This research study investigates the process of how early childhood educators develop their identity as related to sustainability practices in early childhood classrooms, especially in terms of articulating realizations and understanding one’s own capacity as a sustainability leader. The aim of this research is to investigate how early childhood teachers view themselves in their sustainability practices and enact those practices in the early childhood classroom.
In partnership, the University of Oklahoma, Hunter College, and Portland State University, and using the United Nations (UN) framework of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social), we seek to understand how professional development interactions through workshops, coaching sessions, and interviews impact sustainability identity. Working with early childhood educators, this study is designed to understand early childhood educator's experiences and actions in their classroom practice across the UN sustainability domains by: 1) providing a series of four workshops that contextual the UN Concepts and how they can be integrated into early childhood curriculum and not as a stand-alone unit; 2) working with early childhood educators in small group coaching session between workshops to understand how they are implementing practices through classroom activities in their settings; and, 3) conducting individual interviews to reflect sustainability identity and if practices change over time.
1. How do early childhood educators identify sustainability practices?
2. How are identified sustainability beliefs currently implemented in early childhood programs?
3. In what ways does participation in the workshops, coaching sessions, and interviews influence the professional practices of early childhood educators?
4. What do early childhood educators identify as new knowledges, skills, or actions after completing the sustainability workshops?
5. How does the study impact future workshops and curriculum development?
The aim of the study is to understand if ongoing reflection on sustainability practices deepen the early childhood education practices by connecting theory to practice in real-world—classroom and school—situations. With the rapidly changing demographics in terms of ethnicity, language, religion, etc. the schools are becoming more and more diverse, requiring new approaches to sustainability education that moves beyond concepts of gardening and recycling. To serve the children in school better and work closely with the communities, we have set our goal to critically examine the role of sustainability in the twenty-first century by framing the topic through the UN context of economic, environmental, and social sustainability.
To achieve this goal, we as research/early childhood educators have decided to provide a context for the participants as well the researchers to work together in understanding the impact of sustainability leadership in learning and teaching in today’s diverse communities. Thus, working within the workshop, coaching and interview professional development model, and focusing primarily on understanding the interactions between learner, learning, and context (school and community at large), we plan is to reflect with early childhood educator to develop a deeper understanding of the complexities of being a leader of sustainability practices in the early childhood field.
We consider early childhood educators' sense of sustainability paramount to the ways they perceive the role of teaching sustainability in the classroom. One of the goals of the workshops is for us is to nurture the students to realize their own sense of identity and develop an authentic voice of advocating for sustainable practices.
In our study, we are designing the workshops, coaching sessions, and interviews in such a way as to create self-reflection on sustainability from various standpoints.
The development of ongoing sustainable practices is an iterative process. We propose that practices unfold in relation to the content and pedagogic preparations as well as a profound understanding of the social and cultural backgrounds of those around them in schools, children, parents, co-workers, and so forth.
Our methodology for conducting this research will be of qualitative nature. It will contain self-study or auto-ethnography (in terms of detailed notes from our planning discussions and reflections based on interaction in the workshops, coaching sessions, and interviews) and interactions of the participants and researchers. The diagram below (Figure 1) illustrates our methodological model. In this three-segment model, the first segment describes the planning between the researchers. The second segment portrays the interaction between the early childhood teachers (our participants) working in small groups both in the workshops and coaching sessions, and the third segment describes the researcher-participant interactions in terms of the interviews. The first two segments capture peer interactions of two different types in tandem– the researchers, the early childhood educators with more background in early childhood sustainability practices, and those learning to find and enact their sustainability practices in the classroom.
Besides our individual notes on planning, our data collection will also include communications between the researchers and the participants collected as email/blogs in each of the interactions. Data is collected in the Zoom platform in the form of recordings of engagement in small group activities (workshops and coaching sessions) and individual interviews. The written responses to reflections as a part of the professional development (workshops, coaching sessions, interviews) will also be collected. Participants will be encouraged to share and create dialogue around their reflections of this project and how it has helped them find/construct their identity as a sustainability leader in the early childhood classroom
Young children have an innate interest in nature and the environment and they take great joy in caring for plants and animals. This intrinsic curiosity is the basis for childhood educators' call to include and increase ecological activities or even move learning to the outdoors (Lloyd & Gray, 2014; Waite, Bølling, & Bentsen, 2016; Warber, DeHudy, Bialko, Marselle, & Irvine, 2015). “Environmental education in early childhood is a holistic concept that encompasses knowledge of the natural world as well as emotions, dispositions, and skills” (Simmons et al., 2016, p. 2). This movement argues that outdoor learning is not only engaging but also healthy for children’s well-being. Children who engage in outdoor activities have fewer signs of anxiety and develop empathy for others. These mental advantages are also accompanied by a lot of pedagogical development such as independence, physical activities, explorations, science, math, and others (Almers, Askerlund, & Kjellström, 2018).
