Ethics and pedagogy at the heart of early childhood education for sustainability

Robinson, Lesley; Vaealiki, Sue

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511845390.007

Cited by 10 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Families and communities working together is recognised in early childhood pedagogies such as interdisciplinary learning, co-constructing working theories, building respectful relationships and participating in communities of action (Robinson and Vaealiki 2010). These pedagogies have become firmly established in child-centred early childhood curricula, such as Te Whāriki in New Zealand (Ministry of Education 1996), Reggio Emilia in Italy (Edwards, Gandini, and Foreman 1998), in Australia and Scandinavian countries, resulting in discussion and research on how children seek knowledge about issues that impact on their lives and search for solutions (Davis and Elliott 2003;Penn 2005;Smith 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is not the intention of this article to suggest that young children be burdened with the world's environmental problems. It is suggesting that children have a right to engage with a curriculum and local community issues that are considered within appropriate early childhood pedagogies that are sensitive to their culture and relevant to their context (Pramling Samuelsson and Kaga 2008;Robinson and Vaealiki 2010). Teachers, who understand the importance of democratic processes when working on environmental problems and solutions, take the position that the child already has agency and has a contribution to make towards creating a better future.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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To know, to decide, to act: the young child’s right to participate in action for the environment

Mackey¹

2012

Environmental Education Research

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This article draws on a research study that focused on young children's involvement in an environmental curriculum that created for them opportunities to display their competence and confidence through knowing, deciding and acting for the environment within a supportive early childhood setting. When young children are involved in making decisions that affect their lives, including those decisions regarding sustainability and the natural environment, they are capable in contributing to the decision-making that leads them to purposeful action. The research revealed the importance of honouring the young child's right to know about social and environmental issues; to be part of conversations and possible solutions; to have their ideas and contributions valued; to seek solutions with others in order to be able to take meaningful action. The article explores the notion that when the rights of young children are respected, they are confident advocates for the environment and for a more sustainable world.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

To know, to decide, to act: the young child’s right to participate in action for the environment

Mackey¹

2012

Environmental Education Research

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“…It is believed that parents’ and community’s participation can contribute to children’s development of social abilities and problem-solving skills; family’s co-operation enables early childhood centres to link meaningfully with home-settings (Ji & Stuhmcke, 2014). Furthermore, when all participants work together on a common sustainability-related project, it is assumed that meaningful learning about sustainability occurs including boosting children’s problem-solving and social skills (Robinson & Vaealiki, 2010). Overall, co-construction learning puts value on children’s group work (collaboration and communication with peers, educators, parents and community), problem-solving learning and play-based learning in children’s daily lives.…”

Section: Co-construction Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human–nature relationships in early childhood education for sustainability: Metaphysical analysis and reshaping

Dreamson

Kim

2021

Australasian Journal of Early Childhood

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Popular instructional approaches in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) are co-construction learning, transformative learning and ecological learning. These rely on constructivism that could challenge human–nature relationships of ECEfS. In this study, we aim to discover and reshape human–nature relationships embedded in the approaches. To do so, we deconstruct the approaches through a metaphysical analysis with ontology, epistemology and axiology. As a result, we confirm that they are likely to view humans and nature as two separate entities. For sustainability, we distinguish an ontological view (‘N’ature) and an epistemological view (‘n’ature) and justify the distinction based on posthumanists’ concepts of non-humans and more-than-humans. We present a metaphysically reshaped human–nature relationship and argue that this new model enables teachers to critically review ‘human-made/observed natures’ and participate in the reconciliation between ‘N’ature and humanity. We also apply the model into a waste-recycle activity to clarify its potential practicality.

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“…These theories could offer significant guidance towards sustainable worldviews and ways of being and emergent post-humanist/new materialism research literature well demonstrates the potential in early childhood education (Weldemariam 2017). Sustainability in early childhood education could be a platform for re-framing the theoretical underpinnings (Elliott and Davis 2018a) and creating transformative pedagogies (Kelly andWhite 2013, Robinson andVaealiki 2015).…”

Section: Comparison With Australian Early Childhood Settingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature-based early childhood activities as environmental education?: A review of Japanese and Australian perspectives

Inoue

Elliott²,

Mitsuhashi

et al. 2019

Environmental Education

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In this paper we review the forest kindergartens and Skogsmulle programs (Swedish outdoor programs) as well as the formally registered early childhood services in Japan. All of these different service types are known to include nature-based activities for young children. The formally registered early childhood services are subject to national guidelines (CAO et al. 2017, MEXT 2017, MHLW 2017) that require nature-based activities to promote children's development. However, these guidelines fall short on matters of global sustainability, environmental issues, environmental education (EE), or education for sustainability (EfS), thus we argue a comprehensive approach is lacking and a gap in practices evident. We suggest that the two alternative service types, forest kindergartens and Skogsmulle programs, offer more potential to promote EE/EfS than the formally registered early childhood services. We also briefly review Australian early childhood policies and settings and identify a similar situation, where naturebased activities appear to deflect from a comprehensive approach to EE/EfS. We argue that a critical analysis of policies and improvement of pre-service and in-service teacher programs to build sustainability knowledge and pedagogical skills is required. Also the establishment of collective professional networks across the varied naturebased activity programs and service types is necessary across each nation to transform existing nature-based activities into effective EE/EfS approaches and practices for global sustainability. We also identify this review paper as a precursor to further research in this topical area.

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Ethics and pedagogy at the heart of early childhood education for sustainability

Cited by 10 publications

References 8 publications

To know, to decide, to act: the young child’s right to participate in action for the environment

To know, to decide, to act: the young child’s right to participate in action for the environment

Human–nature relationships in early childhood education for sustainability: Metaphysical analysis and reshaping

Nature-based early childhood activities as environmental education?: A review of Japanese and Australian perspectives

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