Risk Literacy in Early Childhood Education Under a Lifelong Perspective

Abstract

Risk entails every action, every level and every perspective of our lives. The ability to make advantageous decisions, to deal with uncertainties, to infer and estimate more or less probable outcomes, to manage risky or riskless situations compose the wider notion of risk literacy and may be inserted from formal preschool education. The current paper aims to enlighten the notion of risk literacy and safety education as a necessity in establishing pupils ready to accept failure, to achieve success, to take initiatives, to become self-competent, to develop probabilistic and statistical thinking, to confront uncertainty and in turn to face the challenges of modern risk society. It is argued that within the formal settings of preschool education, through developmentally appropriate activities, opportunities may be implemented in order to encourage children as future citizens to construct risk literate personalities. It is concluded that risk perception and management imply awareness, assessment, avoidance and adaptation and are connected with growth, maturity, practice, experiences, intuitions and computations.