Individual Report: Sustainability in Early Education, Early Years

This individual report focuses on the integration of sustainability into early childhood education, emphasizing the crucial role of the five senses—sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing—in fostering children's understanding of the environment. The report highlights the significance of Early Childhood Education (ECE) in building resilience and equipping children to become informed citizens, aligning with the principles of Education for Sustainability (EfS). It addresses potential challenges like resource availability and urban issues while advocating for interactive learning, curriculum innovation, and the importance of educators in evoking children's senses to connect them with the world. The report discusses the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) for Australia, emphasizing play-based pedagogies, strong educator-child-family relationships, and the need for a transformative approach to environmental education. It suggests practical strategies such as creating shared visions, providing access to natural materials, and encouraging children's active participation to promote sustainable practices and healthy living. The report concludes by emphasizing the interconnectedness of the environment and the importance of daily practices in shaping children's future behaviors, referencing the Australian Curriculum and the positive feedback received on the presentation's approach to linking the five senses with learning content.

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Sustainability in Early Education of Children

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Individual Report
The presentation is focused on inculcating sustainability in education in the early years of
children. As opined by James (2017), children are considered to be most vulnerable to the
impacts of unsustainable practices which can affect their physical and cognitive abilities.
However, early childhood education forms as an important base for building capabilities and
resilience in children that equips them in becoming a better and informed citizen in the future. As
per Walsh (2016), teaching sustainability in the early ages of education will help children to
contribute to the sustainable and healthy ways of living. Education for sustainability is a socially
transformative approach which keeps transitioning for delivering better results. However,
inculcating sustainability may involve certain issues like resource availability, population
growth, urban challenges, ecosystems, environmental degradation and change in ecosystem. All
these issues can potentially discourage the implementation of sustainable practices and creating a
connection between the students with the world. The characteristics of EfS includes problem
solving, critical thinking, democratic decision making, active participation and empowerment
(Australian Government, 2019). In order to teach children the value of the environment around
them, the responsibility lies with the educators to evoke their senses and address the key issues
of sustainability. There are 5 senses around us, i.e., sight, touch, taste, smell and hear which
helps us to understand the environment around us. Nevertheless, these senses must help to create
a connection between the students and the world around them.
There are different approaches applied for bringing significant change in the early
education system for children, but the concepts of EfS have been the most effective building
awareness and knowledge of sustainability among students. Schools and centers will be able to
address changes within their educational system and environment in order to foster

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sustainability. As a part of the major change, curriculum and pedagogy should include interactive
learning and teaching activities that enables children to learn about the importance of
sustainability (Daley & Campbell, 2017). Since children are active learners, it might be easier for
educational institutions to innovate their teaching modules and include sustainable activities. The
surrounding environment of children is also an important factor. Both the physical and social
environment, should facilitate interactive learning from the nature itself. Apart from that, close
ties with families and the surrounding communities, ensure that sustainability is a combined
effort of both education providers and education seekers. Educators must be aware of the fact
that teaching good practices require students to connect with the environment which can be done
by encouraging students to develop a sense of urgency to make a difference. This can of great
importance since the beliefs and opinions children adopt at their early age, helps to shape their
future.
As opined byb Loorbach, Frantzeskaki & Avelino (2017), the change for sustainability
occurs through transformational and systematic processes. However, transformation of the
education system depends on schools and its stakeholders. In the past the emphasis was given to
development of education based learning experiences. There has been changes in the education
system which indicates that the process of change in schools have been slow and ineffective. But
the shift must consider transforming the traditional environmental education into more
interactive systems in Australian schools. The process of such transformative change requires to
understand of sustainability and develop a holistic vision by identifying the gaps and indicators.
In order to transform the potential of EfS in early years of education by considering the mental
and sustainability issues, certain practices can be implemented. The creation of a shared vision of
engaging eco-friendly measures into the sustainable centers can be transformative. This shared