Moreover, educators are utilizing such activities to develop pro-environmental empathic behaviors in children and promote active relations within the natural environment with the intention of these relationships will carry on beyond the classroom setting (Neaman, Otto, & Vinokur, 2018). Children having relationships with the environment and learning about interdependence of biodiversity of the ecosystem tend to increase the possibility of having a lifetime commitment to environmental sustainability (Simmons et al., 2016). However, environmental experiences for young children need to be founded in experiential learning (direct experience, exploration, and discovery [Bhagwanji, 2011, p. 33]) and scaffolded by educators to encourage complex understandings of how the world works (Bhagwanji, 2011; Simmons etal., 2016; Wilson, 2020).
Beyond environmental education, there is the additional layer of sustainability. The World Commission on Environment and Development (1987, 8) as: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sustainability education in the United States early childhood field falls behind what UNESCO purpose for Education for Sustainability where the intent is to, prove access to quality education on sustainable development at all levels and in all social contexts, to transform society by reorienting education and help people develop knowledge, skills, values, and behaviors needed for sustainable development. It is about including sustainable development issues, such as climate change and biodiversity into teaching and learning. Individuals are encouraged to be responsible actors who resolve challenges, respect cultural diversity, and contribute to creating a more sustainable world. Retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-sustainable-development
Wilson (2020) speaks of the gap between environmental education and sustainability education that was addressed in the Education for Sustainability (EfS) movement. “EfS invites learners to reflect on and respond to their relationship with the more-than- human world. The concept is grounded in an understanding of the interconnectedness and an ethic of partnership with all of nature. It is also about empowering children to participate in and experience the power of community to bring about change” (p. 3).
Not all early childhood centers have the foundation to engage in EfS practices. Many programs instead employ a tourist approach to ecological and sustainable practices (Wilson, 2018). fortunate to engage children with outdoor learning or biodiversity activities, yet most educators are attempting to promote sustainability education within the classroom confound. Gardening (environmental education) and recycling (sustainability education) are the most dominant ecological and sustainable activities in early childhood classrooms (Wilson, 2018). Gardening focuses on caring for living things which is a foundation of early childhood education connecting to social and emotional development and empathy development (Wilson, 2010). Gardening and caring for plants have a long history in early childhood education and can be linked to various standards of learning across different national and state metrics (Wilson, 2018). Hence, the literature on recycling and caring for the planet is not as systematized. Most research in early childhood on recycling focuses on “maker spaces,” reuse or the globalized concept of saving the planet (Wilson, 2020). Recycling and the larger study of sustainability ecology in early childhood- as related to children’s relation to, engagement with, and impact on the environment is separated from systemic action. The research demonstrates that the unintended consequences tourist experiences is the “perpetuating of the nature-culture divide (Wilson, 2020, p. 4) rarely found in early childhood literature and not found in early learning standards or texts (Bhagwanji, 2011). Nonetheless, gardening and recycling continue to dominate early childhood education and persist in assuming that such activities can lead to / environmental sustainability concepts (education) in early childhood, even though it has resulted in an uneven and superficial presentation of sustainability. These activities limit the view of the relationship between consumption and the environment. In fact, the concept of maker spaces using recycled materials further reinforces concepts of consumption (Warber, DeHudy, Bialko, Marselle, & Irvine, 2015) that are not necessarily. In addition, gardening does not demonstrate the interconnectedness of biodiversity. Quite the opposite, it reinforces the concept of humans as separate from nature (Wilson, 2020) Hence, the challenge in teaching ecological skills is two-fold. First, most ecological skills are taught based on a consumer consumption model such as the maker space model. Second, the global application of the traditional sustainability approach, such as climate change are presented in a singular dimension that asks children to deal with environmental problems in a way that “creates fear and helplessness” (Wilson, 2020, p. 4) The limitation of such activities is based on narrow opportunity to teach about the different elements that encapsulate sustainability education
Hence, the challenge in teaching ecological skills is two-fold. First, most ecological skills are taught based on a consumer consumption model such as the maker spaces model. Second, the global application of the traditional sustainability approach, such as climate change are presented in a singular dimension (Wilson, 2018). These paths limit the understanding and outcome of sustainability especially in early childhood education and enforced sustainability development as a complex enterprise associated only with adults or as a consumption model.