Synopsis

Reviving botany in the curriculum: the botanical journey of two Western Australian early childhood teachers

“…Inquiring alongside the children in the bush space for a whole year, allowed the teachers to take time to observe the changes in the nature through the seasons, notice things they had not noticed before and become curious. This study adds to research that has found that children need more than just play in natural environments to increase their knowledge and understanding of nature, and that content knowledge is required as well to achieve a deeper connection to, and understanding of, the natural world (Boyd, 2019; Elliott et al, 2020; Hughes, Elliott, Anderson, & Chancellor, 2021; Lloyd et al, 2018).…”

“…In environmental education, the teacher’s environmental knowledge was previously thought to be not as important as the teacher’s values when teaching environmental education (Elliott & Young, 2016). However, recent research has advised that there needs to be a pedagogical balance of knowledge, values and actions for environmental education to be successful (Elliott, Arlemalm-Hagser, & Davis, 2020). Both teachers initially articulated values around wanting to be in nature and knowing that nature is important for children’s wellbeing but did not have the content knowledge to fully support an active and engaging curriculum in the bush until their involvement in this study.…”

Cultural Impacts on the Environmental Attitudes of Early Childhood Teachers: A Mixed-Method Study

“…al., 2014), they could still show positive attitudes towards natural environments. Third, many early childhood teachers have seldom learned any knowledge and skills about how to utilize natural environments for the sustainability between nature and human beings in the past few decades (Elliott et al, 2020). Even though they have already shifted from anthropocentric position to ecocentric position, they still have a long way to go towards human-nature kinship (Wilson, 2019).…”

“…Whether cultural factors can impose different impacts on the two dimensions of environmental attitudes through 2-MEV still requires in-dept studies. Now that early childhood teachers are not quite familiar with environmental issues (Elliott et al, 2020), it is signi cant to explore what cultural factors can be conducive to the improvement of their environmental attitudes.…”

“…This may be attributed to their nature-de cit problems (Blatt & Patrick, 2014;Starbuck et. al., 2014) and lack of learnings in this eld (Elliott et al, 2020). Kindergarten principals should exercise their power to enjoin early childhood teachers to learn and practice in outdoor natural environments in order to achieve collective goals even though they may not feel very satis ed at the beginning.…”