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Early Childhood Education for Sustainability

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Quality Education

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

Definitions

The United Nations (UN) defines a child as any person under age 18 (UN 1989; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO] 2017). Early childhood care and education (ECCE) denotes the education of children from birth till 8 years of age (UNESCO 2017), which could be the starting point for the development of a sustainable society, particularly by embedding early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) in early years curricula (Davis 2010; Elliott 2019; UNESCO 2014). ECEfS is transformative, empowering, and participative education around sustainability issues, topics, and experiences via the creation of, and support of, learning communities in ECCE (Davis 2010).

Introduction

While a child is considered to be any person under the age of 18 (UN 1989; UNESCO 2017), early childhood is the period between birth and 8 years of age (UNESCO 2017), unless otherwise stated by national laws. Early childhood is a sensitive period for brain development....

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Correspondence to Jane Spiteri .

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Spiteri, J. (2020). Early Childhood Education for Sustainability. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Quality Education. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69902-8_114-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69902-8_114-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69902-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69902-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

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