How can ECEC respond to the global environmental crisis?

Copyright: Jo Josephidou

By Dr Jo Josephidou (The Open University) & Dr Nicola Kemp (Canterbury Christ Church University)

What has the global environmental crisis got to do with very young children? What is the role of ECEC in supporting babies and toddlers to engage with the outdoors and nature? How can ECEC respond to the contemporary crisis of unsustainability? These are questions we have been pondering on as we reflect on the findings from our Froebel Trust funded research project  ‘A life in and with nature?’ An exploration of outdoor provision in babyrooms.

Babies and toddlers engaging with the outdoors.

One obvious way that ECEC supports children with learning about their world is through their outdoor provision. There is a wealth of research on how young children engage with the outdoors, yet up to this point, very little on provision for, and practice with, birth to twos (Kemp and Josephidou, 2020; Kemp and Josephidou, 2021). What we do know is that i) the outdoors, with its perceived risks, is not necessarily seen as an appropriate space for very young children and ii) the outdoor space is predominantly seen as a place for physical development for young children. We also know that, although pockets of wonderful outdoor provision for very young children exist, there are issues of equality of access (Josephidou, Kemp and Durrant, 2021). Furthermore, access to the outdoors does not necessarily mean engagement with nature. This is a concern not only from a human health perspective, but also in relation to children’s future relationship with the natural world.

Babies and toddlers engaging with nature

One way that ECEC can support very young children to be ‘agents of care for the natural world’ (Chawla, 2009, p. 6) is to ensure that they not only have opportunities to engage with the outdoors but that these opportunities involve them in engaging with nature. Hall et al. (2014), in their insightful practitioner focussed paper, cite David Sobel (1998) who reminds us we must teach children ‘to love the earth before we ask them to save it’ (p. 195).  Why can’t this relationship between the child and nature begin from birth – there is plenty of research to suggest the benefits that this brings to the child (see for example, Josephidou and Kemp, 2022). But we have a further research interest; rather than merely focusing on the benefits that engagement with nature can bring to young children, our intention is to explore the potential of pedagogies which support not just human but also environmental health. This idea has been explored elsewhere in Moore and Cosco’s one health model of ECEC (2014) which is based on the understanding that ‘the health of humankind, animals, and the biosphere is interwoven in a single, interdependent system’ (p.169). Such a model offers us a valuable basis for thinking about the way in which a nature engaging and nature enhancing pedagogy could be developed.

Moving forwards

We are currently exploring ways that we could extend and enhance Moore and Cosco’s model to include ways nature pedagogies can support the holistic development of babies and toddlers as well as inducting them into their responsibilities as citizens of a fragile earth.  Our presentation at BECERA 2022 will consider some of the ways such pedagogies could be developed through research and practice. The first step in this project, which has arisen out of our previous research and continues to be funded by the Froebel Trust, is to engage in a scoping study to position and develop the concept of what we are presently calling ‘nature engaging and nature enhancing pedagogy’. We want to consider the relevance of such a pedagogy within the contemporary context of climate emergency and sustainability. There is  also a lack of explicit educational policy support and underpinning research evidence to guide this kind of provision so that significant responsibility is placed on individual settings and practitioners resulting in varied and piecemeal practice (Kemp, Durrant and Josephidou, 2021).

To conclude, we argue that:

·       ECEC has an important role in helping babies and toddlers to engage with the outdoors.

·       This should include opportunities not just to be outside but also to engage with nature so that by engaging in nature pedagogies from a very early age, babies can ‘begin to appreciate the infinitely beautiful tapestry of Nature’s processes and forms’ (Dasgupta, 2021)

·       To move forward, it is important to bring together those working in education/health/the environment to undertake this important conversation so that ECEC settings are not having them in isolation or in an unsupported manner.

References

Chawla, L. (2009). Growing up green: Becoming an agent of care for the natural world. The Journal of Developmental Processes, 4(1), 23. doi:10.1.1.519.8387&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Hall, E., Linnea Howe, S., Roberts, S., Foster Shaffer, L., & Williams, E. (2014). What can we learn through careful observation of infants and toddlers in nature? Children, Youth & Environments, 24 (2), 192-214. doi: 10.7721/chilyoutenvi.24.2.0192

Dasgupta, P. (2021). The economics of biodiversity. Retrieved from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/962785/The_Economics_of_Biodiversity_The_Dasgupta_Review_Full_Report.pdf

Josephidou, J., Kemp, N. and Durrant, I. (2021) ‘Outdoor provision for babies and toddlers: Exploring the practice/policy/research nexus in English ECEC settings’, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 29(6).

Josephidou and Kemp (2022) ‘A life ‘in and with nature?’ Developing nature engaging and nature enhancing pedagogies for babies and toddlers’, Global Education Review.

Kemp, N.  and Josephidou, J. (2020) Where are the babies? Engaging the under twos with the outdoors. The Frobel Trust. Available from: https://www.froebel.org.uk/uploads/documents/Froebel-Trust-Research-Where-Are-The-Babies.pdfcc

Kemp, N. and Josephidou, J. (2021) ‘Babies and toddlers outdoors: a narrative review of the literature on provision for under twos in ECEC settings’, Early Years, DOI: 10.1080/09575146.2021.1915962

Kemp, N. Durrant, I. and Josephidou, J. (2020) Making connections with their world: outdoor provision for under-twos in early childhood settings in Kent. Froebel Trust. Available from:  https://www.froebel.org.uk/resources/froebel-trust

Moore, R., & Cosco, N. (2014). Growing Up Green: Naturalization as a Health Promotion Strategy in Early Childhood Outdoor Learning Environments. Children, Youth & Environments, 24 (2): 168-191. doi: 10.7721/chilyoutenvi.24.2.0168