Children's empowered inclusion in early childhood education for sustainability

• This chapter discusses the recognition of children as citizens in education for sustainability in an early childhood education context. A crucial question is, how can the space for children's self-empowerment be expanded and their concerns become part of their education? As climate change is one of the current challenges to humanity, the presence of sustainability perspectives in education becomes most urgent – and the voices of children are needed to be included as they are the citizens of the world. Education for sustainability opens the way for emphasis on children's democratic rights, specifically their right to influence their education, their daily lives, and their preschool activities.To facilitate the development of practices where children's self-empowerment is recognized, the authors review the Swedish curriculum for preschool Lpfö 2018 and current international research on educating for sustainability in early childhood. The concept "empowered inclusion" guides the analysis. Empowered inclusion signifies the process whereby children's self-empowerment needs the recognition of others, which may be viewed as a challenge to curricula and teachers. The related concept, "deep interdependency," points to how human beings are globally linked with both one another and Earth.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogiskt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogical Work (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Empowered inclusion

children's rights

preschool

democracy

citizenship

sustainability

Barns rättigheter

Lpfö 2018

demokrati

hållbarhet

inkludering

pedagogiskt arbete

educational work

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)