Relationships between Citizenship Education and Environmental Education in the Early Childhood Education Curriculum

Abstract

The current major concern about educating critically thinking citizens capable of addressing contemporary socio-environmental conflicts leads us to present the results obtained in a research that analyzes the state educational regulations for the Early Childhood Education Stage. Using a qualitative approach, both lexicometric and content analyses were conducted. The lexicometric analysis reveals a certain parity in the appearance of terms related to Citizenship Education and Environmental Education, although concepts more closely related to Citizenship Education are slightly more represented. On the other hand, the content analysis highlights a high degree of integration of both disciplines, although a complete and critical conceptualization of Citizenship Education is not achieved, in which Environmental Education is understood as integrated within that Citizenship Education and approached from a systemic and pragmatic perspective. These results emphasize the need to continue working towards integrating both areas from a critical and global perspective, for which the construction of an integrated curriculum structured around relevant socio-environmental issues is essential.