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vision will encourage children and teachers imagine their ideal sustainable centers and how they
can bring innovative measures for sustainability. Capturing the key ideas such as providing
children within an access to a range of natural materials in the environment. Education centers
can acknowledge the use of sustainable practices by showing their commitment towards building
a better future for children. The priority lies in making the surrounding of children more
sustainable such as planting gardens, adopting water and energy conservation methods, and
greening the playgrounds. Children should be allowed to care and learn from the land about such
conservation practices. Teachers must teach children about effective ways to connect to the land
in order to understand why sustainability is important. The active participation of children must
also include the ideas and issues children propose. Such suggestions must be taken from children
on regular basis. Sharing useful information providing children with access to resources about
the environment will help them to understand the impact human activities on environment.
Healthy living practices can be demonstrated by way of projects and interactive sessions the
discuss about practices like washing hands, conserving water, using alternative source of power
and growing plants. Moreover, it is also important to let children feel the world using their 5
senses in knowing the environment, people and situations around them.
In an effort to share information and provide children with access to sustainable practices,
they must be taught about increasing understanding of the interdependence between people, land,
plants and animals. When children show appreciation towards the nature and the environment,
they start responding to the change for a better and healthy future. According to Garbarino
(2017), there is an interconnectivity and dependency of the environment and all living things,
therefore developing awareness the impact of human activities on environment is highly

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important for children. When daily practices are followed, physically and cognitively children
will be able to adapt such good practices and utilize them for the rest of their lives.
The Australian curriculum focuses on creating quality education and care for the children
of Australia. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF) is committed to bring
opportunities for creating mutual respect between early childhood educators and the children to
provide support for children education in the early years (Early Childhood Australia, 2019). The
EYLF mainly focuses on learning and the role of educator in transforming the potential of
sustainability within learning environments. The Australian education system give serious
attention to play based pedagogies and building strong relationships with children and their
families. Children come from diverse backgrounds, the learning experiences shall be given
accordingly. The curriculum of Australia focuses on the learning areas like the content,
achievable standards and the rationale. Connecting the pedagogies with sustainable practices can
open opportunities to get better knowledge, skills understanding of many other learning areas.
Out of school experiences for children maximize their engagement. Therefore it can be
concluded that the collaboration between educators and education leaders in case of facilitating
learning environments, will ensure the education needs of children are valued and met.
According to the feedback of our content in the presentation, it mainly talks about the 5
senses which are linked to the Australian Curriculum and Early Years Learning Framework.
Moreover, we received a good feedback from the tutor for the presentation made on how we
linked the 5 senses to the learning content. The presentation was insightful in terms of learning
about the sustainability principles or the EfS principles which are interconnected with the 5
senses. According to me and my group, we tried to focus mainly on the issues students might
face difficult in understanding in their early ages but we have also addressed the ways educators

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will be able to teach children about sustainability through their curriculum. In conclusion, I feel
that, I and my team members were able to address the necessities in the context of Education For
Sustainability for early school education.

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References
Australian Government. (2019). Early Years Learning Framework. Retrieved from
https://www.education.gov.au/early-years-learning-framework-0
Daley, K. M., & Campbell, S. H. (2017). Integrating simulation-focused pedagogy into
curriculum. Simulation Scenarios for Nursing Educators: Making it Real. 3rd ed. Berlin,
Germany: Springer.
Early Childhood Australia. (2019). Foundations for learning: Relationships between the Early
Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum. Retried from https://cpb-ap-
se2.wpmucdn.com/global2.vic.edu.au/dist/0/30003/files/2013/06/
ECA_ACARA_Foundations_Paper-2cq59mi.pdf
Garbarino, J. (2017). Children and Families in the Social Environment: Modern Applications of
Social Work. 4th ed. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
James, A. (2017). Constructing childhood: Theory, policy and social practice. 4th ed. London,
UK: Macmillan International Higher Education.
Loorbach, D., Frantzeskaki, N., & Avelino, F. (2017). Sustainability transitions research:
transforming science and practice for societal change. Annual Review of Environment
and Resources, 42, 599-626.
Walsh, P. (2016). Early childhood playgrounds: Planning an outside learning environment. 3rd
ed. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.