Promoting Resilience in Early Childhood Education and Care to Prepare Children for a World of Change: A Critical Analysis of National and International Policy Documents

Abstract

In recent years, the sustainability crisis has raised interest in the concept of resilience, i.e., the capacity to persist, adapt, or transform in the face of change and challenge. However, to date, resilience has only been studied to a limited extent within early childhood education and care (ECEC). This paper reports on a study that used critical document analysis of national and international policies to explore if and how the concept of resilience within ECEC could contribute to sustainability in a world of rapid change. Five national and four international documents were analysed through the theoretical lenses of childism and place-based education. The results show that resilience is implicitly expressed in ECEC policies yet is rarely linked to sustainability issues. Instead, policies mainly limit resilience to the psychological dimension and the individual child. The conclusion is that ECEC is an apt context for supporting resilience in multiple ways. It suggests using a holistic understanding of resilience to advocate for ECEC policies that include diverse perspectives of families and local communities, incorporate indigenous voices, and recognise the interconnectedness between humans and the more-than-human world.

Worrying with Children and Water in ECEC: Exploring the Pedagogical framing Effects of Actions for Climate Change

“…Studies of the emotional responses of very young children to climate change, and how these are framed in curriculum appear to be less prevalent in the literature according to Furu et al (2023). There are several reasons for this, not least as a result of perceptions that "the youngest age groups may not have the cognitive maturity to truly understand the problem" (Ojala, 2019, Coping strategies section, para.…”

What our children lost and gained at the time of school closure during the Covid-19 pandemic: a study on psychological distress, behavioural concerns and protective factors of resilience among preschool children in Kerala, India

“…In the Indian context Anganwadis (most peripheral grass root level centre for mother and childcare centre in India), preschools and kindergartens contribute towards imparting ECEC for children aged 3 to 6 years. The preschools, kindergartens play a great role in building the physical, social and psychological domains of resilience [ 5 ].…”

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Arriving at a question: Retrospections on post-qualitative slow research with children

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