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… on Education for Sustainability in practice

The Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Framework offer a starting point for embedding education for sustainability in all education and care services. There are significant opportunities to go further and strongly embed education for sustainability, while aligning with these frameworks. Environmental Education in Early Childhood (EEEC), established in Victoria in 1992, was the first Australian network. Other state-based organisations followed suit, and these now form an Australia-wide Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) Alliance. This work offers a sound basis for progressing UNESCO’s (2017) Sustainable Development Goals, and supporting children, families and the community in enacting global change for sustainable futures.

This week, spend a minute on learning how you can embed Education for Sustainability in practice.

1. Children as agents of change by Julie Gaul from NSW Early Childhood Environmental Education Network (NSW ECEEN)

Through Education for Sustainability, children can be supported in becoming agents of change within their communities. Julie Gaul from NSW ECEEN shares a story of an early learning service that found its local beach covered in litter from across the harbour. The children had connected with a stretch of the beach as their ‘place’, and insisted on cleaning it up. The educators, inspired by the children’s decisiveness, consulted with the families and together they embraced the issue. The children became agents of transformation, and a story of change unfolded.

Deb Watson and Julie Gaul from NSW ECEEN unpack education for sustainability further in the ECA Learning Hub online module ‘Education for Sustainability’.

ACECQA has a list of additional resources to support further thinking about caring for the environment and teaching children to become environmentally responsible. Click here to read the full list.

2. Sustainability for reconciliation by Jennifer Pearson from Little Green Steps Western Australia (LGSWA)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have a strong history of effective land management and sustainable living practices. Collaborating meaningfully with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples provides a further lens to global sustainability. In Western Australia, Little Green Steps WA collaborated with Noongar Elder, Leonard Thorn, to develop a workshop experience for educators. The workshops have offered an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lens to understanding global sustainability.

Preschool teacher and educational leader Adam Duncan shares his thoughts on how educators can achieve change towards reconciliation in this article on ECA's blog, The Spoke.

Also explore Bruce Pascoe’s book, Dark Emu, an evidence-based, non-fiction novel that challenges the ‘accepted’ hunter-gatherer lifestyle of pre-colonial Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Now available from the Early Childhood Australia shop.

3. Wiser consumption by Kaarin Wilkinson and Jillian King from Early Education for Sustainability South Australia Inc.

Consume less, waste less and enjoy life more! In Australia, OzHarvest reports that, on average, the contents of one in five shopping bags per supermarket shop are disposed of unconsumed. Spend a minute on thinking about this with your team and families. How can you effectively consume what you purchase, waste less and enjoy more?

Worm farms are commonplace in early childhood settings, and offer a unique learning opportunity about organic waste and recycling, as well as the biology of earthworms.
Woolworths, Coles and REDcycle have partnered to recycle soft plastic items such as bread bags, plastic bags and packaging.

Closer to home, at the Early Childhood Australia National Office, we recently went through a recycling and sustainability refresh, and worked with our local ACT government to install a six-stream recycling initiative. It includes providing all food scraps to an industrial composter, and an education program on how and what to recycle.

To explore more ways to embed sustainable practices, view ECA’s online learning webinar, ‘Early childhood education for sustainability: Now or never, a time for urgent change’ by Dr Sue Elliott. Also consider the impacts of ‘food play’ in this Every Child article, free to read online.

4. Access further support through your local sustainability organisation

Australia is unique in that it has professional organisations dedicated to education for sustainability in the early childhood years. These organisations or networks can provide professional learning, support educators in practical ways, promote research and innovation, host awards for excellence in sustainability practice, liaise with peak bodies and much more.

•   Early Education for Sustainability SA (EESSA)
•   Environmental Education in Early Childhood (EEEC Vic. Inc)
•   Queensland Early Childhood Sustainability Network (QECSN)
•   Little Green Steps WA (LGSWA)
•   NSW Early Childhood Environmental Education Network (NSW ECEEN)
•   Early Childhood Educators of Tasmania–South

Early Childhood Australia would like to thank the representatives from each of these organisations for working with us on developing the content for this newsletter.

Reference:
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2017). Education for sustainable development goals: Learning objectives. Paris, France: UNESCO. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000247444/PDF/247444eng.pdf.multi.