Education for sustainability within early childhood studies: collaboration and inquiry through projects with children

This paper considers an Action Research project which was implemented to establish a shared understanding of the term ‘Education for Sustainable development’ within the context of an Early Childhood Studies degree. Students engaged in projects with children and local early years’ providers, and the research aligns with previous work undertaken by Siraj-Blatchford, Smith, and Samuelsson (2010. Education for Sustainable Development in the Early Years. Organisation Mondiale Pour ?Education Prescolaire (OMEP)), which explored the role of education for sustainability in the field of Early Childhood Education. With the lingering and persistent preoccupation with testing, results and outcomes in early childhood education, compulsory school education and higher education the research aimed to capture the idea of the student as a change agent with opportunities to work with children as agents of change. The main findings lean towards participatory action research as an emancipatory reminder that research does not need to be a technical activity and the voices and actions of children, students and early childhood educators can be foregrounded in a way that validates authentic involvement by all participants.     

International Field Experience as an Impetus for Personal and Professional Transformation: Through the Lens of Early Childhood Postsecondary Students

Research exploring preservice postsecondary students’ experiences participating in an international field placement is a relatively new area of study in the domains of Early Childhood Education (ECE) and Early Childhood Leadership (ECL). While there is a growing body of literature offering merit to the profound transformations that can occur for students who engage in an international field experience, most notably in nursing and school-age teaching vocations, a significant research gap exists in this area of study within the early childhood field. This qualitative research study explores the international field experience of Canadian Early Childhood Education Diploma and Early Childhood Leadership Degree students who engaged in a 4-week placement to Liberia, Costa Rica in the winter of 2013. Applied thematic analysis was utilized to examine ECE and ECL self-reflective journals, interviews, and e-mail correspondences. Researcher field notes were additionally included in the data analysis. Personal and professional transformations proved to be a prevailing outcome of the Costa Rica international field placement. The merit of a solidified international placement pedagogical approach was an additional finding of this research study.     

The impact of an early intervention home visiting experience on student learning in a dual early childhood/special education graduate preservice program

Home visiting is a primary service delivery approach to promote young children’s development and support families. Early Intervention professionals are expected to partner with families to create effective learning experiences in the daily context of routine family life. Concerns about early childhood (special) educators’ readiness to take on this partnership role have been voiced, suggesting explicit learning opportunities are needed within preservice preparation programs. This study explored the impact of an introductory assignment analyzing a videotaped home visit on preservice Early Childhood Education/Early Childhood Special Education students’ learning about home visiting practices. Implications for scaffolding home visiting experiences in preservice preparation are discussed.     

“Because uni is totally different than what you do at TAFE”: protective strategies and provisions for diploma students traversing their first professional experience placement at university

Students who enrol in a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood Education) at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, with a Diploma in Children’s Services attained from a Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institution or a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) often experience challenges in their first professional experience unit. Utilising a phenomenological approach to understand the students’ previous knowledge and experiences as they navigated through their first professional experience unit, this qualitative study identified factors including institutional structures and course content as challenging to the diploma student. To ensure diploma students can successfully transition to and participate in their first professional experience unit at university, all stakeholders including the university, the academics teaching the students, and the students themselves need to commit to a multilevel support programme. Key findings from this study support the previous research on this student cohort.     

Utilising place-based learning through local contexts to develop agents of change in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability

ABSTRACT

The aim of this research was to consider how young children could develop an education for sustainable mind-set, through place-based learning within a local context. This research built upon the development of an Early Childhood Education for Sustainable (ECEfS) framework (Boyd, D., H. Hirst, and C. McNeill. 2016. Early Childhood Education for Sustainable Framework 48 (ECEfS). https://www.foundationyears.org.uk/2017/09/environmental-sustainability-resources/). The place-based research focused upon Dewey's theory of experiential learning and by engaging in offsite longitudinal community-based projects, where young children become familiar with their own locality. This familiarity encourages children to develop an ecological self within place by being submerged in an ever-changing natural environment through the Forest School Philosophy, with an emphasis upon regular visits conducted over an extended period. Over a period of a year children and adults in different and diverse settings experienced opportunities for place-based learning to develop their Education for Sustainability perspective. Observations focused upon children and adults considering how they both started to become more aware of local critical issues and related them to their own reality. The research received ethical approval by LJMU and all involved chose to take part and could withdraw at any time.     

