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Childhood Education and Sustainable Society
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Childhood Education and Sustainable Society

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (13 April 2023) | Viewed by 8211

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Ana Isabel Santos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
NICA - Interdisciplinary Centre for Childhood and Adolescence; Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of the Azores, 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Portugal
Interests: early childhood education; basic education; education for sustainability; literacy
Prof. Dr. Cristina Mesquita

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Center in Basic Education, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, 5300-253 Bragança, Portugal
Interests: pedagogy-based on rights; early childhood education; teacher education; basic education

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce a new Special Issue, entitled “Childhood Education and Sustainable Society”, in the journal Sustainability.

The shift from a consumer society to a sustainable society should be increasingly fostered through educational practices that raise awareness from early childhood. Especially when we talk about younger children, it is important to consolidate the way sustainability is seen and addressed in childhood education, the implications for the development of educational practices more in line with this new reality, and the benefits of such practices for the well-being of societies and future generations. Considering that the behavior, attitudes, and values developed in the early years of life have a lasting impact on children, it is essential to invest in early childhood education for the formation of citizens who are more aware, responsible, and committed to sustainable development.

In this sense, this Special Issue of Sustainability invites you to submit original research articles and reviews, and other manuscripts that reveal good practices and research in education for sustainable development related to childhood education, covering various educational, pedagogical, social, cultural and/or political aspects.

Prof. Dr. Ana Isabel Santos
Prof. Dr. Cristina Mesquita
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • education for sustainable development
  • early childhood education
  • sustainable society
  • pedagogical practices
  • curriculum for sustainability education
  • children's representations of sustainability
  • educational policies for sustainability

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 317 KiB  
Article
Child-Centered Approach through Slow Education Principles: A View to Child Personality Development in Early Childhood
by Horațiu Catalano, Ion Albulescu, Cristian Stan, Gabriela Mestic and Anca Ani-Rus
Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 8611; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118611 - 25 May 2023
Viewed by 4323
Abstract
We are preoccupied with early childhood education policies at the international level in general, but in particular with early childhood education in Romania. Therefore, the research direction of our study focuses on how early education teachers can integrate the principles of slow education [...] Read more.
We are preoccupied with early childhood education policies at the international level in general, but in particular with early childhood education in Romania. Therefore, the research direction of our study focuses on how early education teachers can integrate the principles of slow education into the development of child-centered competence. The formation and development of the child’s early ontogeny personality occur at the natural pace of development and learning rather than in an accelerated manner. While preparing for the research, we reviewed relevant articles circumscribed to the same topic: slow, child-centered education, deep learning, constructivism, and the enthusiasm of children and teachers. Most of them conclude that the use of child-centered competence in early childhood significantly contributes to slow education principles and characteristics. At the same time, the research aims to provide quantitatively and qualitatively validated arguments for verifying the incidence of child-centered competence from the perspective of sustainable education, in connection with the constructivist orientation of the teachers. Our research included a group of 376 teachers selected from early childhood education institutions in the North-West of Romania, all of them with initial preparation in the field. Using the focus group method, we identified differences in the perception of the two paradigms (child-centeredness and slow pedagogy), the link between these two, and the connection with the constructivist orientation. At the same time, we intended to identify the degree of continuous professional development training according to these paradigms that are not studied and practiced together in early education in Romania, because only the child-centeredness principle is mentioned in the initial teacher training. Therefore, in-service training activities were conducted and they were focused on facilitating and raising awareness of the value of using child-centered competence and the principles of slow education among training participants. At the end of the program, through the quantitative method—the survey—we concluded that the activities included in the training program led to a significant increase in the teachers’ capacity to appreciate the natural pace of development and learning of children to such an extent that the participants themselves adopted the promotion of sustainable slow education in a dynamic society. The methods used helped us deduce that all teachers with a constructivist orientation improved their child-centered competence, and teachers who gave children the freedom to choose activities from the proposed educational offers, according to their needs, interests, and potential, identified the development of the ability to consider children’s natural pace of development and learning as a result of the training. In conclusion, our research complements the literature, proposing a new and useful perspective to approach early childhood education practices by respecting the child’s natural pace of development and learning, which provides a suitable context for promoting international sustainable educational policies. We encourage teachers around the world to reflect on an important issue in the holistic development of the child—if faster means better—in the race to performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Childhood Education and Sustainable Society)
20 pages, 2153 KiB  
Article
Early Childhood Educators’ Practices in Education for Sustainable Development in China: Evidence from Shandong Province
by Chen Cheng and Yongping Yu
Sustainability 2022, 14(4), 2019; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042019 - 10 Feb 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2643
Abstract
Educators can drive educational change and enable children’s learning for sustainable development. Early childhood education is an important component of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and analyzing early childhood educators’ ESD practices can help advance the implementation and realization of ESD. However, the [...] Read more.
Educators can drive educational change and enable children’s learning for sustainable development. Early childhood education is an important component of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and analyzing early childhood educators’ ESD practices can help advance the implementation and realization of ESD. However, the existing overseas studies’ survey instruments do not systematically reflect the basic ideas of ESD. Furthermore, few studies have explored early childhood educators’ ESD practices in China. Therefore, this study established a newly developed and validated instrument, the Early Childhood Educators’ Education for Sustainable Development Practices Scale (ECEESDPS), to assess early childhood educators’ ESD practices. We randomly surveyed 7287 early childhood educators from Shandong Province. The psychometric properties show that the ECEESDPS is a reliable and valid scale that contains four constructs: Values, Content, Competency, and Implementation. The descriptive statistics revealed that educators scored relatively higher for the Values and Implementation constructs, and lower for the Content and Competency constructs. These results suggest that early childhood educators’ ESD practices are generally positive, which correlates with the theoretical background and policies of early childhood education in China. We provide implications for policy development and practical improvement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Childhood Education and Sustainable Society)
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