Examining the rhetoric : a comparison of how sustainability and young children's participation and agency are framed in Australian and Swedish early childhood education curricula


Autoria(s): Arlemalm-Hagser, Eva; Davis, Julie M.
Data(s)

03/10/2014

Resumo

This article scrutinizes the ways that young children are described and supported as active participants for change within the Australian and Swedish national steering documents for early childhood education. A critical theory lens was applied in combination with document analysis that looked for concepts related to environment and sustainability i.e. environmental, social, economic and political dimension of development, humans place in nature, and environmental stewardship. Concepts concerned with critical thinking, and children as active participants for change were used as specific dimensions of curriculum interpretation. Analyses show that, while both the Australian and Swedish curricula deal with content connected to environmental, social and cognitive dimensions, there is limited or no discussion of the political dimensions of human development, such as children as active citizens with political agency. In other words, children are not recognised as competent beings or agents of change for sustainability within these early childhood curriculum frameworks. Hence, these supposedly contemporary early childhood education documents lack curricular leadership to support children to contribute their voices and actions to civic and public spheres of participation as equal citizens.

Formato

application/pdf

application/pdf

Identificador

http://eprints.qut.edu.au/76562/

Publicador

Symposium Journals

Relação

http://eprints.qut.edu.au/76562/1/76562_SubmittedVersion.pdf

http://eprints.qut.edu.au/76562/2/76562_Pub.pdf

DOI:10.2304/ciec.2014.15.3.231

Arlemalm-Hagser, Eva & Davis, Julie M. (2014) Examining the rhetoric : a comparison of how sustainability and young children's participation and agency are framed in Australian and Swedish early childhood education curricula. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 15(3), pp. 231-244.

Direitos

Copyright 2014 Symposium Journals Ltd

Fonte

Children & Youth Research Centre; Faculty of Education; School of Early Childhood

Palavras-Chave #050203 Environmental Education and Extension #130102 Early Childhood Education (excl. Maori) #130202 Curriculum and Pedagogy Theory and Development #education for sustainability #environmental education #sustainability #sustainable development #early childhood education #early childhood curriculum #children's participation #children's agency
Tipo

Journal Article