Early childhood sustainable pedagogy into and beyond the 21st century

Introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) (UNESCO 2015) and the subsequent Education for Sustainable Development: a roadmap (UNESCO 2020) has been seen to present challenges for Early Childhood Education in creating a path to support how young children see the world and themselves (Chapman & Gorman 2022). These challenges include: How adults’ view and understand children’s abilities and learning styles, and the empowerment of children’s voice. In this chapter we will investigate levels of sustainability awareness and adult confidence levels to engage with SDGs in practice. But how can we embrace this challenge to ensure that Early Childhood Education survives and flourishes into the 21st century and beyond? The call for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) (UNESCO 2020) and the Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy (DfE, 2023) highlights the need for children and adults to be active in becoming more sustainable, to challenge and be agents for all ecological participants. However, understanding and knowledge of ESD in Early Childhood practice has been left wanting, therefore confidence to embrace and embed it requires attention. In the following chapter we will be exploring the historical and contemporary impact of Sustainability in Early Childhood whilst also discussing the ways forward including an emphasis on the need to develop a Sustainable Pedagogy (Scollan, Boyd & Lee 2024).