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Global environmental changes and substantial social justice issues are impacting all, raising significant concerns for the Earth's future. There is a need for equitable education as an avenue towards addressing these sustainability challenges. This qualitative content analysis study examined a representation of the concerns and interests of professionals involved in early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS). We analyzed a conference document collated for the Transnational Dialogues in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability Research (TND) that included contributions from 60 educators and researchers from nineteen different countries. Three significant global and interrelated ECEfS themes emerged from the data: urgency, equity, and agency. The data indicate an urgent need for change as well as a much-needed push for equity alongside stakeholder concerns and interests in the role of children's agency. There was evidence of an inherent tension between child-centered and more teacher-centered pedagogies to achieve specific education for sustainability (EfS) goals. The findings have implications for applied EfS practices, co-operative research, and future investigations on a global scale.

Bhutan aspires to balance sustainable socioeconomic development with environmental conservation to achieve Gross National Happiness (GNH). There are apparent alignments between GNH and the principles of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), but we recognize the role of the Bhutanese socio-cultural context for critically examining any alignments or misalignments with pervasive Western action-oriented ESD approaches. We present one aspect of a PhD study by the lead author that explored the implementation of Environmental Science (ES) in Bhutanese secondary schools. He examined stakeholders' perceptions about action-oriented approaches to teaching, drawing on qualitative and quantitative data from interviews with six principals, surveys and interviews with 14 teachers, surveys with 563 students and focus groups with 194 students. Findings indicated that students participated in school-based activities such as waste management and cleaning, in compliance with school-based directives to alleviate problems, rather than as a consequence of their own agentic decisions. Principals, teachers and students valued the idea of taking environmental action in ES, especially waste management, primarily for solving ecological issues and promoting intergenerational equity rather than for developing of action-competence. There is potential for leveraging existing school practices to enhance action-oriented approaches and, consequently, foster action-competence for the enhancement of GNH in Bhutan.

Organisational narratives are foundational to inform the actions and directions of an organisation. Modern organisations often place great weight and invest significant time crafting their narratives that are communicated through mission statements, strategic plans, policies, directives and self-promotion. Sometimes these narratives align with the lived reality of the workers and those who deal with the organisation, but at other times there is a significant gap, or even chasm, between the portrayed ideal and the reality. This paper situates such narratives, and the lived experiences within critical organisational theory and a neoliberal framework. Utilising autoethnographic accounts of four academics within a higher education context, it highlights this gap and the need to voice concerns about this misalignment. The paper raises awareness of both organisations and workers to the importance of being true to narratives and ensuring they are an accurate representation of what happens. It offers ideas for resisting the disjunction between narrative and reality and a way of challenging neoliberalism within higher education.

In Canada, there is no federal department of education, nor is there a national system of education. Education is the responsibility of provinces and territories, and provincial education ministries lead the organization, implementation, and assessment of education within their jurisdictions. What this means for professional learning is that each province and territory establishes its particular agenda for professional learning based on provincial goals. As a result, Canada has a "mosaic of professional learning experiences, opportunities, promising practices, and challenges" that are differentiated to educators' and students' needs (Campbell et al., 2017, p. 73). Despite these differences, Canadian members of provincial Learning Forward affiliates embrace the sentiments in Standards for Professional Learning. The standards align with members' thinking about high-quality professional learning elements and can use them as guiding principles in the planning of professional supports for teachers and leaders aimed at local needs.

