Keywords

FormalPara Key Message

Wholeness in Nordic preschool education is defined through four perspectives: The greening of the whole preschool, The whole child’s learning, Wholeness in preschool teaching, and Thematic approach as a perspective on a whole preschool. These perspectives, derived from global citizenship education, serve as a basis for implementing a whole school approach to sustainability in preschool education. However, the lack of societal engagement in early childhood education must be addressed, given its significance for children’s learning for sustainability.

1 Introduction

This chapter focuses on early childhood education, which in many ways differs from school education. Early childhood education often takes a holistic perspective on children’s learning and the preschool in general, making it a suitable arena in which to implement a whole school approach to sustainability. The chapter discusses this from the perspective of the preschool system in the Nordic countries, namely Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland. In the Nordic countries, preschool education has taken inspiration from global citizenship education (Pramling & Pramling Samuelsson, 2011), which we argue makes it even more possible to align preschools with a whole school approach to sustainability. Global citizenship can be defined as an awareness of the wider world and the development of an understanding of how the world functions socially, economically, culturally, and environmentally, as well as active engagement in community and international issues to make the world a more equitable and sustainable place (Twigg et al., 2015). There are important connections between global citizenship education and a whole school approach to sustainability, and this is stated by the United Nations (2023): “Connected within the Target 4.7, Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) are recognized as mutually reinforcing approaches”—the intention being to build a sustainable world.

The world is becoming increasingly global and connected, and the concept of “citizenship” has been extended beyond the traditional views of country and continent. Global citizenship education includes local issues, such as the living conditions of people, and connects those conditions with global issues (Wals et al., 2017). For children to become global citizens, they need first to become citizens in preschoolFootnote 1 by learning to stand up for their rights, taking responsibility for their actions, respecting and valuing diversity and other cultures, and learning to plan together and resolve common problems. Global citizenship education helps children find their place in the international community (Borg & Pramling Samuelsson, 2022). To create a sustainable and just society for all, education needs to emphasise “a more relational and caring way of being and becoming” rather than knowledge and literacies (Wals & Mathie, 2022, p. 1).

The whole school approach to sustainability embraces a holistic and participatory educational philosophy that aims to enhance the potential of the school environment to function as an authentic and meaningful place of learning. The whole school approach has been described in different ways in the literature (e.g. Henderson & Tilbury, 2004; Mathie & Wals, 2022; Mogren et al., 2019). In a review of the literature, the integration of three lines of action is frequently visible in all whole school approach models: first, the environmental management (“greening”) of the school; second, the establishment of ongoing partnerships with the broader local community to address issues of social-environmental sustainability; and third, the incorporation of sustainability in the curriculum (Gericke, 2022). In this chapter, we specifically investigate the ways in which these three lines of action can be identified at the preschool level while addressing global citizenship.

Global citizenship education shares several educational characteristics with the whole school approach to sustainability, as pointed out in the above quote from the UN. Both approaches provide a framework for reorienting and redesigning education for future generations in which a holistic perspective on the learner and the school is taken (Borg & Sporre, 2023; Gericke, 2022). Moreover, both approaches incorporate the learning goal of building a sustainable world based on collaboration with society beyond the school. However, the literature has shown the difficulties of implementing a whole school approach to sustainability in primary and secondary schools and, furthermore, provides no examples of a whole school approach to sustainability in preschools (Gericke, 2022). This indicates that the whole school approach to sustainability remains unexplored in early childhood education. In this chapter, we argue that preschool in the Nordic context could be a promising arena in which to develop a whole school approach to sustainability based on existing teaching practices that build on traditions from global citizenship education. Indeed, this chapter aims to show and critically reflect on how global citizenship education in preschool, from a Nordic perspective, can illuminate the possibilities and barriers to developing a whole school approach to sustainability.

2 Global Citizenship in Early Childhood Education and a Whole School Approach to Sustainability

Children live in the here and now. How they experience and view the world can differ considerably from how adults experience and view it (Sommer et al., 2010). The concept of global citizenship considers the shared and interdependent global experience and includes values such as diversity, interdependence, and empathy (WEF, 2021). To find their place in the international community, children should be engaged in local and global sustainability issues with consideration given to their age and stage of development (Borg & Gericke, 2021). Global citizenship is closely related to education for sustainability (EfS), which is about caring for oneself, for other people, and for the world. EfS emphasises the importance of local and global issues, stressing that all education should promote vital values, necessary knowledge, and required skills that can contribute to a sustainable future (United Nations, 2015). EfS is often described as being a foundation for a whole school approach to sustainability (Henderson & Tilbury, 2004). A whole school approach to sustainability has the overall aim of transforming the world into a more sustainable place by way of both direct actions, such as greening of schools and collaboration with society, and indirect actions in teaching, such as EfS.

