Young Children and the Environment Early Education for Sustainability

Editor’s note

Here, Robert Pratt presents a new chapter based on his work in ECEfS at Kenmore West Kindergarten, Brisbane, Australia. Building on the philosophy, ideas and practices that underpinned his work at Campus Kindergarten (see Chapter 4 of the first edition) Rob translates and extends these into another early childhood setting. He shares just a small part of the extensive repertoire of day-to-day teaching ideas and strategies that make the work at Kenmore West Kindergarten successful. As outlined in this chapter, the foci of the teaching and learning are management, eco-friendly resource choices, and community and nature connections, including embedding Indigenous perspectives into the learning environment. It is important to note that Rob and his colleagues were working with EfS concepts and practices long before the current Australian Curriculum and quality initiatives were introduced. Their work was exemplary then, and today continues to set a benchmark for high-quality ECEfS in Australia and internationally.

At the heart of Rob’s approach is a commitment to the health and integrity of natural environments and to children’s right to a sustainable future. Hence, engaging children in learning about complex sustainability issues and topics is central to this work, where children are seen as competent and capable learners well able to solve problems and take actions to deal with environmental and sustainability issues of relevance to their lives.