What does it take to be a “successful teacher”? Universities’ role in preparing the future early-years workforce

Within the knowledge era, Early Childhood Education has been attracting continued interest from scholars globally. In this regard, several studies have been conducted, with results identifying the multifarious attributes which members of the early years workforce should possess. But what does this imply for Early Childhood Teacher Education Departments? An exploratory quantitative study was conducted with a random sample of first-year and graduate students of the Department of Early Childhood Education of the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, with the aim of recording students’ perceived views on the skills, knowledge and attitudes required for working in early years and their expectations of their studies. Results have identified some divergence between freshmen’s and graduates’ perceptions on required attributes, as well as on the role of their studies in preparing them to enter the early childhood teacher profession, with significant implications for improving university curricula, as well as for undertaking further research in the field.     

Research and the early years practitioner-researcher

This paper challenges the approach that we traditionally take to research (in the realm of Early Childhood) within our colleges and universities. It asks why we have obediently adopted an outmoded and entirely inappropriate approach to research which disempowers and alienates the practitioners that we are working with. This paper calls for Early Childhood tutors to challenge existing regimes in order to introduce students to research that is both meaningful and purposeful for their practice. It embeds purpose and ethicality at the heart of practitioner research.     

Understanding students’ conceptions of sustainability

There has recently been significant emphasis placed on environmental education through, for example, the UN’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Despite this, there is still considerable debate within the literature as to how the aims of environmental education can be achieved within schools. It seems likely that if there is a lack of agreement as to what education for sustainable development should include, then this will impact students’ understanding of sustainable development. This paper presents findings from research investigating how one class of 12‐ to 13‐year‐old geography students in the UK understands the concept of sustainability. The research used concept‐mapping and semi‐structured interviews to explore the students’ understandings of sustainability, within a case study framework. The substantive findings of this research suggest that there is a wide variety of understanding of sustainability among the students, but that generally they allude to three: the nature, purpose and timescale of sustainability. The paper also considers the impact of method on researching students’ subject understandings, in particular the use of context when considering abstract concepts, such as sustainability, and the different results obtained when conducting interviews versus concept maps.     

Participatory concepts of multidisciplinary/professional working on an Early Childhood Studies degree course in the UK

This paper aims to explore democratic values in higher education pedagogies, as related to an Early Childhood Studies (ECS) degree course in an English university. It seeks to find out what constitutes a multi-disciplinary course from both student and tutor perspectives. It is contextualised by the concepts of participation embedded in the idea of multi-professional team work, in order to establish how these ideas could contribute a strong ethical focus to the concept of multidisciplinary study. The study was designed within the paradigm of participatory action research and findings suggest that, although students make links between different disciplinary discourses, tutors feel that their professional identity and knowledge can be constrained by the course structure. The paper suggests that more work needs to be done on the validation of early childhood courses to allow opportunities for multi-professional working to be modelled.     

Teaching Preschoolers to Count: Effective Strategies for Achieving Early Mathematics Milestones

Attention to early childhood mathematics instructional strategies has sharpened due to the relatively poor mathematics performance of U.S. students in comparison to students from other countries and research evidence that early mathematics skills impact later achievement. Early Childhood counting skills form the foundation for subsequent mathematics learning. In this article, we discuss the milestones of counting development and examine preschool classroom mathematics observations through the lenses of two CLASS Dimensions, Concept Development and Instructional Learning Formats. Recommendations for effective instructional strategies around counting and suggestions for incorporating mathematics instruction into storybook reading are provided.     

