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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.

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.]

As the impact of humans on the Earth and on its ecological systems that sustain people become more visible--in terms of climate change, resource depletion, and species extinctions--so, too, it is becoming clearer that living sustainably is essential, not optional. To live sustainably requires a mind shift for many people. Education for sustainability is about promoting such a mind shift. Education for sustainability is about questioning the way people live, the impacts people create as a unique part of Earth's systems, and about creatively thinking of ways to live more lightly on the Earth. This article discusses the significance of starting education for sustainability in early childhood sector and the role of early childhood educators in constructing a "sustainability frame of mind" among young children.

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.

In this article, we explore inconsistencies in the implementation of outdoor learning across Australian early years' education. The benefits of outdoor learning justify regular employment of this pedagogical approach in both early childhood education and primary school settings. Early childhood education services provide daily outdoor learning opportunities as required by Australian national policy documents. However, Australian primary schools are not subject to such requirements and teachers often face challenges regarding outdoor learning, thus regular implementation in primary classes can be a low priority. As children in the year before school and the first year of school have similar learning and developmental needs, we argue that the benefits of outdoor learning should be available to all children across the early years. We also recommend regular outdoor learning in the first year of schooling to promote continuity as children transition from early childhood education to primary schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including current policy to address how values related to sustainability promote pedagogies; ethical issues involved in the implementation of a research study; and an analysis of curriculum.