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This study examines five preschool teachers' narratives about using the outdoor environment as a pedagogical resource for children's play, learning and experiences in Swedish preschools. Participants were asked to reflect on both opportunities and challenges in outdoor play and learning. The present study responds to the need for further research on how the outdoor environment is used in daily pedagogical practice through the lens of preschool teachers' own descriptions. The study is built on interpretive qualitative research, a form of narrative inquiry that uses concepts such as place and didactic sensitivity in the analysis. The findings show how the participants highlight many opportunities for children to engage in play and learning activities in the outdoor environment. The importance of educators' involvement and pedagogical commitment is also emphasised. However, constraints related to lack of variation, access, and teacher commitment are clearly identified as hindering the use of the outdoor environment as a pedagogical resource.

This book presents an historical and contemporary overview of Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS). It is written by pioneering Australian and Swedish researchers and includes commentary from other key academics in the field. It traces ECEfS from its 1980’s origins through to contemporary shifts in policy, theory and practice, and considers significant learnings and future directions. It frames this rich and diverse history through changes in thinking about children, educators, nature/environment dualities and sustainability, and how (re)conceptualisations might further advance ECEfS. This book offers fresh perspectives on how sustainability and climate change can be positively addressed with, by, and for our youngest citizens, especially in times of increasing uncertainty, destabilisation, and urgency for action. 

Background. We are living in challenging times, with an urgent need for transformation that requires new and sustainable ways of living. Young children are exposed to these global challenges. This study responds to the need for further understanding of how education for sustainability (EfS) is being handled in early childhood education (ECE).

Objective. This study investigated ECE teachers in the process of implementing early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS). This was initiated by the 2019 revised Swedish National Curriculum for the preschool, where education for sustainable development is included as an overall value and objective. We based our work on a critical and transformative theoretical perspective that highlights the need for critical transformative pedagogies, with a focus on Education for Sustainability. The participating teachers were enrolled in a research and development program initiated by the Swedish institute Ifous.

Design. The data presented in this article was obtained in May 2021. An initial questionnaire was emailed to all Ifous participants. One hundred fifty-three teachers (76.5%) responded. The intention of the questionnaire was twofold: first, to investigate what the teachers considered to be education for sustainability in ECE; and second, to scrutinize the teachers’ knowledge base, for the further planning of the research and development program. Content analysis was used to analyze the data.

Results. The findings of the study showed a tendency to describe education for sustainability as “business-as-usual” rather than treating EfS as a new field, and to contend that the teachers addressed EfS before it became a compulsory task in 2019. There were few connections made to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015) and to the ongoing pandemic. A common trend when describing the content and activities was to divide the content into three areas, following the three dimensions of sustainability. The teachers described the physical changes and pedagogical changes made after the revision of the national curriculum. Most of the changes in the school environment seemed to be a result of priorities set at higher levels in the organizations, e.g., deleting toxic plastic and recycling food waste. Only a few of the teachers described an educational program that included transformative change.

Conclusion. The teachers in the study were interested in EfS, and some articulated a longing for more knowledge about ECEfS and for transformative change. The teachers also showed the need for courage and professionalism to lead the way in finding the relevant content and activities for EfS. The teachers were struggling to find new ways to meet the demands from the governing documents especially during a planetary crisis.

One of a preschool teacher’s most important competencies is to be able to talk with children and to invite them to share their ideas, knowledge, and experiences. This skill is of utmost importance within Early Childhood Education for sustainability. The aim of this article is to show various ways in which preschool teachers carry out systematic talks with children. Data come from a large Swedish development and research project, Sustainable Preschool, involving around 200 teachers in Early Childhood Education. During the spring of 2022, the preschools carried out theme-oriented projects linked to sustainable development. The participating preschool teachers were then asked to carry out systematic child talks with children about learning for sustainability and their understanding of the sustainability-related content. Using content analysis, three different approaches were identified as to how teachers communicate with children systematically about various content related to sustainability: (1) joint creation of meaning, (2) question and answer, focusing on remembering facts, and (3) following the children. There is a large variation in the teachers’ communicative competences. A key factor seems to be to create a shared inter-subjective atmosphere, while at the same time being open for alterity, that is, introducing new or slightly changed perspectives for the dialogue to deepen and continue. 

The Swedish preschools offer full-day programmes for children aged from 1-6 years. They have a long tradition of outdoor education and a curriculum that specifi es goals concerning the environment, the nature and democratic values. The national curriculum especially stresses the importance of children’s infl uence in the daily activities and the task to promote gender equity for girls and boys, and for their teachers. In this article, we will fi rst describe the specifi c task for Swedish pre-schools, as it is stated in the national curriculum. Then we will describe a theme-based project about life, hens and eggs from Långvik’s preschool outside Stockholm, Sweden, and a research project with a gender perspective on outdoor education from Mälardalen University. Finally, we point out the very important role that teachers play, and thus suggest reformed teacher education programmes incorporating questions linked to education for sustainable development and to the importance of children’s infl uence and participation.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to undertake a cross-comparative inquiry into Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) related to governance, initiatives and practices in initial teacher education (ITE) across four countries with very different contexts - Sweden, Scotland, Canada and Australia. It provides insights into issues arising internationally, implications for ESD in ITE and offers learnings for other countries and contexts. Design/methodology/approach A cross-comparative study design with overarching themes and within-case descriptions was applied to consider, compare and contrast governance characteristics, initiatives and practices from each context. Findings The approaches to governance, initiatives and practices that each country adopts are unique yet similar, and all four countries have included ESD in ITE to some extent. Comparing and contrasting approaches has revealed learnings focussed on ESD in relation to governance and regulation, practices and leadership. Research limitations/implications Making comparisons between different contexts is difficult and uncertain and often misses the richness and nuances of the individual sites under study. However, it remains an important endeavour as the challenges of embedding ESD in ITE will be better understood and overcome if countries can learn from one another. Originality/value Scrutinising different approaches is valuable for broadening views about possibilities and understanding how policies and initiatives translate in practice.