Evaluation of the sustainable development graduation track at Delft University of Technology

This paper evaluates the sustainable development graduation track at TU Delft. This track can be followed by all students of TU Delft. It consists of an interdisciplinary colloquium ‘Technology in Sustainable Development’, 300 h of self-chosen courses on sustainable development and a graduation project in which sustainable development is integrated. This paper deals with the numbers of students that follow the track, with the results of a questionnaire among the students, and with the jobs students have found after graduation. Our main conclusions are that about 50 students start the sustainable development track each year, which is more than initially intended; that two thirds of the sustainable development graduates completely integrate sustainable development into their graduation project; that the students feel that the sustainable development certificate adds value to their graduation and that many of them find jobs within the sustainable development field.     

Learning with vital materialities: weather assemblage pedagogies in early childhood education

Abstract

Early Childhood Education in general, and Early Childhood Education for Sustainability in particular, have dominantly relied on an ontological framework that privileges children’s agency. This paper challenges this dominant narrative by attuning to the everyday ways in which children are moved by the weather within a multitude of weather assemblages. It attempts to illustrate how ‘learning’ could be achieved when bodies come in relation with, and are able to be affected by, other bodies. Drawing on ideas from post-qualitative research orientation that highlights weather-generated data, the paper elucidates how the weather acts on and comes into relation with humans and non-human bodies. It contends that noticing and engaging with the vitality of weather offers possibilities for creating affects and that this potentially leads to an attunement towards ecological sensibility. Notions such as ‘vital materiality’ and ‘lively assemblages’ are discussed as a possibility to go beyond an anthropocentric understanding of the weather, which could pave the way towards a more relational ontology as a basis for emphasizing human’s ‘inter and intra-dependence’ with non-human nature, and hence, arguably, sustainable living.     

提供高质量学前教育与保育:来自TALIS 2018“强势开端”项目的经验与启示

《提供高质量学前教育与保育:来自TALIS 2018"强势开端"调查》报告于2019年12月发布。经济合作与发展组织对影响儿童学习、发展和福祉的各项因素进行量化,发现各国学前教育发展领域面临的共同挑战:教师学历偏低,相关培训待普及;对儿童基础认知技能的培养重视不够;最迫切的教师专业发展需求领域是"支持特殊需求儿童";教师工作满意度普遍较高,但受社会尊重的程度不够,希望提高工作待遇。通过国际间的比较和借鉴,为加强我国学前教育的师资队伍建设,教育行政部门可适当加大政策调控力度和财政投入,提升学前教育师资队伍的专业性,研制健全的学前教育质量标准,同时构建家庭—幼儿园—社区的学前教育共同体,营造积极的育人环境。     

Exploring knowledge processes based on teacher research in a school–university research network of a master’s program

School–university research networks aim at closer integration of research and practice by means of teacher research. Such practice-oriented research can benefit both schools and universities. This paper reports on a multiple-case study of five participants in a school–university research network in a Dutch master’s program. The research question was: In what way is knowledge based on practice-oriented research by master’s students developed, shared, and used in school–university research networks in which education is primarily offered within a university setting? Twenty interviews were conducted, on the basis of logs, over a period of 10 months. Results show that (1) for master’s students, the most significant motive for developing, sharing or using knowledge was that the content knowledge about their research topic could be useful to school practice and colleagues; (2) research supervisors reported more than master’s students about the procedural knowledge that they had developed and shared. This knowledge focused on the collaborative process of supporting research and knowledge processes in school and university; (3) activities of knowledge sharing and use appeared to depend to a significant extent on individual purposes and leadership initiatives of master’s students and their supervisors; and (4) in the school–university research network, master’s students and research supervisors continued—to a limited extent—knowledge processes based on master’s students research after their graduation. Outcomes indicate that use of existing network structures in master’s programs is complex, but could be a promising avenue for creating successful school–university research networks.     

