Sustainability in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) explores sustainability and its educational responses in Early Childhood Education (ECE). While climate change is at the forefront, broader planetary concerns are also addressed, including biodiversity, food and water security, pandemics, plastic pollution, and growing gaps between rich and poor within and between nations and generations. Sustainability—also known as Sustainable Development (SD)—is often referred to as meeting the needs of current generations without compromising those of future generations. Led by the United Nations (UN) and UNESCO, policy drivers for ECEfS are largely international, with the current focus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A contentious concept nevertheless, sustainability at its best is regarded by many as paying attention to all aspects of development—environmental, social, political, and economic. Recently, sustainability concerns have been encapsulated in the term “the Anthropocene,” defined as an epoch from the Industrial Revolution onwards when the impact of humans has become so significant as to dramatically reshape Earth’s ecological systems. There have been increasingly urgent calls for education to play a key role in addressing sustainability concerns. For example, in 1978, the UN called for environmentally-educated teachers to become a key priority because of their potential role in educating societies towards sustainability. Environmental Education (EE) emerged as a response, evolving in the 21st century into what is now known as EfS. An essential characteristic of EfS is that it is transformative, aimed at challenging the status quo. Learning attributes include critical thinking, leading and building community, and action-taking aimed at personal and social transformation. While ECE has been a slow starter in EfS, it is catching up in daycare, kindergarten, and preschools, with corresponding policy and research shifts. This article outlines research across seven themes. The first, Theme 1: What is Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) and Why It Matters?, offers explanations of its importance. The second, Theme 2: Antecedents and Historical Threads Underpinning ECEfS, identifies foundations to ECEfS, especially outdoor and nature play curriculum and learning, as well as children’s rights. The third, (Theme 3: (Re)framing ECE Theories and Curricula through EfS discusses ways of viewing ECEfS curriculum and theories and outlines arguments for moving beyond nature learning. Theme 4: What ECEfS Looks Like in Practice, identifies contemporary ECEfS characteristics and how some international ECE curriculum policies are responding to ECEfS and helping to drive pedagogical change. Theme 5: Beyond Children’s Rights in the Anthropocene, identifes research that challenges humancentric and childcentric worldviews. The sixth theme, Theme 6: Growing a Diverse International Field, considers how ECEfS is expanding internationally through the encouragement of diverse researcher and practitioner networks and the promotion of multiple perspectives on key topics that fall under the broad umbrella of ECEfS. The final theme, Theme 7: Trends in ECEfS, outlines the ongoing evolution of ECEfS as newer theoretical frames and diverse sociocultural influences impact the field.