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A Quilt of Practices: Sustainability Education in Finnish Early Childhood and Care

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Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care

Part of the book series: Early Childhood Research and Education: An Inter-theoretical Focus ((ECRE,volume 1))

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a major shift in how sustainability issues are addressed in Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy and research. Sustainability education has come to the fore through changes in legislation and national core curricula. This chapter aims at providing a glimpse into how practitioners understand and address sustainability education. Through four narratives, based on empirical research within a qualitative framework, the highly variable implementation of policy and research into practice is made visible. The results show that sustainability is expressed in terms of everyday choices, life-guiding values, pedagogy linked to specific places in Nature, or as silence. In order to make sure that children’s right to develop necessary knowledge, skills, values and attitudes for living sustainably is realized, the importance of providing high quality sustainability education for all children is underlined. The chapter ends with a provocation to enhance future dialogue between different stakeholders in order to overcome the gaps between policy, research, and practice and thereby facilitate urgent change towards a sustainable world.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Ann-Christin Furu

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  1. Ann-Christin Furu
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Correspondence to Ann-Christin Furu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Heidi Harju-Luukkainen

  2. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Jonna Kangas

  3. Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Susanne Garvis

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Furu, AC. (2022). A Quilt of Practices: Sustainability Education in Finnish Early Childhood and Care. In: Harju-Luukkainen, H., Kangas, J., Garvis, S. (eds) Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care . Early Childhood Research and Education: An Inter-theoretical Focus, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95512-0_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95512-0_17

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-95511-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-95512-0

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