ABSTRACT

Unsustainable living is a critical challenge for all sectors of society. While many universities promote sustainability by supporting campus resource efficiency and sustainability-focused research, these approaches fail to harness the full power of higher education. We argue that Education for Sustainability (EfS) should be at the heart of higher education’s sustainability commitments. This study examined the anecdotal view that initial early childhood teacher education (IECTE) in universities has been slow to embed EfS. A review was undertaken of 41 university websites, their online program materials for Education faculties/schools/departments, and IECTE materials at program and subject level, together with a deeper investigation of the policy and promotional documents of three selected institutions. We analysed the extent to which university policy reflects enunciated practice when it comes to embedding sustainability into IECTE programs. We believe that elevating EfS in IECTE may encourage greater systems-wide action within the broader early childhood education field, as opposed to the adhoc approaches that currently apply. Such a strategic measure offers the possibility for ECEfS to contribute more effectively to positive intergenerational impacts related to sustainability.

摘要

不可持续的生活是社会各阶层面临的严峻挑战。虽然许多大学通过支持校园资源效率和以可持续发展为重点的研究来促进可持续发展，但这些方法未能充分利用高等教育的力量。我们认为，可持续发展教育 (EfS) 应该成为高等教育可持续发展承诺的核心。这项研究检验了这样一种传闻，即大学的早期幼儿教师教育 (IECTE) 嵌入 EfS 的速度很慢。对 41 个大学网站、其教育学院/学校/部门的在线课程材料以及课程和学科级别的 IECTE 材料进行了审查，同时对三个选定机构的政策和宣传文件进行了更深入的调查。我们分析了在将可持续性嵌入 IECTE 计划时，大学政策在多大程度上反映了明确的实践。我们认为，与目前适用的临时方法相反，提高 IECTE 中的 EfS 可能会鼓励在更广泛的幼儿教育领域内采取更大的全系统行动。这种战略措施为 ECefS 提供了更有效地促进与可持续性相关的积极代际影响的可能性。