Engagerade i världens bästa? Lärande för hållbarhet i förskolan
Abstract
In this thesis the aim is to acquire knowledge about and to scrutinise the
ambiguity, complexity and contradictions within education for sustainability in
the Swedish preschool, as well as analysing children’s agency and meaning-making
and how they are manifested in relation to education for sustainability.
In this qualitative research, the theoretical framework is guided by a critical
theory approach as well as an ecofeministic perspective. The empirical material
was obtained in four studies, which are presented in four articles focusing on
different levels in the educational system, i.e. the national preschool curriculum,
the envisioned curriculum and the enacted curriculum. Owing to the complexity
of the objects of inquiry a bricolage methodological approach is used.
The first article focuses on day care attendants’ comprehension of the
concept of sustainable development and the pedagogical practices at their place
of work in preschools. The second article scrutinises education for sustainable
development in the Swedish preschool and the ways that young children are
described as active participants and agents of change. The third article analyses
the ways that young children were described and supported as active participants
for change in the Australian and Swedish national steering documents for early
childhood education. In the fourth article the dialogues between preschool
children and preschool teachers are analysed in a theme about Earth Hour. In
the final analysis all four articles are analysed as a whole to synthesise the
findings and acquire knowledge about education for sustainability in the Swedish
preschool.
The findings show that education for sustainability is seen as an important
task in the preschool educational activities and that preschool children
participate in various activities (knowledge contents) dealing with sustainability
issues. Children are also described as important actors in relation to their own
lives in the present and in the future. Themes that become visible are related to:
the present as an ongoing relation with the past and the future, places of agency,
preschool children and nature, and preschool as an affirmative sustainability
practice. In these themes hidden structures appear with unreflected and taken-for-
granted assumptions: in relation to the knowledge contents, places for
children’s agency and in children's relationship to nature. On the other hand,
education for sustainability in the Swedish preschool can also be interpreted as a
place where a transformative opportunity sometimes occurs. This is evident in
the rhetoric of children’s rights and skills, a rights logic, as well as in the logic of
care, which manifests itself in the respect for the child and respect for nature.
The findings point to a complex web in which the present-day educational
activities still contain notions and ideas from the early preschool days, along with
more contemporary understanding of children, childhood and the preschool as a
place where different political and practical agenda are expressed.
Parts of work
I. Ärlemalm-Hagsér, E., & Sandberg, A. (2011). Sustainable
development in early childhood education: in-service students’
comprehension of the concept. Environmental Education Research Journal,
17(2), 187-200. DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2010.522704 II. Ärlemalm-Hagsér, E. (2012). Lärande för hållbar utveckling i förskolan
Kunskapsinnehåll, delaktighet och aktörskap kommunicerat i text.
Nordisk barnehageforskning, 5(2), 121. https://journals.hioa.no/index.php/nbf/article/view/417 III. Ärlemalm-Hagsér, E., & Davis, J. (accepterad). Examining the
rhetoric: A comparison of how sustainability and young children’s
participation and agency are framed in Australian and Swedish early
childhood education curricula. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. IV. Ärlemalm-Hagsér, E. (2012). Minds on Earth hour a theme for
sustainability in Swedish early childhood education. Early Child
Development and Care. 114, iFirst Article. DOI:10.1080/03004430.2012.746971
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
University
Göteborgs universitet. Utbildningsvetenskapliga fakulteten
University of Gothenburg. Faculty of Education
Institution
Department of Education, Communication and Learning ; Institutionen för pedagogik, kommunikation och lärande
Disputation
Fredagen den 31 maj 2013, kl. 13.00, Kjell Härnqvistsalen (hus A), Pedagogen Göteborgs universitet
Date of defence
2013-05-31
eva.arlemalm-hagser@ped.gu.se
eva.arlemalm-hagser@mdh.se
View/ Open
Date
2013-05-10Author
Ärlemalm-Hagsér, Eva
Keywords
Critical theory, bricoleur, ecofeminism, early childhood education,education for sustainability
Publication type
Doctoral thesis
ISBN
978-91-7346-744-5 (print)
978-91-7346-745-2 (pdf )
Series/Report no.
Gothenburg Studies in Educational Sciences
335
Language
swe