So, why reclaimed resources? Our posts so far have been about the use of resources with young children but we do have an additional agenda! We are exploring Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) / Education for Sustainability (EfS) and what that might mean for early childhood education.
In higher education Education for Sustainability is on the agenda - supported by the Higher Education Academy and organisations such as EAUC. Our own institution, Anglia Ruskin University, has an active Global Sustainability Institute. Many primary and secondary schools, too, are incorporating Sustainability and Environmental Education in the curriculum. Several are following an Eco-Schools programme.
An international workshop was held in Göteborg, Sweden, in 2007, as part of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014). The debates and reflections are published as The contribution of early childhood education to a sustainable society edited by Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson and Yoshie Kaga. This UNESCO document highlights the importance of beginning education for sustainability in early childhood. Values, attitudes, skills and behaviours that are established early in life could be long lasting and lead to global change.
OMEP also campaigns in this area and their publications include a Special Issue of the International Journal of Early Childhood on Sustainable Development in Early Childhood (volume 41 number 2, 2009).
We are interested to find out more about current early childhood education for sustainability initiatives in the UK - so if you read this and are involved in practical projects and/or research please let us know!
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