3 Linking a Whole School Approach to Sustainability with Early Childhood Education Research

In this chapter, we argue that a whole school approach to sustainability embraces many approaches to teaching that are similar to those described in global citizenship education. The whole school approach to sustainability holds a holistic and participatory educational philosophy that aims to function as an authentic and meaningful place of learning to orient the world in a sustainable direction. As pointed out earlier, a whole school approach to sustainability generally proposes three lines of action: environmental management (“greening”) of the school; establishment of ongoing partnerships with the wider local community to address social-environmental sustainability; and incorporation of sustainability in the curriculum (Gericke, 2022). To some extent, these actions overlap because children’s learning and the curriculum are often central in preschool. In this section of the chapter, we specifically investigate the ways in which these three lines of action can be identified at preschools in previous early childhood education research.

When it comes to the first line of action, namely greening, literature reviews on preschool education indicate that there is a long tradition of being in the outdoors to work with greening issues (Bascopé et al., 2019; Davis, 2009). In the Nordic countries, outdoor education and experiences in nature are embedded in early childhood education. The most common activities in preschool are gardening, being in nature, and picking up litter in forests—that is activities closely related to greening (Ärlemalm-Hagsér & Sundberg, 2016). For example, in Sweden in the 1980s, the outdoor association Friluftsfrämjandet established a chain of preschools called I Ur och Skur (“Come Rain or Shine”), a major educational aim of which was for children to spend the whole day outside to become environmentally aware and enjoy natural environments (Gericke et al., 2020). Based on the eco-school movement, there are also two types of eco-certifications available in Sweden: one is “Green Flag” by the Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation, and the other is “Preschool for Sustainable Development” by the Swedish National Agency for Education. The purpose of these eco-certifications is to promote and implement EfS from a holistic perspective as suggested in a whole school approach to sustainability. Currently, there are many preschools in Sweden and the other Nordic countries that are actively engaged in sustainability issues from a holistic perspective (Bascopé et al., 2019; Borg, 2017).

In terms of the second line of action, which is about collaboration with society at large, there is less advancement, yet there is potential for preschools to develop in this specific area. In the literature, there is little about studies on collaboration between preschools and society at large. Preschools need to extend their collaboration with a broader segment of society that is more than just about greening issues. From a formal perspective, this shift has already occurred. In the new national Swedish curriculum for preschool (Lpfö 18), active participation in the society of the individual child is emphasised. It gives the following learning outcomes for preschool children:

  • A growing responsibility for and interest in sustainability and active participation in society

  • An ability to assume responsibility for their actions and for the environment in the preschool

  • An understanding of democratic principles and the ability to cooperate and make decisions (Skolverket, 2018)

There are some positive findings from recent research that investigated the professional development of preschool teachers in projects relating to the implementation of a whole school approach to sustainability. As a result of their participation in those projects, preschool teachers were found to be able to include sustainability from a holistic perspective in their teaching. They felt confident in their ability to extend their collaboration to the local community and parents, as well as children and teachers from preschools in other countries (Borg, 2019; Borg & Gericke, 2021).

The third line of action is about the incorporation of sustainability into the curriculum. Preschools in Sweden and the other Nordic countries have a holistic perspective in which education connects to children’s everyday experiences from both within the preschool and beyond the preschool in their everyday lives. In preschool education, play, learning, and care are necessary for a wholeness in childhood and all are considered essential (Broström, 2017; Pramling Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson, 2008). Furthermore, preschool teachers commonly collaborate with other members of staff, such as childcarers, kitchen staff, and caretakers, such as is suggested in a whole school approach to sustainability. For example, preschool teachers and childcarers often plan their work together with the children, and the principal is often involved as well. Preschool teachers in Sweden share mealtimes with the children, and the children often collect their food themselves from the kitchen staff. They are also all active in greening efforts, such as composting (Ärlemalm-Hagsér & Sundberg, 2016). Many preschools aim to reduce food waste and offer more locally produced food (Engdahl et al., 2021). It could be argued that the preschool is closer to the whole school approach to sustainability ideal than schools that differentiate more strictly between teaching and other school activities. McKeown and Hopkins (2007) identified four educational levels that are important in the work towards sustainable schooling. These are disciplinary, whole school, educational system, and international policy. At the preschool, disciplinary boundaries are absent and not quite applicable. There are no school subjects to consider, and as such, teaching takes place at the (whole) school level or the unit level. Because of this, preschools do not face the same problems of reductionism as are commonly experienced in primary and even more so secondary education (Gericke et al., 2020). Instead, the teaching approach is holistic and aims to connect new knowledge with the children’s life world.

