis

Revealing the research ‘hole’ of early childhood education for sustainability: a preliminary survey of the literature

In 2007, Environmental Education Research dedicated a special issue to childhood and environmental education. This paper makes a case for ‘early childhood’ to also be in the discussions. Here, I am referring to early childhood as the before‐school years, focusing on educational settings such as childcare centres and kindergartens. This sector is one of the research ‘holes’ that Reid and Scott ask the environmental education community to have the ‘courage to discuss’. This paper draws on a survey of Australian and international research journals in environmental education and early childhood education seeking studies at their intersection. Few were found. Some studies explored young children’s relationships with nature (education in the environment). A smaller number discussed young children’s understandings of environmental topics (education about the environment). Hardly any centred on young children as agents of change (education for the environment). At a time when there is a growing literature showing that early investments in human capital offer substantial returns to individuals and communities and have a far‐reaching effect – and when early childhood educators are beginning to engage with sustainability – it is vital that our field responds. This paper calls for urgent action – especially for research – to address the gap.

Exploring the resistance: An Australian perspective on educating for sustainability in early childhood

SummaryClimate change and sustainability are issues of global significance. While other education sectors have implemented education for sustainability for many years, the early childhood sector has been slow to take up this challenge. This position paper poses the question: Why has this sector been so slow to engage with sustainability? Explanations are proposed based on a review of research literature and the authors’ long engagement in seeking to bring early childhood education and education for sustainability together. The imperative is for the early childhood sector to engage in education for sustainability without delay and to ‘get active’ for a sustainable future.RésuméLes changements climatiques et le développement durable sont chargés d’une signification globale. Alors que d’autres secteurs de l’éducation se sont impliqués dans l’éducation au développement durable depuis plusieurs années, celui réservé à la petite enfance a tardé à relever le défi. La question que pose cet article est: Pourquoi ce secteur a pris tant de temps à s’engager vis-à-vis le développement durable? Des explications sont proposées sur la base d’une revue de la recherche et de l’engagement des auteurs qui tentent de réunir l’éducation de la petite enfance et l’éducation pour le développement durable. Il est impératif que le secteur de la petite enfance s’engage dans l’éducation pour le développement durable sans délai et qu’il demeure alerte dans le futur.ResumenEl cambio climático y la sustentabilidad son cuestiones de importancia global. Mientras que otros sectores educativos han implementado la educación para la sustentabilidad hace muchos años, el sector de la temprana infancia ha sido lento en asumir este desafio. Este trabajo plantea la siguiente cuestión: ¿Por qué este sector sido tan lento para comprometerse con la sustentabilidad? Las explicaciones que se proponen han sido basadas en un estudio de investigación literaria y el largo compromiso del autor buscando unir la educación de la temprana infancia con la educación para la sustentabilidad. El imperativo es que el sector de la temprana infancia se comprometa con la educación para la sustentabilidad sin más demora y se plantee activamente por un futuro sustentable.

Young Children, Environmental Education, and the Future.

This chapter argues that environmental education is an issue of profound importance, especially for young children, the inheritors of great possibilities, but also of major social and environmental problems and challenges. The author observes that, despite little intersection between early childhood education and environmental education, these two fields are natural allies, sharing common philosophical orientations and endorsing similar educational practices. In reconceptualising early childhood education to take account of environmental concerns, there needs, however, to be a refocus on outdoor play, better provision of natural playspaces for children, and a broadening of the term ‘environment’ to encompass holistic and intergenerational perspectives. It is imperative that early childhood teacher education, both preservice and inservice, be transformed to incorporate futures-oriented environmental education principles and practices.

Young Children Learning for the Environment: Researching a Forest Adventure

Field experiences for young children are an ideal medium for environmental education/education for sustainability because of opportunities for direct experience in nature, integrated learning, and high community involvement. This research documented the development - in 4-5 year old Prep children - of knowledge, attitudes and actions/advocacy in support of an endangered native Australian animal, the Greater Bilby. Data indicated that children gained new knowledge, changed attitudes and built a repertoire of action/ advocacy strategies in native animal conservation as a result of participating in a forest field adventure. The curriculum and pedagogical features that supported these young children’s learning include: active engagement in a natural environment, learning through curriculum integration at home and at school, anthropomorphic representations of natural elements, making connections with cultural practices, and intergenerational learning. The paper also highlights research strategies that can be usefully and ethically applied when conducting studies involving young children.

Educating for Sustainability in the Early Years: Creating Cultural Change in a Child Care Setting

The early childhood education field has been slow to take up the challenge of sustainability. However, Brisbane’s Campus Kindergarten is one early education centre that is making serious efforts in this regard. In 1997, Campus Kindergarten initiated its Sustainable Planet Project involving a variety of curriculum and pedagogical activities that have led to enhanced play spaces, reduced waste, lowered water consumption and improved biodiversity. Such changes are not curriculum ‘add-ons’, however. A study of curriculum decision-making processes shows that a culture of sustainability permeates the centre. This has been by a process of slowly evolving changes that have led to a reculturation of many social and environmental practices. This study also shows that very young children, in the presence of passionate and committed teachers, are quite capable of engaging in education for sustainability and in ‘making a difference’.

