Sustainability education in early childhood: Preschool teachers´perceptions and approaches in nurturing sustainability education practises

Abstract: Aim: This study aims to examine early childhood teachers’ perceptions of Education for Sustainable Development as well as their pedagogical approaches for nurturing sustainability in Swedish preschools, and how their perceptions of ESD relate to their teaching strategies in nurturing sustainability education. Theory: Lev Vygotsky’s social constructivism emphasizes the significance of language and thought, social interaction, zone of proximal development, scaffolding, mediation, and collaborative work in learning. According to Vygotsky (1978), knowledge is constructed through interaction with others (Powell & Kalina, 2009). These concepts and principles establish the framework for examining Swedish preschool teachers’ perceptions of ESD experiences with young pre-schoolers, and teaching approaches they are using in nurturing sustainability as well as how their perceptions of ESD relate to their teaching approaches. Method: A phenomenological qualitative research approach was used to guide the methods used in this study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews from preschool teachers and were analyzed by employing thematic content analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Results: One overall finding of the study is that teachers are familiar with Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) concept, and they use it as part of their regular educational teaching on daily basis. Six themes emerged in the teachers’ perceptions of SD/ESD: SD as environmental responsibility; SD/ESD as an integration of environmental, social, and economic issues; SD as a means of minimizing carbon footprint; ESD as a lifelong process; ESD as a source of environmental awareness and behaviours; and ESD as skilled-based education to maintain life for future generation, and the approaches they reported involved seven thematic areas which involve different teaching practices, namely, taking children outdoors; scaffolding; hands-on participatory activities; collaborative teaching and group activities; play; engagement of children in close and larger community contexts; and making use of Swedish preschool curriculum. This study illuminates the results on the relations between the teachers’ understanding and their approaches to promoting ESD. The teachers are unable to relate their understanding of ESD as integration of environment, social, and economic dimensions to their teaching approaches. As a result, this study concludes that teachers can establish better connections between their understanding to their teaching practices. Thus, there is a need to widen their knowledge of the three dimensions of ESD so that the interconnectedness of these can be understood to ensure the effective incorporation of ESD into their teaching practices in preschools.