Lecture Notes: Education for Sustainability in Early Childhood

Introduction

• Speaker: Dr. Sue Elliott
• Topic: Sustainability and its implementation in early childhood education.
• Focus on fostering change in how species, including humans, coexist with Earth.

Understanding Sustainability

• Complexity: Often misunderstood as merely maintaining resources.
• Global Climate Change: Urgent need to address economic, natural, social, and political dimensions.
• Restorative Process: Sustainability should be restorative and generative, involving everyone.
• Brundtland Report (1987): Expanded the understanding of sustainability.

Dimensions of Sustainability

• Economic, Natural, Social, Political: Interconnected dimensions.
• Example: Water access is affected by all four dimensions.
• Global reports (IPCC, 2018) highlight the urgency due to climate change.
• Threshold: 2°C increase in global temperature is critical.

Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (EfS)

• Transformative Change: Alter thinking, being, and acting for Earth’s regeneration.
• Pedagogical Practices: Implement composting, recycling, and gardening, but explore deeper meanings.
• Critical Reflection: Essential for children and educators.
• Eco-pedagogies: Informed by ethical stances on human and species relationships.

Role of Educators

• Encourage critical eco-pedagogies.
• Facilitate advocacy and civic action.
• Examples: Quirindi Preschool leading community change, various sustainability networks.

Rethinking Theoretical Frames

• Socio-Cultural Theories: Predominant, but need rethinking.
• Children’s Rights (Davis, 2014): Broadened to include agency, intergenerational and ecocentric rights.
• Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory: Needs revision in context of global sustainability.
• Post-Humanism: Challenges anthropocentric views, considers nature as not merely a resource.

UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

• 17 Goals: Cover energy, water, health, education, etc.
• Complex Intersections: Rights, environment, poverty.
• Education as a Vehicle for Change: Emphasized by UNESCO.

Implementation and Policy

• Early Childhood Policy: Needs stronger direction towards sustainability.
• Goal 4: Quality Education: Ensure knowledge and skills for sustainable development.

Conclusion

• Collective Action: Essential for sustainable change.
• Educator’s Role: Critical in modeling and guiding sustainable practices.

References

• Multiple references to literature and reports supporting sustainability education efforts.

Recommendations

• ECA’s Research in Practice Series: "Ways of thinking, acting and relating about sustainability" by Tracy Young and Sue Elliott.

Dr. Sue Elliott’s insights emphasize the urgent need for integrating sustainability in early childhood education, suggesting significant shifts in pedagogical practices and theoretical frameworks.