Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco

mal and non-formal education and early childhood education wereable to reach general recommendations for ESD. At this workshopit was recognized that ESD is a question of life-long learning thathas to begin in the early years. Furthermore, the Mid-Term Reviewof the DESD held in Bonn, 2009, recognized that early childhoodeducation had not been taken into consideration when reviewingwhat had been done in this field. 6The Organisation Mondiale pour l’Éducation Préscolare (OMEP)was founded in 1948 as a professional non-governmental organizationfor early childhood education and peace education, but itsmission and action plan is now devoted to ESD in early years. OMEPhas produced a special issue on research in ESD and early childhoodin the International Journal of Early Childhood (2009). 7 An internationalinterview study based on OMEP’s motto (‘World Congress2010: Children – citizens in a challenged world’), is currently underway in more than 30 countries, which means that about 9,000 childrenfrom all over the world are involved.A new world project based on activities with children involvingsome of the notions of the 7Rs (see below) will take place withinOMEP next year and we believe it will provide many examples ofgood practice. A simple introduction to the field has, in fact, alreadybeen published in a small booklet for early childhood staff. 8Work with preschool children in the area of ESDWhat does it mean then, to work with young children in the area ofESD? One approach is based on a number of notions (7Rs) that thepractitioner is supposed to put into practice with young children.The 7Rs are: respect, reflect, reduce, reuse, repair, recycleand responsibility. ‘Reduce’ is about reducing the consumptionof food, materials and resources such as water, paper andplastic. This may include working with parents on the problemof children’s exposure to advertisements promoting endlessconsumption. ‘Reuse’ is about showing children that materialscan be reused for different purposes in preschool and at home.‘Recycling’ can be encouraged by asking children to bring recyclablematerials to school and integrating them into a range ofactivities. ‘Repair’ can be to take care of broken toys and otherobjects and repair them. ‘Respect’ is about nurturing understandingof and respect for nature and natural processes, andreducing the extent to which they are violated in many ways.‘Responsibility’ can be to trust children to take care of somethingor be able to do something they can feel proud of; and ‘reflect’ isa habit and skill everybody will benefit from in working towardssustainability.All these notions are easily recognized in everyday life withchildren. A lot of these things are carried out as part of preschoolpractice in many classrooms, for example, recycling. But it is notenough to simply do it; we also have to focus on communicationand interaction to make children aware of how actions are related toa sustainable world, on a level they can make sense of.Another example is work on the theme ‘life’, carried out with childrenranging from four to six years of age in a Swedish preschool.The theme of nature that children and teachers consideredinitially was “What is life?” The focus then moved towards hensand chickens, and the children asked, for example: “Why are therechickens in some eggs, but not in others?” They also asked howlife could begin in a chicken. To find out about this, they decidedto read books about it and ask someone they thought would knowabout this phenomenon. Many questions were posed by the chil-dren, such as: “Where does life come from?”, “Whyare eggs different from each other?”, “Can a babychicken have chickens?” and “Does the egg comeout the same way as poo?” They also asked about thechickens’ everyday life: “Can they go out?”, “Can theyfly?” and “How can they find the worms?”From their own questions and from what theylearned from their examinations, the children soonrealised that chickens may live under a variety ofcircumstances. They found that many of them live insmall, narrow cages without a place to sit, and haveto stay indoors all their lives. The children wanted toknow where the eggs they usually eat at school camefrom. When they were told that they came from chickensthat were kept in small cages and unable to gooutdoors, they got very upset. They decided to stopeating eggs. Together with their teachers, they went tothe people responsible for the school’s purchases withtheir protests and complaints about the way the chickensproducing the eggs were treated. Their protest ledto changes in the municipal authorities’ and parents’purchasing habits – they started to buy ecological eggsfrom a place where the chickens could go out and livea good life 8 .Above we have an example of how children cantake part in a search for knowledge that is related tonature, economy and social aspects of learning forsustainable development. Lifestyle has to do withwhat kind of eggs you buy, which is closely relatedto values. But it is also related to the economy, asorganic eggs are more expensive, which may lead“What is life?” Preschool project, Värmdö, SwedenImage: Göteborgs universitet[ 184 ]