Integral to the global nature play movement, nature play programs have flourished over the last decade, both in Australia and internationally. Internationally, there are two prominent schools of thought in this movement, Danish Nature Kindergartens, and British Forest Schools. The underpinning philosophy of Danish Nature Kindergarten programs has been translated worldwide, raising questions about implementation, and possible decontextualisation, post-translation. Specifically, there are claims that the British translation known as Forest School, has become a marketable commodity and a 'McDonaldised' set of practices that educators have been trained in worldwide, including Australia. In this review article we examine Australian outdoor, nature play programs in early childhood education (ECE) settings to identify the relevance of these claims to Australian ECE contexts. These contexts appear to be diverging from the two international schools of thought, forging a uniquely, Australian 'Nature Play' pathway contextualised to social, cultural, political and educational landscapes. However, we acknowledge the limited Australian nature play program research to date has only been conducted in government regulated ECE settings. In such settings, legislation mandates that early childhood (EC) qualified educators implement programs underpinned by philosophy and pedagogy. Although not infallible, this likely minimises the potential for commodification. Whereas among private-for-profit, outdoor, nature play programs without the same legislated requirements, we argue the potential for commodification may be greater. We identify the need for research to examine the philosophical and pedagogical basis of such private-for-profit programs. As there is no Australian research in these settings, we recommend a research agenda to explore this gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay critiques the relevance of historical antecedents about children's play in nature and how these historical and political mechanisms create cultural rovoked by Taylor's (2013) exploration of the pervasive influence of romanticised images of innocent children in nature and our own experiences of never-ending "nice" stories about young children in nature, here we trouble how nature experiences may or may not preclude children's meaningful and agentic participation in sustainability. We question is engagement with nature, a tangible and easily accessible approach in early childhood education (ECE) promoting a "nature by default paradigm" and potentially thwarting a fuller transformative engagement with sustainability. Thus, we argue the case for shifting our frames beyond idealised romanticised notions and human-nature dualisms to a "common worlds" (Haraway, 2008; Latour, 2004; Taylor, 2013) frame guided by collectivist understandings within connective life worlds. Such a shift requires a significant recasting of ethical human-nature understandings and relationships in ECE. [Paper presented at the 18th AAEE Biennial Conference--Sustainability, Smart Strategies for the 21st Century.]

Climate change and sustainability are issues of global significance. While other education sectors have implemented education for sustainability for many years, the early childhood sector has been slow to take up this challenge. This position paper poses the question: Why has this sector been so slow to engage with sustainability? Explanations are proposed based on a review of research literature and the authors' long engagement in seeking to bring early childhood education and education for sustainability together. The imperative is for the early childhood sector to engage in education for sustainability without delay and to "get active" for a sustainable future.

Challenges an earlier article that suggests replacing secondary level language learning with a general linguistics course. (Author/VWL)

