Curriculum frameworks have an important role in providing guidance to early childhood practitioners on how to integrate knowledge about sustainability into their practice. This article examines how ideas about sustainability are integrated in the early childhood curricula for Australia, England, Norway, Sweden and the USA. The analyses were guided by critical inquiry and a cross-national dialogue and focused on four aspects of the curricula: sustainability presence, views of the child, human-environment relationship and philosophical/theoretical underpinnings on ideas expressed about sustainability. Ideas about sustainability were more implicitly present than explicitly stated in most curricula. It was not evident that children were viewed as world citizens with agency to help foster sustainability. With respect to human-environmental relationship, the framework from Australia expressed greater reciprocity and entanglement, while other frameworks were more anthropocentric despite the variation among curricula. All five frameworks embodied a sociocultural, human development approach with respect to the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings. There is a need to consider alternative frameworks that offer broader and more inclusive worldviews about sustainability that includes embracing human, non-human and other species within an assemblage of common worlds.Keywords Anthropocentric Á Curriculum theory Á Early childhood education Á Sustainability Á Education for sustainability Á Child agencyRésumé Les programmes d'études jouent un rôle important dans l'orientation des praticiens de la petite enfance sur la manière d'intégrer les connaissances sur la durabilité dans leur pratique. Cet article examine comment les idées sur la durabilité sont intégrées dans les programmes préscolaires en Australie, Angleterre, Norvège, Suède et aux É tats-Unis. Les analyses ont été guidées par une enquête critique et un dialogue transnational, et axées sur quatre aspects des programmes: la présence de la durabilité, les perspectives de l'enfant, les relations entre l'humain et l'environnement et les fondements philosophiques/théoriques soutenant les idées exprimées sur la durabilité. Les idées sur la durabilité sont plus implicitement présentes qu'explicitement énoncées dans la plupart des programmes. Il n'est pas évident que les enfants sont considérés comme des citoyens du monde ayant la capacité d'agir pour favoriser la durabilité. En ce qui concerne les relations entre l'humain et l'environnement, le programme de l'Australie exprime plus de réciprocité et d'interrelation tandis que les autres sont plus anthropocentriques. Les cinq programmes incluent tous une approche socioculturelle du développement humain comme fondements philosophiques et théoriques. Il est nécessaire d'envisager des programmes alternatifs qui offrent des visions du monde plus larges et plus inclusives sur la durabilité, et qui comprennent l'inclusion des espèces humaine, non humaines et autres à l'intérieur d'un ensemble de mondes communs.Resumen ...

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Education for sustainability in higher education; Early Childhood Studies as a site for provocation, collaboration and inquiry http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/8729/ Article LJMU has developed LJMU Research Online for users to access the research output of the University more effectively. Abstract Fifteen years after they were created, the UN's Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) have reached their expiration date. The United Nations assert that surveys conducted in September 2015 suggested that only 4% of the UK public had heard of the MDG's. The renewed focus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer opportunities for higher education institutions (HEIs) to work alongside students to create a shared and contextualised awareness of sustainable development within Early Childhood Education. This aim is pertinent for those students studying Early Childhood Studies degrees with the potential goal of working with babies, young children and their families. The research was situated within a paradigm of critical educational research to establish a shared understanding of sustainable development within a newly validated BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies programme at a HEI in the Northwest of England.Visual provocations were used as a pedagogical intervention to present a disorientating dilemma, critical reflection on personal perspective and an examination of world views.Findings suggested that visual methodologies supported students to appreciate the ambiguity and contested limits of knowledge, and to draw upon wider sources related to moral and ethical principles and to established rights and responsibilities.

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has indicated that very young children are capable of supporting the Agenda for Global Action through transformative and creative pedagogical approaches utilised through their environments, that are informed and practiced by knowledgeable early education practitioners and leaders. The early years offers multiple 2 opportunities to surround young children with the awe and wonder of their world, linking to their local cultures, as they seek to question, challenge and access possibilities to transform their families and communities.Beach Kindy utilises the natural environment of the coastline, at sites that demonstrate the biodiversity of the planet. Water, for example, is recognised not only as an effective medium and tool for education for sustainable development but also its immense capacity to support holistic, interconnected areas within early childhood education. However, it is acknowledged that this approach is not without challenges. The four home nations that make up the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland Scotland and Wales) have distinct early years curriculum frameworks and this paper focuses on the English framework, The Early Years Foundation Stage (The Department of Education (DfE) 2014).The DfE (2014) imposes what is perceived by many as a linear statutory framework and policy makers must try to move towards embedding education for sustainable development and encourage more flexible, creative approaches to learning. The English Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS, DFE, 2014) statutory guidance, focuses on three Prime areas, (Communication and Language, Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Physical Development and four Specific areas including, Understandingthe World (UW). This Specific area (UW), presents a renewed emphasis on a 'concentric approach to learning' (Tickell, 2011, p.104) where children are guided to 'make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment' (DfE, 2014, p8). Children can become young scientists, utilising the coastlines and becoming "ocean literate". Early education Practitioners can thus provide "a platform to channel their infinite capacities for activism into the creation of a better world." (2015, p.12). This paper seeks to explore how Beach Kindy can help implement both the Sustainable Development Goals and the scientific approaches embedded within UW, whilst also recognising the challenges that it may bring.