Environmental sustainability is concerned with how we live now and in the future so that future generations can enjoy the natural resources we have today. It is about safeguarding the natural environment, particularly for the benefit of children who will inherit our environmental, economic and social problems.
Since the 1970s, the UN has held that education plays an important role in contributing towards a sustainable future, which over the years has given rise to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). However, in most countries, ESD has mostly been targeted at older children and adults, and has ignored early childhood education (ECE).
Experts agree that early childhood (that is, children aged up to eight) is the most significant time of human development when the foundation on which the rest of life is built. Research also indicates that good quality ECE can reap significant returns later on in life, both for the individual and for the community. Unesco has also acknowledged that learning in the early years of a person’s life is a solid foundation of sustainability.
For these reasons a new field of education known as Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) has emerged to deal with sustainability issues in ECE. In fact, ECEfS was recognised for the first time in Unesco’s internationally policy documents in 2007.
ECEfS is not another subject to be inserted in an already crammed curriculum but should be incorporated into the daily practices of ECE. Furthermore, ECEfS is not aimed at replacing play and learning experiences that are characteristic of ECE, with those exclusively focused on environmental and sustainability issues. Rather it aims to use these characteristics as building blocks to teach young children about sustainability issues and empower them to act as agents of change for sustainability from an early age, alongside their teachers, families and communities in solving problems, seeking solutions and taking action to make a difference.
Acknowledging that little attention has been paid to ECE’s role in achieving sustainability, in 2014 Unesco declared ECEfS as being an under-resourced, under-researched, under-evaluated and under-theorised field of research.
Children fear that one day nature will be destroyed forever
The little research in the field has been conducted in Australia and New Zealand, Japan, Sweden, Norway and Korea. This has mostly studied the effects of typical centre-based programmes on young children or the effectiveness of ECE teacher education programmes.
A less-explored area of ECEfS is understanding how young children co-construct their knowledge of environmental sustainability in different contexts, such as at home, at school and in their community.
Local research recently conducted by the author did just this. It sought to gather insights into young children’s perceptions of environmental sustainability, and the influences that shaped these perceptions, particularly in the context of family, school and community.
The study included case studies of 12 Maltese children aged three to seven, 10 parents, five teachers and a head teacher. Data were gathered in two Maltese State primary schools and a household.
The findings revealed that children perceived the environment as nature, particularly because they can easily identify with the natural environment. Children expressed ideas about the relationship between humans and the environment when they considered the latter as an asset for human existence.
Perhaps the most striking finding was that children were aware of the potential loss of nature due to human exploitation of natural resources and they articulated their fears that one day nature will be destroyed forever.
Children perceived environmental sustainability as the conservation of natural resources for current and future generations, which is what sustainability is all about. Furthermore, they believed that environmental responsibility was essential to achieve environmental sustainability. The research participants believed that children, adults and the government were all responsible for protecting the natural environment.
Most children listed air pollution and traffic as major issues of concern. Some also discussed basic socio-cultural, political and economic dimensions of environmental sustainability.
The study indicated that children’s perceptions of environmental sustainability start at an early age; were influenced by context; and were socially and culturally constructed. Young children possessed some knowledge of environmental sustainability and could talk about it. In particular, they were able to discuss issues related to environmental sustainability at a basic level by drawing on personal experience.
The study indicated that there needs to be a re-frame in the Maltese education context that will provide young children with ECEfS, the outcomes of which are crucial for the country’s development.
Dr Spiteri graduated with a degree in education from the University of Malta in 1998 and with a masters in intercultural and environmental management of schools from Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, in 2010. On July 1, 2016, she was awarded a Ph.D. in education from the University of Edinburgh. Her thesis, entitled ‘Young children’s perceptions of environmental sustainability: A Maltese perspective’ was supervised by Prof. Pete Higgins, Dr Robbie Nicol and Dr Hamish Ross, and was funded by the Malta Government Scholarship Scheme (MGSS).