International organizations – including UNESCO – emphasize the importance of introducing education for sustainable development during the early childhood years. Observational research on how this is done, however, is limited. This study addressed this gap in the literature by analyzing preschool teachers' interactions with children about sustainable development, which is generally understood as meeting ''the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.'' Best practices in early childhood education for sustainable development call for an approach that fosters young children's ability to act as agents of change in their families and communities.
Researchers accessed over 600 video clips of teachers' conversations with children in Singapore Kindergarten 1 classrooms. Forty-nine of the video clips included interactions focusing on “Discovery of the World” curricular area. Eight of these related directly to sustainability and were transcribed verbatim. Four of the eight were identified as "representative conversations" and were analyzed for this study. Two were “planned conversations,” meaning they were planned and enacted by the teacher with a clear pedagogical objective in mind. The other two were “Incidental conversations" arising from unplanned events or spontaneous comments made by the children or the teacher. The qualitative analysis of the four interactions focused on strengths and weaknesses of the strategies used by the teachers in relation to early childhood education for sustainability.
Strengths of the interactions between teachers and students included instances of teachers building upon children's experiences and providing real-life examples related to sustainability. Most of the questions asked by the teachers, however, had predetermined versus open-ended responses. This form of questioning gives children little opportunity to share their own ideas or arrive at their own conclusions. This approach reflects a greater interest in transmitting knowledge versus constructing knowledge. These findings about the strengths and weaknesses of the teacher-student interactions applied to both the planned and incidental conversations. These findings are consistent with other studies indicating that Asian preschool educators tend to deliver explicit instruction and train children to follow rules. A concern expressed by the authors relates to the fact that the traditional interaction patterns observed in this study do not allow teachers to fully hear children's voices. The didactic approach is also inconsistent with the ''Nurturing Early Learners'' curriculum framework designed by Singapore's Ministry of Education.
This study raises awareness of the need for more conversational versus didactic approaches to early childhood education for sustainability. Children need increased opportunities to voice their ideas about sustainability issues. Authentic discussions about sustainability are more likely to foster deeper and more meaningful learning processes than didactic instruction. Giving children a voice in matters of sustainability can empower them for decision-making and subsequent action-taking for a more sustainable future.
This study adds to the limited classroom-based research literature on education for sustainable development and provides important implications for enhancing early childhood education for sustainability.
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