Early childhood institutions (hereafter Swedish preschools) can be understood as places and spaces where the cultural, social and physical worlds intersect in educational practices. In this chapter preschools are seen as practices that play an important part in shaping children's identities and offering them possibilities for learning. In this chapter we will present a small scale study with an explorative approach of indoor environments at ten preschools from different parts of Sweden inspired by Birkeland's (2012) study in which artefacts displayed on the walls in preschools in Norway and China were analyzed. The material in this study is constructed from photographs accompanied by short descriptions of the indoor environment. The photographs were taken by preschool teachers from different preschools. The photographs were analyzed similar to texts of indoor environments that tell narratives where children are represented, categorized and positioned in certain ways. Additionally they speak of how a good childhood is constructed in preschool and in what ways gender and age - explicitly or implicitly - inform the preschool practices. This study shows the necessity to recognize the complexity of the institutional educational practices and highlights how critical theoretical studies and analytical concepts such as place and space have the potential to elucidate hidden structures of positions and meanings. 

The aim is to deepen the knowledge of preschool teacher students’ constructions of a future professional identity in reflection texts and the dilemmas that emerge in relation to a changed educational context for preschool. 40 reflection texts have been analyzed based on teachers’ personal interpretative framework (Keltchermans, 2009). The result shows that professional self-understanding is expressed in the form of a democratic role model with relational skills who work for different content with the child in the center, anchored in the democratic mission. Based on policy documents, previous experiences and pedagogical theories, subjective educational theories are expressed. An implicit dilemma is how the democratic role model is described in terms of actions that are characterized by instruction and adult control. An explicitly expressed dilemma concerns the limitations of the framework factors for pedagogical choices. At the same time, the frame factors are understood to form the basis for reflective actions that respond to the changing conditions of preschool.

Research in the field of education and teaching for sustainability in preschool has highlighted the importance of communication for knowledge development in the field of sustainability. This article presents a study of the variations that appear in preschool teachers' perceptions of the importance and the experience of having carried out systematic child talks in preschool. The experience is covered by 60 written comments from preschool teachers after they, within a research and development program (R&D program) in the spring of 2022, conducted systematic child talks in the children's groups where they are working. The data has been analysed based on a phenomenographic theoretical perspective. The result of the analysis shows that in the preschool teachers' perceptions of carrying out systematic talks with children, four varying perceptions emerge: Becoming aware of one's own actions; Exciting and educational to discuss with the children about sustainability; Talking with children was difficult;and,Sharing children's thoughts and experiences was the retention. In the preschool teachers' comments, it appears that some of them, through the systematic child talks, have deepened their reflection and their awareness of talking with the children about aspects of sustainability. At the same time, several difficulties are highlighted regarding the task itself and how to ask questions and maintaining children's interest during the talks. Finally, the study indicates that systematic child talks as a method and workingtool are not common in preschool, as several preschool teachers point out that they do not talk to the children in this way in everyday life.

This article shares what Swedish preschool teachers are working with in the field of early childhood education for sustainable development (ESD) as e, merged in talks with their children, aged two to five years. The tasks carried out as the basis for the present analyses were informal child talks about a topic related to sustainability that the teachers and children had worked with in practice. The teachers themselves chose what content to talk about. The 200 teachers participated in the Swedish research and development programme Sustainable Preschool. The aim of the present study was to make visible the content of teacher-child talks about sustainable development in early childhood education. The research question is: What content areas do teachers communicate about with children 2-5 years of age related to ESD? The teacher-child talks were initiated by the teachers, but through the use of interpretative content analysis the children’s voices were also made visible. The main result is narratives about the content, the most common topics being recycling, growing plants, and animals, areas which have long been common topics in Swedish preschools. For many preschools, however, the talks show an integration of transformative and transactional perspectives in how the content was handled together with the children. ESD in early education in Sweden is no longer dominated by the environmental dimension, as earlier content studies have shown; a new common content relates to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7 regarding sustainable lifestyles and human rights and sustainability is a long process, founded in empowerment, action competence, and changed policy.

In Sweden, early childhood education is unique in its combination of learning and play, care and fostering fundamental values. The aim of this article is to discuss and problematise current Swedish research from the early childhood education field with a focus on play and learning in relation to three fundamental values affirmed in the Swedish National Curriculum. These values are children’s rights, gender equity, and education for sustainable development

Workplace-based learning experiences are integral to early childhood teacher education. In Sweden, the objectives of early childhood teacher education programmes require students to develop knowledge and skills about Education for Sustainability (EfS), in accordance with national policy documents. This includes how to work with EfS in everyday practice. The aim of this qualitative study was to critically analyse how pre-service teachers describe their work-place encounters with EfS, including dilemmas observed in practice and divergences in interpretation of EfS. The empirical data comprised 76 blogs (188 pages of text) written by pre-service teachers as a requirement for a university course report about EfS in early childhood education. A document analysis was employed to critically examine the blogs through a reflexive interpretive process. The findings were revealing of both the students’ meaning-making processes and their workplace supervisors’ understandings of EfS. The findings depict different cultures of ‘doing’ EfS in early childhood settings, reflecting pluralistic and divergent landscapes of understandings as well as an absence of transformative whole-institution approaches in the implementation of EfS.