Integral to sustainability is the active role of citizens to promote and participate in sustainable practices. In this report from the field, we describe two projects that demonstrate how early childhood educators supported children’s development of ecologically sustainable practices by facilitating a shift from learning in and about environments to acting in ways that promote regeneration of the natural environment. Two practitioner-researchers, each paired with a critical friend, used the Project Approach as a framework for facilitating children’s complex, authentic connections to, understandings of, and actions for their ecosystems, demonstrating the potential of the field of Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a shared understanding across the European Union (EU) that access to firearms by the general public should be restricted, detailed legislation regarding the ownership, use and trade of firearms varies between EU member states. It is unclear, however, how such variations impact on the policing of gun-enabled crime. By using qualitative data generated from interviews with police, policy and decision makers from 13 European countries, we aim to determine how stakeholders perceive that national variations in firearms legislation affect the policing of gun-enabled crime within and across EU countries. Four main themes were identified from the qualitative data: disparities in legislation, disparities in the priority given and the resources allocated to investigations into gun-enabled crime, as well as interventions. Owing to the aforementioned disparities, cross-national investigations into incidents of gun crime are at risk of remaining impaired in their effectiveness. Therefore, more legislative coherency as well as sustainable long-term interventions will be needed to successfully reduce ownership and use of firearms in the criminal world. In this context, a departure from an exclusive use of an economic model of gun crime is recommended to allow for a better understanding of the dynamics of the black gun market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To present an overview of the range of systematic reviews on intervention trials pertinent to orthoptic practice, produced by the Cochrane Eyes and Vision group (CEV). Methods: We searched the 2016 Cochrane Library database (31.03.2016) to identify completed reviews and protocols of direct relevance to orthoptic practice. These reviews are currently completed and published, available onwww.thecochranelibrary.com(free to UK health employees) or via the CEV website(http://eyes.cochrane.org/). Results: We found 27 completed CEV reviews across the topics of strabismus, amblyopia, refractive errors, and low vision. Seven completed CEV protocols addressed topics of strabismus, amblyopia, refractive errors, low vision, and screening. We found 3 completed Cochrane Stroke reviews addressing visual field loss, eye movement impairment, and age-related vision loss. Conclusions: The systematic review process presents an important opportunity for any clinician to contribute to the establishment of reliable, evidence-based orthoptic practice. Each review has an abstract and plain language summary that many non-clinicians find useful, followed by a full copy of the review (background, objectives, methods, results, discussion) with a conclusion section that is divided into implications for practice and implications for research. The current reviews provide patients/parents/carers with information about various different conditions and treatment options, but also provide clinicians with a summary of the available evidence on interventions, to use as a guide for both clinical practice and future research planning. The reviews identified in this overview highlight the evidence available for effective interventions for strabismus, amblyopia, refractive errors, and low vision or stroke rehabilitation as well as the gaps in the evidence base. Thus, a demand exists for future robust, randomized, controlled trials of such interventions of importance in orthoptic practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The University of Canberra and the Playground Ideas organization in Australia, and the Pacific Adventist University and Koiari Park Adventist Primary School in Papua New Guinea, partnered to create a demonstration playground and research site in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. The long-term goal of this collaborative partnership was to promote playgrounds built of locally sourced materials as safe and stimulating play and learning environments for children and also to serve as community hubs. This field report describes the activities involved in developing the demonstration site including the multiple project partnerships, the community-informed playground design and the playground construction process. Our shared experiences indicate there is much potential for future playground development and we strongly advocate school playgrounds as play and learning environments in Papua New Guinea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Amblyopia is reduced visual acuity in one or both eyes in the absence of any demonstrable abnormality of the visual pathway. It is not immediately resolved by the correction of refractive error. Strabismus develops in approximately 5% to 8% of the general population. The aim of treatment for amblyopia is to obtain the best possible level of vision in the amblyopic eye. Different treatment options were examined within the review., Objectives: By reviewing the available evidence we wanted to establish the most effective treatment for strabismic amblyopia. In particular this review aimed to examine the impact of conventional occlusion therapy for strabismic amblyopia and to analyse the role of partial occlusion and optical penalisation for strabismic amblyopia., Search Methods: We searched CENTRAL (which contains the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group Trials Register) (2013, Issue 12), Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid MEDLINE In-Process and Other Non-Indexed Citations, Ovid MEDLINE Daily, Ovid OLDMEDLINE (January 1946 to January 2014), EMBASE (January 1980 to January 2014), Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature Database (LILACS) (January 1982 to January 2014), the metaRegister of Controlled Trials (mRCT) (www.controlled-trials.com), ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov) and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) (www.who.int/ictrp/search/en). We did not use any date or language restrictions in the electronic searches for trials. We last searched the electronic databases on 30 January 2014., Selection Criteria: We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) for the treatment of strabismic amblyopia including participants of any age., Data Collection and Analysis: Two authors working independently extracted and entered data into Review Manager 5 and then independently checked the data for errors., Main Results: We included three RCTs in this review. The studies reported mean logMAR visual acuity achieved. Mean difference in visual acuity was calculated. When comparing conventional part-time occlusion (with any necessary glasses), PEDIG 2006 reported that this treatment was more beneficial than glasses alone for strabismic amblyopia; the mean difference between groups was -0.18 LogMAR (statistically significant 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.32 to -0.04). Supplementing occlusion therapy with near activities may produce a better visual outcome compared to non-near activities after four weeks of treatment (PEDIG 2005). The results of the pilot study showed mean difference between groups was -0.17 LogMAR (95% CI -0.53 to 0.19). Results from a larger RCT (PEDIG 2008) are now available, showing that supplementing occlusion therapy with near activities may produce a better visual outcome after eight weeks of treatment; the mean difference between groups was -0.02 LogMAR (95% CI -0.10 to 0.06). One further article ia awaiting assessment as in its current format there is insufficient information to include (Alotaibi 2012)., Authors' Conclusions: Occlusion, whilst wearing necessary refractive correction, appears to be more effective than refractive correction alone in the treatment of strabismic amblyopia. The benefit of combining near activities with occlusion is unproven. No RCTs were found that assessed the role of either partial occlusion or optical penalisation to refractive correction for strabismic amblyopia.

