Early childhood education's role in achieving sustainable development

¶ … education has been given more attention by researchers and educationists since the publication of the Brundtland report in the late 1980s. The report introduced the world to sustainable development as a key global concern. Since then even school curricula have made efforts to include such concepts as natural resources and climate change. Interestingly, not enough attention has been given to the manner in which early childhood development may be instrumental in the whole process. This paper discusses the place of early childhood education especially in ensuring sustainable development. It is apparent that early childhood education is part of a whole that is the entire education system and this implies that it has just as much a role to play in tackling the issues of sustainable development especially those that are to be brought to the fore in the educational system.

The role education plays in the endeavor is substantial. A large volume of literature has been written on the place of education in this issue especially as a means of preparing people all over the world to take action so as to create the needed change. The declaration of the past ten years as the Decade of Education for Sustainable Education cements the fact that education will be instrumental in reaching global sustainability (UNESCO, 2004). The declaration by the UN has been adopted by various players at the national and continental levels, for instance, the European UN Economic Commission and the Committee on Environmental Policy has put forth a strategy for sustainable development education in Europe (UNECE, 2005). It is therefore clear that the public and the politicians have the good will to ensure that education is critical to achieving these goals of saving the world. Nonetheless, not much attention has been channeled to the manner in which early childhood education will play a role in the process. This concern was raised during 'The role of early childhood education for a sustainable society' workshop that was organized in 2007 by Goteborg University and UNESCO. In the course of the workshop, several views on the place of early childhood education as a pillar of ensuring a sustainable world were put forth. The conclusion made was that early childhood education had the capacity to make major contributions to ensure education for sustainability. Some of the strengths put forth were the cultural experiences, professional competences, interdisciplinary knowledge as well as the participants that were personally engaged.

Early Childhood Education and Learning for Sustainable Development and Citizenship

As I was growing up and gaining education, I understood that neither education nor sustainable development should be viewed as only a national concern. The two concern cultural, economic, political and social events of global concern. A perspective that takes this into account is in harmony with the definition sustainable development has been given (Hugglund & Samuelsson, 2009).

When applying sustainable development definition to educational goals, emphasis is made on integrating social, environmental, value and economical dimensions. In this regard, the conceptualization of education for sustainable development draws parallels from citizenship education, values education, peace education as well as education for democracy. Together, they constitute education practice and research that clearly has normative signatures which imply that political and ideological criteria shall direct policy and practice. This implied to me that education for sustainable development should take into account values concerning solidarity, democracy as well as justice which are instrumental for the survival of humankind and the earth (Haggland and Samuelsson, 2009).

During my early childhood education graduate program, I learned that most children take part in preschool when little. Before they turn two, 84% of all kids have been to preschool. Education policy considers preschool part and parcel of the educational system. As experienced later in the professional field, I found out that changes that have impacted preschool development include the development of a national curricula as well as a teacher-training program that is university based. The changes can be associated to those changes that have been noted in the educational policies, including the labor market as well as those changes at the level of the family. In certain ways, I experienced that preschool has been seen to be advancing the agenda of various players instead of supporting the learning of the children. The umbrella aim of preschool is to support the child-care needs of parents, make a contribution to equality of men and women, and to provide all the children a chance to develop social and intellectual abilities (Hagglund and Samuelsson, 2009).

The concept of making use of a child's immediate environment as well as their everyday life to form learning references is an important pedagogical theory principle. From my professional experience, all the activities that take place inside the home like cooking or work in the kitchen, or wood work, and gardening formed the basis for learning. Taking such an approach is a means of coming nearer to the experiences of the child so as to use what is familiar to them to draw references to what needs to be learned. Learning, as pointed out by Frobel, should begin from what the children are already aware of. He also noted that differences existed between older and smaller children and proposed a pedagogical approach grounded on learning, work and play. According to him, the children ought to be active in mind and body so as to develop interest and respond appropriately to learning opportunities. Knowledge transmission hasn't been an issue in preschool. While varied qualities exist in practice, Wals opines that preschool pedagogy possesses its own qualities and tradition (Haggland & Samuelsson, 2009).

Furthermore I experienced that a significant trait noted is stressing that a child should be regarded as a whole individual. This means that learning and care have to be given equal weight. Hallden (2007) discusses the weight between the approaches. She makes an argument that seeing a child as an agent that is independent is very important. She however notes that such agency ought to be balanced by care given by the society and adults. She says that there is a possibility to lose care as we strive for knowledge transmission. Care is a very important facet of young children's learning. In the context of Early Childhood Development (ECD) context, it isn't easy including aspects of care as needed dimensions in the learning of solidarity, rights, and democracy (Haggland & Samuelsson, 2009).