An interdisciplinary approach to environmental and sustainability education: developing geography students’ understandings of sustainable development using poetry

Education for sustainable development (ESD) persists as an important concept within international policy and yet, despite considerable debate, there remains a lack of consensus as to a pedagogy for ESD in schools. This paper presents findings from a study investigating how an interdisciplinary approach to ESD in England developed one class of 16- and 17-year-old geography students’ understandings of sustainability. The research used students’ drawings of sustainable cities alongside questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to explore their understanding of sustainable development within a constructivist, case study framework. The study found that the use of poetry within a geography lesson developed students’ appreciation of the social and economic dimensions of sustainability, although their focus persisted around the environmental. As such, it is argued that an interdisciplinary approach to ESD encourages students to engage more critically and affectively with the concept of sustainable development, thereby developing a more holistic appreciation of it.     

The development and early care and education of dual language learners: Examining the state of knowledge

Early care and education (ECE) programs, policymakers and practitioners across the United States are facing the reality of the increase in the population of dual language learners (DLLs). To address these children's unique and varied characteristics and experiences, ECE programs find that they must adjust and adapt their efforts. However, there is limited evidence for early childhood strategies to support DLLs and limited understanding of DLLs’ development. There are increased accountability requirements for ECE programs to meet the needs of all children, including DLLs. This special section “The Development and Early Care and Education of Dual Language Learners: Examining the State of Knowledge” includes six articles reporting on the research activities of the Center for Early Care and Education Research – Dual Language Learners (CECER-DLL). The Center was federally funded to advance the research field to improve assessment, child care, and education for DLLs from birth through five years of age. This introduction and commentary discusses the most relevant findings from the set of critical reviews of literature and the secondary analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Birth Cohort conducted by the Center. Also, the major methodological challenges and research gaps found in the literature reviewed, across topic areas, are presented and recommendations for future directions to advance research on the development and early care and education of DLLs are provided.     

Searching for education for sustainable development in Vietnam

Abstract

This article discusses how the purpose of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is reflected within the perception of teachers and educational stakeholders in Vietnam and whether a difference exists between the two respondent groups’ perspectives. Biesta’s three functions of education, qualification, socialization, and subjectification, are considered to be the theoretical outline for analyzing perceptions of the respondents. The empirical material for this analysis consists of interviews in Vietnam with secondary teachers and educational stakeholders. The perspectives of the two groups regarding the purposes of ESD somewhat overlap: central interests in ESD discourse are to qualify students with knowledge, skills, and competences, and to teach them how to behave in sustainable ways. In other words, qualification and socialization, not subjectification, are major concerns of the respondents. This reflection, to some extent, reveals Vietnam’s sustainable development priorities and the role education should play.     

Exploring the role of India’s secondary school compulsory curriculum textbooks in students’ national identity constructions in an overseas school

This study problematises the contribution of India’s school textbooks in students’ national identity constructions in an overseas school in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The textbooks construct students’ national identity on the concepts of India’s secular democracy, colonial resistance and equal citizenship rights. Notwithstanding study participants’ ambivalent identification with these ideals, they mostly express confusing identities evincing religious tendencies, gendered beliefs towards women and antipathy for India’s neighbouring states. This entails implications for India’s national cohesion and students’ ability to live in harmony with other communities in the diasporic setting. It also poses risks to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 2030.     

