Being Planet-positive - How Building Self-regulation in Early Years Supports Understanding of Sustainability Issues.

Self-regulation (SR) is a term and way of supporting children’s emotional wellbeing and learning ability that remains to be meaningfully embedded in early childhood education and care (ECEC). With over 447 definitions globally (Shanker, et al., 2015), it can understandably be difficult to make sense of this life-essential set of skills. To be clear, SR is not self-control, nor is it compliance – as the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) frontloads. At its core, being able to self-regulate means that children are able to manage their thoughts, feelings and behaviour (Birth to Five Matters, 2021; Shanker, 2020; Bronson, 2000). It is about how children are nurtured and responded to, particularly in times of distress; how they take care of one another and beyond this – how they take care of their environment and the planet. The case study presents an excellent example of sustainability in practice via prioritising children’s SR skills, which is illustrated below in the theoretical model, Making the Macro, Micro – Achieving Sustainability Through Self-regulation.

Predominantly drawing on Pascal's 21st century global challenges of Participation, Power, Peace,  Planet, Play and Technology (five Ps and a T) (2021), Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory (1989) and Vygotsky's co-constructivist and sociocultural and theories (1978), this presentation will report on the findings from a small-scale research study carried out with the owner and manager of a nursery which caters for 19 children in rural England. The presentation will explain how she and her team (of four staff) prioritise SR in all they do, with children’s learning predominantly taking place naturally through their experiences and interactions with their world – with emphasis on their role as citizens with rights and responsibilities, which is a 21st century imperative. Their provision runs contrary to outcomes-driven, top-down prescriptive agendas, which tend to compartmentalise the learning experience into formal subjects. Instead, these children are encouraged to engage with nature as the main vehicle through which to learn about themselves and their world. This research study is timely and important in its focus. With the world teetering ever closer to crisis, it is vital that we focus on the three Rs in nurturing children’s ability to withstand and overcome the challenges, while contributing to the protection of their world. Therefore, nurturing the following three overarching characteristics in children were evident as part of this planet positive approach to SR-informed practice:

·       Respect

·       Resilience

·       Resourcefulness.

Attendees can expect to find out more about what this practice looks like on a daily basis, as well as the underpinning SR-informed policies and practice that this setting utilises as a result of my training on SR, which are not only having a transformative impact on how practitioners understand and support children's emotions and behaviour, but how staff and children are consequently equipped to co-construct ways of treating the environment that are more sustainable.

The implications of this study are clear - all EY settings would benefit by making the move to SR-informed policies and provision: not only to better nurture children's emergent SR, but also for the protection of the planet.

Dr Mine Conkbayir specialises in neuroscience. An award-winning author, lecturer, trainer and researcher, she is passionate about bridging the knowledge gap between neuroscience and Early Years. As part of this endeavour, she designed the first Neuroscience in Early Years qualifications and accompanying textbooks and her latest book on the subject is now in its second edition. Mine regularly delivers training on behalf of local authorities and fostering organisations, as well as various Early Years providers in achieving self-regulation informed practice, as well as being a key contributor to the development of the Birth to Five Matters non-statutory guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage, on the subject of self-regulation. Her new books concerning self-regulation and adverse childhood experiences will be published later this year.

Dr Mine Conkbayir on Twitter: @MineEYMind

Website: https://mineconkbayir.co.uk/

LinkedIn: Dr Mine Conkbayir

References:

Early Years Coalition (2021). Birth to Five Matters, Non-statutory guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage. St Albans: Early Education.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1989). Ecological systems theory. Annals of child development, 6, 187-249.

Bronson, M. B. (2000). Self-regulation in Early Childhood. New York and London: The Guilford Press.

Burman, J. T., Green, C. D. and Shanker, S. (2015). On the meanings of self-regulation: Digital

humanities in service of conceptual clarity. Child Development, 86(5), 1507–1521.

Pascal, C. (2021). Early Years EXPO Panel Session: Effective Delivery of the EYFS 2021 – Supported by Birth to 5 Matters. (22nd November, 2021). Online.

Shanker, S. (2020). Reframed. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.