For early childhood education, given the prevailing policy environment, educators have been requested to possess a deep comprehension of child development and issues concerning early education and to avail rich educational experiences for the children they care for. There is high accountability to results and the professional support resources are limited. The field therefore requires comprehensive studies from which professional development studies can be based (Sheridan, Edwards, Marvin & Knoche, 2009).

The skills, practices and knowledge that I learned in my professional field state that in early childhood, education is a significant factor in evaluating the level of learning of young ones, as well as assisting with their preparation to get into the learning system. The educators are being requested to possess a deep comprehension of child development as well as issues of early education and so avail to the learners a richer learning experience even where resources are limited. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 highlights the significance of comprehending which qualities child educators should have. The individuals upon whom we shall place the care of our children should meet certain minimum requirements and also take steps to improve their skills and professional ability through professional development. (Martinez-Beck & Zaslow, 2006).

According to my experience, with more attention being given to early childhood professional development in the communities in charge of policy and practice, there is need to determine the aspects that work for various environments and people and the costs involved (Welch-Ross, Wolf, Moorehouse & Rathgeb, 2006). The research that I did during my graduate program on professional development in the field should cover more than the characteristics needed from caregivers, but also establish evidence theories ranging from the forms to the processes as well as the outcomes. The current standing of early childhood education means that professional development should be given a bigger podium to develop empirical and theoretical expertise so as to guide the planning as well as implementation of the reforms that have been fronted by various players in the field (Sheriden, Edwards, Marvin & Knoche, 2009).

Assumptions, Goals and Objectives of Professional Development

Educational technology in general and special education

Technology played an important role in my professional experience in the assistance of children having disabilities, to overcome the challenges they face due to the disabilities and help them develop the necessary skills required for their success. Studies were carried out by Cullen, Richards and Frank (2008) to evaluate if computer software could be of assistance in helping children with disabilities improve their writing skills. According to my experience, the use of a talking word processor as well as word prediction software both helped students dramatically increase the word count produced as well as the accuracy in spelling. Improvement in writing generally has a big impact in the learning capabilities of students, as it not only improves their confidence but also enhances the effectiveness of learning. The improvement from the standpoint of competency and effectiveness is the holy grail of learner improvement. Generally, the noted impact was that technology had a positive impact on the children's writing capability (Alnahdi, 2014).

An examination of 6 projects by Mclnerney, Riley and Osher (1999) on students having hearing difficulties revealed that supportive captions and text highlighting helped students with hearing disabilities in their learning. Wehmeyer, Smith, Palmer, Davies and Stock (2004) discovered that having intellectually disabled students exposed to flexible technologies helped in increasing their functional skills, taking advantage of the strengths they have and compensating for the weaknesses they possess. Other studies by Anderson-Inman, Knox-Quinn and Horney (1996) as well as Elbro, Rasmussen and Spelling (1996) have also shown that students having disabilities that are language related had improved comprehension, word recognition and fluency on using digital texts with syllable, synthetic and letter name-level synthetic speech transformations (Alnahdi, 2014).

Conclusion

Early childhood education as a field is in a period of fast growth and fresh discoveries. During my entire course, efforts targeted at helping practitioners stay knowledgeable and refine their skills and make use of evidence-based practice include coaching/consulting, training as well Communities of Practice. While new evidence points out that training alone isn't enough and that there is need for continuous support to aid knowledge transfer, there is not much known about the way different kinds of professional development interact or operate to ensure the advancement of learning and the improvement of quality. There is need for more research in these areas so as to promote effective change in the areas of dispositions, skills and knowledge. More knowledge is needed to understand the form and process of professional development and so research is needed in these areas especially if we are going to realize desirable outcomes in knowledge transmission (Sheridan, Edwards, Marvin & Knoche, 2009).

To further my knowledge of professional development in the field of early childhood education there is need to have more comprehensive information than is currently available in the findings and reports already written. The first step could be defining models of professional development. Second, there is need to have clear connection between practice and empirical research. For instance, techniques like correlation and regression could be used to draw parallels between growth of the practitioner and duration and intensity of coaching. There is need for more precise methods in evaluating the effects of professional development (Sheridan, Edwards, Marvin & Knoche, 2009).