Ecological Footprinting: Its Potential as a Tool for Change in Preservice Teacher Education

Environmental and sustainability issues pose challenges for society. Although education is seen as being a contributor to addressing sustainability, teacher education has been slow to act in preparing future teachers to teach sustainability. Recent Australian curriculum documents nominate sustainability as one of three cross-curriculum priorities. In one Australian university course, an Ecological Footprint Calculator tool has been employed to challenge preservice early childhood teachers to consider the sustainability of their lifestyles as a means for engaging them in learning and teaching for sustainability. Students enrolled in an integrated arts and humanities subject voluntarily engaged with the online calculator and shared their findings on an electronic discussion forum. These postings then became the basis of qualitative analysis and discussion. Data categories included reactions and reflections on reasons for the ‘heaviness’ of their footprints, student reactions leading to actions to reduce their footprints, reflections on the implications of the footprint results for future teaching, reactions that considered the need for societal change, and reflections on the integration of sustainability with the visual arts. The power of the tool’s application to stimulate interest in sustainability and education for sustainability more broadly in teacher education is explored.

An ecological footprint for an early learning centre: identifying opportunities for early childhood sustainability education through interdisciplinary research

In this study, engineers and educators worked together to adapt and apply the ecological footprint (EF) methodology to an early learning centre in Brisbane, Australia. Results were analysed to determine how environmental impact can be reduced at the study site and more generally across early childhood settings. It was found that food, transport and energy consumption had the largest impact on the centre’s overall footprint. In transport and energy, early childhood centres can reduce their impact through infrastructure and cultural change, in association with changed curriculum strategies. Building design, the type of energy purchased and appliance usage can all be modified to reduce the energy footprint. The transport footprint can be reduced through more families using active and public transport, which can be encouraged by providing information, support and facilities and appropriate siting of new centres. Introducing the concept of ecological footprint in early childhood education may be an effective way to educate children, staff and parents on the links between the food they eat, land usage and environmental impact. This study responds directly to the call in this journal for research focused on early childhood education and for more to be made of interdisciplinary research opportunities.

The impact of professional development on early childhood educators’ confidence, understanding and knowledge of education for sustainability

In recent times, Australia has recognised and enacted a range of initiatives at service, system and community levels that seek to embed sustainability into the early childhood sector. This paper explores the impact of a professional development (PD) session that provided opportunities for early childhood educators to learn and share ideas about the theory and practice of sustainability generally and early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) specifically. The PD was entitled ‘Living and Learning about Sustainability in the Early Years’ and was offered on three occasions across Tasmania. A total of 99 participants attended the three PD sessions (one 5 hour; two 2 hour). The participants had varying levels of experience and included early childhood teachers, centre based educators and preservice teachers. At the start and end of the PD, participants were invited to complete a questionnaire that contained a series of likert scale questions that explored their content knowledge, level of understanding and confidence in regards to ECEfS. Participants were also asked at the start and end of the PD to ‘list five words you think of when you consider the word sustainability.’ A model of teacher professional growth was used to conceptualise the results related to the changes in knowledge, understanding and confidence (personal domain) as a result of the PD related to ECEfS (external domain). The likert-scale questions on the questionnaire revealed significant positive changes in levels of knowledge, understanding and confidence from the start to the end of the PD. Differences as a function of length of PD, level of experience and role are presented and discussed. The ‘5 words’ question showed that participants widened their understandings of ECEfS from a narrow environmental focus to a broader understanding of the social, political and economic dimensions. The early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector has been characterised as having a pedagogical advantage for EfS suggesting that early childhood educators are well placed to engage with EfS more readily than might educators in other education sectors. This article argues that PD is necessary to develop capability in educators in order to meet the imperatives around sustainability outlined in educational policy and curriculum documents in ECEC.

Examining the Rhetoric: A Comparison of How Sustainability and Young Children's Participation and Agency are Framed in Australian and Swedish Early Childhood Education Curricula

This article scrutinises the ways in which young children are described and supported as active participants for change within the Australian and Swedish national steering documents for early childhood education. A critical theory lens was applied, in combination with document analysis that looked for concepts related to environment and sustainability – i.e. the environmental, social, economic and political dimension of development, human place in nature, and environmental stewardship. Concepts concerned with critical thinking and children as active participants for change were used as specific dimensions of curriculum interpretation. The analyses show that, while both the Australian and Swedish curricula deal with content connected to environmental, social and cognitive dimensions, there is limited or no discussion of the political dimensions of human development, such as children as active citizens with political agency. In other words, children are not recognised as competent beings or agents of change for sustainability within these early childhood curriculum frameworks. Hence, these supposedly contemporary early childhood education documents lack curricular leadership to support children to contribute their voices and actions to civic and public spheres of participation as equal citizens.

Creating change for sustainability in universities in Australia, one system at a time

The aim of this paper is to presents an analytical instrument (HAMS, in its Spanish acronym), aimed at the study of teaching methods and the inclusion of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in university classrooms. HAMS is based on a review of studies focused on this field, and the process of developing had revealed methodological strategies in this regard. The focus of HAMS is the study of teaching and decision making in university classrooms, at both planning and intervention levels. Its development is part of a study that analyses the methodological strategies from the perspective of the values of ESD, and on the basis of the principles of complexity. HAMS should be useful for university teachers when analysing and reflecting on their teaching practice. Also, HAMS may be of use to university authorities to detect obstacles in the performance of their instructors, and to plan and design activities that allow for the inclusion of ESD in their centres. This activity has been identified as one of the priority areas for action in higher education because of its direct impact on the formation of future professionals. E. García-González (&) R. Jiménez-Fontana P. Azcárate Goded J.M. Cardeñoso Department of Education, University of Cádiz, Research Group HUM 462 “Teachers’ Professional Development”, Cádiz, Spain e-mail: esther.garcia@uca.es R. Jiménez-Fontana e-mail: rocio.fontana@uca.es P. Azcárate Goded e-mail: pilar.azcarate@uca.es J.M. Cardeñoso e-mail: josemaria.cardenoso@uca.es