工作场所学习与绩效:整合教学、研究与咨询的实践领域——访罗纳德·雅各布斯教授

在终身学习理念的影响下,工作场所自然成为学习的重要空间。一般而言,工作场所学习的时间比学校学习的时间还要漫长,因此,对工作场所学习这一研究领域的重要性怎么强调也不为过。个体可以通过工作场所学习实现自我价值、促进其生涯的发展;组织可以通过工作场所学习提升整体的竞争力和实现其持续性发展;当社会的经济和结构处于转型阶段,工作场所学习更成为促进个体和组织适应环境变化和主动创新的重要措施。借在美国学习的机会,笔者访谈了人力资源开发领域的著名学者雅各布斯(Ronald L.Jacobs)博士,他在访谈中论述了多个与人力资源开发专业相关的问题,并认为工作场所学习与绩效咨询是人力资源开发重要的实践领域,他整合了在该领域的教学经验、研究主题和咨询项目,实现了三者的互动和连通,多维度地促进该领域的发展。雅各布斯博士,美国伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,简称UIUC)人力资源开发专业教授,另外还担任该校教育学院国际事务处主任一职,他在各类期刊发表了百余篇论文,出版了六本人力资源开发方面的书籍。1994年,雅各布斯博士获得了由美国培训与开发协会(ASTD)颁发的教学科技研究奖;1995年,人力资源开发学会(AHRD)表彰了他在学术上对人力资源开发领域的卓越贡献。从1998年到2001年,他担任《人力资源开发季刊》(Human Resource Development Quarterly)(SSCI来源期刊,且为人力资源开发领域的主要学术期刊)的主编,现在仍担任该杂志的客座编辑。雅各布斯博士还担任ASTD工作场所学习与绩效(Workplace Learning and Performance)认证机构的顾问委员,并于2012年当选为新一届人力资源开发学会主席。雅各布斯博士早在1987年就提出"结构化在职培训"这一概念,并著有《员工岗位培训手册》(StructuredOn-the-Job Training),该书成为很多人力资源开发实践者和培训师的参考书,且被翻译为简体中文、繁体中文、韩文与阿拉伯文等多种语言,他早期的研究着重于研究结构化在职培训的经济效益,协助组织做出与培训相关的决定。目前,韩国就业及劳动部已在全国范围内实施大规模"结构化在职培训"试行计划,以帮助本国中小型企业提高竞争力。雅各布斯博士在人力资源开发领域整合了系统理论、工作场所学习、绩效咨询等理念,并在ISO10015培训质量标准中完善了绩效分析与投资报酬率等概念。雅各布斯博士曾受邀至荷兰乌特列支大学、台湾师范大学、新加坡南洋理工大学、华东师范大学等高校担任客座教授或特聘教授。他有三十多位博士学生现供职于全球各大学人力资源开发及相关领域的教授。雅各布斯博士多年来积极参与对实践的指导工作,他为许多企业组织与政府机构提供过咨询,包括通用汽车、荷兰航空公司、雅培、现代汽车、希捷、莫顿盐业、科威特国家石油公司、沙特阿拉伯国家石油公司等。雅各布斯博士参与的咨询项目通过开发工作场所绩效系统来满足对员工的能力需求,擅长采用合作研究整合其咨询活动、学术研究和教学为一体。雅各布斯博士喜欢航海、高尔夫,以及他在伊利湖畔别墅的夏日时光。     

Making sense of education ‘responsibly’: findings from a study of student teachers' understanding(s) of education,sustainable development and Education for Sustainable Development

This article discusses findings from a tri‐country study of student teachers' understandings of the purposes of education, their conceptions of sustainable development and the task of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). At its heart are case studies of 30 student teachers from Initial Teacher Education Programmes in England, Denmark and Germany (10 from each country). While they are diverse in their personal, professional and subject disciplinary backgrounds, and they work in a variety of school subject areas, all the students share the objective of becoming members of the teaching profession in the primary or lower secondary schools of their countries, and thus each one currently faces the additional challenge of understanding and responding to national, cross‐cutting policy initiatives on sustainable development and ESD. As interpretative research, the study catalogued and mapped similarities and differences in student teacher understandings, and identified those notions, thoughts and ideas that were meaningful to a beginning teacher's interpretations and sense‐making of key ESD concepts and tasks. The findings highlight the widespread importance of ‘taking responsibility’ and ‘having responsibility’ as key notions in interpreting their professional role and student learning in relation to ESD. An explorative framework developed during the data analysis suggests that in making sense of ESD, student teachers have recourse to one or more of at least four identifiable rationalities for ascribing responsibility to oneself or others, where each rationality articulates a different set of responses to questions about the prioritized locus of agency and the nature of the decision‐making process. The framework offers a critical and generative tool for stimulating debate in the field about policy and professional preparation and development and, in particular, the nature, processes and qualities of learning that are understood to ‘generate a sense of responsibility’, within the broader—and in the case of ESD—related quests of education and sustainable development.