Background: Infantile esotropia (IE) is the inward deviation of the eye. Various aspects of the clinical management of IE are unclear; mainly, the most effective type of intervention and the age at intervention., Objectives: The objective of this review was to assess the effectiveness of various surgical and non-surgical interventions for IE and to determine the significance of age at treatment with respect to outcome., Search Methods: We searched CENTRAL (which contains the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group Trials Register) (The Cochrane Library 2013, Issue 5), Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid MEDLINE In-Process and Other Non-Indexed Citations, Ovid MEDLINE Daily, Ovid OLDMEDLINE, (January 1950 to June 2013), EMBASE (January 1980 to June 2013), Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences (LILACS) (January 1982 to June 2013), the metaRegister of Controlled Trials (mRCT) (www.controlled-trials.com), ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov) and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) (www.who.int/ictrp/search/en). We did not use any date or language restrictions in the electronic searches for trials. We last searched the electronic databases on 10 June 2013. We manually searched the conference proceedings of the European Strabismological Association (ESA) (1975 to 1997, 1999 to 2002), International Strabismological Association (ISA) (1994) and American Academy of Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus meeting (AAPOS) (1995 to 2003). Efforts were made to contact researchers who are active in the field for information about further published or unpublished studies., Selection Criteria: We included randomised trials comparing any surgical or non-surgical intervention for infantile esotropia., Data Collection and Analysis: Each review author independently assessed study abstracts identified from the electronic and manual searches., Main Results: No studies were found that met our selection criteria and therefore none were included for analysis., Authors' Conclusions: The main body of literature on interventions for IE are either retrospective studies or prospective cohort studies. It has not been possible through this review to resolve the controversies regarding type of surgery, non-surgical intervention and age of intervention. There is clearly a need for good quality trials to be conducted in these areas to improve the evidence base for the management of IE.

Northwick Park is a district teaching hospital in NW London. In Jul 2009, Healthcare for London agreed to commission hyperacute stroke care in only eight units. These had to provide guaranteed minimum staffing levels, daily ward rounds including weekends and public holidays, and thrombolysis (clotbusting) treatment) 24/7. We were the only unit to bid that was not already a major neurology centre. Our successful bid had to be implemented to a very tight timetable and has now been operating for three years. Our results are audited nationally and demonstrate the success of the project. Before the project the Unit had 20 beds, one consultant and only three whole time equivalent therapists. We had thrombolysed 12 patients in two years. Patients did not go straight to the Stroke Unit from A&E. Although our rehabilitation processes were good we were limited by patients having to wait to get onto the Unit and by staff numbers. Now, there are 50 beds and over 130 staff. Performance is intensively monitored by the Stroke Network. Every patient is entered into the Royal College of Physicians continuous audit, and assessed against national standards. Our reputation is national and we have hosted teams from many units in the UK and abroad to demonstrate our processes and pathways. We conclude that with good planning, robust care pathways and a strong local management team backed by financial and Board level support, it is possible to implement a widespread change in treatment of a common and disabling condition.