To conclude, preschool teaching is only loosely regulated, and at preschool, it is easier to work holistically and more flexibly. Furthermore, in recent years, the Swedish preschool curriculum (Skolverket, 2018) has become more prescriptive than it once was when it comes to teaching, and there has been more emphasis on aspects of sustainability (Ohlsson et al., 2022). In that sense, the curriculum supports preschools in their work to address sustainability issues from both an educational and a greening perspective.

4 Wholeness in Preschool Education

Preschool has a different perspective on education compared to compulsory school since it aligns more with the whole school approach to sustainability. This is because the view on learning differs in relation to the physical and emotional development of children, which is determined by their age. Furthermore, teaching is not organised by school subject but rather by theme so that children are aware of the relationship between what they are working with and their everyday experiences (Pramling & Pramling Samuelsson, 2011). In the Nordic countries, preschool is well-established and is for children between the ages of one and five. Preschools in the Nordic countries are subsidised by the government and the municipalities; they work according to a national curriculum; they are regulated by school law; and they employ university-educated teachers. Upon a review of policy texts and research in the Nordic countries, we were able to identify four aspects of existing preschool education that each has a basis in the global citizenship tradition of viewing the child and the preschool from a wholeness perspective (Wagner, 2006). Together they form a foundation on which, we would argue, it is possible to build when operationalising a whole school approach to sustainability. We describe these four perspectives on wholeness in Nordic preschool education under four headings: The greening of the whole preschool; The whole child’s learning; Wholeness in preschool teaching; and Thematic approach as a perspective on a whole preschool.

4.1 Greening of the Whole Preschool

In Sweden, the issue of greening in preschools has increased in importance in recent decades. For example, there has been a move to rid building environments of toxic materials, such as harmful plastic, and to make sure that cleaning fluids are non-toxic (Borg, 2019). A recent study on sustainable preschools showed that many preschools procure eco-food or local produce, serve vegetarian food once or twice a week, and grow vegetables on school grounds (Engdahl et al., 2021). An increasing number of new preschools are climate-neutral. It is also common for Nordic preschools to have recycling boxes so that children learn from an early age to sort things into different containers and cupboards where parents can leave used toys and clothes for other children (Engdahl et al., 2024). Such examples demonstrate how the greening aspect of the whole preschool approach to sustainability has been significantly addressed in preschool education practice and research in Sweden. However, as mentioned earlier, there is little research on how to transfer the greening aspect from the preschool into society beyond the preschool. Therefore, more developmental work and research are needed that can investigate how preschools can interact with society on issues of sustainability in studies on the whole school approach to sustainability.

4.2 The Whole Child’s Learning

Traditionally in preschool education, the child is the focus, and the importance is on how they develop as individuals. The aim of early childhood education is to support children to develop cognitive, social, and motor skills, as well as—not least—values and ethics that are central to sustainability (Broström, 2017; Pramling & Pramling Samuelsson, 2011). These are important aspects when talking about a whole (pre)school approach to sustainability. A learner-centred perspective views the child as a whole in global citizenship education and is an important baseline when addressing a whole school approach to sustainability in preschool education. It is important for children to develop language competence so that they can become literate citizens. The journey towards the whole child’s learning is important in a whole school approach to sustainability because children need to be able to use and apply knowledge and make decisions according to their validated knowledge. This is important for them as citizens and is, consequently, a goal of a whole school approach to sustainability. As such, preschool is fundamental in terms of the lifelong learning of global citizens.

4.3 Wholeness in Preschool Teaching

All elements of the preschool day provide children with an education—that is to say, they are being educated even at times when the teacher is not teaching explicitly according to the curriculum. This distinction between spontaneous teaching and planned teaching is clear in the new Swedish curriculum (Skolverket, 2018), which is very different from teaching in compulsory school in which all teaching is steered by the teacher. Play, learning, and care are integral components of holistic preschool education. Teachers can play with children, look out for their well-being, and challenge and support their ideas and understanding of the world around them. Another way to describe preschool education in the Nordic countries is to say that its formal educational components are in essence informal (Wagner, 2006). Furthermore, the literature presents teaching strategies that have been developed to help teachers with children’s learning and that describe the importance of communication for young children (Doverborg et al., 2019). These teaching strategies can be used to further develop whole preschool approaches for sustainability because they start from the authentic experience of the child rather than the prescribed content of the curriculum.

