Abstract
Early childhood education for sustainable development roots on environmental, socio-cultural and economic ground for encouraging lifelong learning and improving values and behaviors that support sustainable development such as use of natural resources, cultural awareness, gender equality, and democracy. Educational drama contributes to the development of skills necessary for sustainable development such as communication, cooperation and decision-making. This study has two main objectives: the former is to raise awareness and to develop these skills of pre-service teachers by organizing drama activities in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD); the later objective is to implement and to evaluate the activities based on the data collected from pre-service teachers and from one specific pre-school teacher, in whose classroom these activities were carried out. Phenomenographic approach was adapted for the current study and the data was collected through interviews, photos, and field notes. The study shows that the drama activities increase awareness and improve skills for ESD within pre-service teachers. Furthermore, opinions and experiences of the pre-service teachers and the preschool teacher state that drama has positive impact on learning of pre-school children about sustainable development.
Highlights
People are becoming more careless about the use of natural resources
This study aims to prepare and implement drama activities including the dimensions of Sustainable development (SD) for preschool children with the pre-service teachers and to evaluate the opinions of the participant pre-service teachers and the preschool teacher within the framework of the related literature
Ull & Minguet (2014) state that Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) needs to be included in the content of different courses in undergraduate programs and pre-service teachers should have different experiences about ESD especially in teaching practices
Summary
People are becoming more careless about the use of natural resources. There is only one chance to save the planet and this will lead to undesirable consequences for all the humanity if human beings continue to follow their pure ambition and comfort. The sustainable use of natural resources provides opportunities for generations to live in a habitable world (United Nations, 2015). Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) requires environmental issues to be integrated with the concepts of social and economic development and to be presented within an educational framework (Robottom & Simonneaux, 2012). According to Haddad (2008), early childhood education is a critical stage for the concept of sustainability in education. Childhood education sets a physical, social-emotional, and cultural ground for development. It is effective in improving values and behaviors supporting ESD (Pramling Samuelsson & Kaga, 2008). According to the constructivist framework providing meaningful learning experiences, jel.ccsenet.org
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
