Abstract
This article showcases a creative approach to early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS). It reports on the author's doctoral research program, which examined the effectiveness of arts-based pedagogies for exploring and understanding the natural world in an early childhood education program. Motivated by their existing commitment to education for sustainability (EfS), the participating educators used the arts for further exploration and understanding of the natural world in teaching and learning. They explored the role of the arts in knowledge production and embodied experience, and reinterpreted and built on their own funds of knowledge about their environment. The result was meaningful curriculum steeped in content about the natural environments that were local to the children and their educators. The findings further signify the challenges educators needed to overcome in order to intensify their connection with their own local environments, and the effect that this enhanced connection had on their capacity to reflect local natural environments in their programs with the children.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 165-181 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Australian Journal of Environmental Education |
Volume | 29 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Dec 2013 |
Keywords
- arts-based pedagogies
- early childhood education
- natural learning
- sustainability
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- General Environmental Science