When it comes to teaching about and for sustainability, it is important both to recognise the interconnectedness of environmental, social, and economic perspectives and to link facts, stories, and imagination and play with real-life issues (Eilam & Trop, 2010). In a preschool setting, teaching in line with global citizenship aspirations can be viewed as a shared, interactive experience, which means that rather than being instructional, teaching in the preschool setting is more about making somebody aware of something (Björklund & Pramling Samuelsson, 2020). The curriculum should be open and flexible, and it must provide opportunity for thought, reflection, and invention—indeed, opportunity for the child to be creative. Preschool education does not separate play from learning since the job of the preschool is to facilitate children’s learning and development in a form of teaching where play is central (Pramling & Wallerstedt, 2019). What the teacher can do is to point out a direction—to engage children in activities. In this way, children can be involved in decision-making in preschool teaching since they are to perceive themselves as having agency so that they can consider themselves active citizens, both locally and internationally (Borg & Gericke, 2021). This is also in line with a whole school approach to sustainability and differentiates between preschool teaching practices and those of compulsory school.

The predominant idea is that no one (the preschool teacher in this case) can construct teaching; rather, participants—in this case, the child and the preschool teacher—contribute jointly to learning. As such, the aspects of preschool teaching strategies that centre on wholeness in education are an existing tradition within preschool education in Sweden and the other Nordic countries that can inform the development and initiation of whole preschool approaches (Bascopé et al., 2019; Doverborg et al., 2019).

4.4 Thematic Approach as a Perspective on a Whole Preschool

In preschool education in the Nordic countries, thematic work has traditionally been central to the organisation of the curriculum and teaching. Thematic teaching integrates different subject areas under one theme and over the years has had many synonyms, among them centres of interest and projects. The official term in the curriculum is thematic work (Doverborg et al., 2020). What this means is that learning is not organised by school subject such as is the case in formal education at school. Thematic work integrates various topics: for example, the farm, the forest, water, the city, the seasons, and friendship. To make children aware of aspects of content areas, different subjects are used: for example, mathematics and language are put into a context that makes them meaningful. Thematic work in Swedish preschools can last from one week to six months (if not longer) so that teachers can incorporate and combine different subjects while focusing on a specific topic or theme. This is another aspect of the Nordic early childhood education tradition that fits well with the agenda for a whole school approach to sustainability.

Since children’s participation and influence are important for democracy and relate to citizenship, their voices and opinions are central. This relates to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) as a source in the sustainability work to enable children to develop agency and to dare to make decisions and develop civil disobedience instead of simply being followers. According to Struthers (2016), children can learn about their rights so long as adults afford them the opportunity to exercise them by allowing them—the children—to be heard and have influence. Studies show that it is not easy to implement this aspect of global citizenship (Theobald et al., 2023).

5 Lessons Learned from Global Citizenship to a Whole School Approach to Sustainability

In this chapter, we discuss the potential of preschool education in Sweden and the other Nordic countries in relation to whole school approach to sustainability. Based on our analysis of early childhood literature, we identified four characteristics of current preschool education in the Nordic countries, mainly Sweden, that can facilitate further development of a whole school approach to sustainability: The greening of the whole preschool; The whole child’s learning; Wholeness in preschool teaching; and Thematic approach as a perspective on a whole preschool (Gericke, 2022). We conclude that there is a great opportunity to promote a whole school approach to sustainability in preschool education in Sweden and the other Nordic countries today, much due to the fact that preschool education in the local context has been influenced by global citizenship education. We would argue that the current organisation, practices, and policy documents of the Nordic countries provide good incentives for preschools to work from a whole school approach to sustainability perspective based on their preschool education traditions. There are many preschools that have come a long way when it comes to establishing a whole school approach to sustainability without explicitly using the term or knowing what the term whole school approach means (Borg, 2019). One aspect of a whole school approach to sustainability in Nordic preschools that we identified as possibly weak is collaboration with society at large: here, there is a lack of both good examples and research, which calls for more research and development work in this area.

A more general conclusion of this chapter is that the whole school approach to sustainability benefits when consideration is given to the issue of globalisation and alignment to global citizenship education with a whole school approach to sustainability. If Agenda 2030 is to be achieved and preschools are to be agents of change for a more sustainable future, partnerships are needed not only at the local level but also at the global level. We, therefore, suggest that efforts to implement a whole school approach to sustainability must be aligned with efforts to achieve global citizenship education. For this to happen more systematically in efforts to achieve a whole school approach to sustainability in preschools, it is not enough to offer professional development. We would suggest that perspectives from a whole school approach to sustainability be included in early childhood teacher training programmes. Preschool teachers need to develop their skills and competence in this area so that they can work with both curriculum issues as well as greening and cooperation with society at large since their role is crucial for children’s learning of sustainability (see Borg, 2019; Borg & Gericke, 2021). In this way, we would argue that the preschool has the potential to be both a direct and an indirect agent of change that fosters children’s action competence for sustainability (Sass et al., 2021).