Education for sustainability in preschool: Swedish preschool teachers’ perspectives

Abstract

Worldwide, preschool is recognized as an important arena for the implementation of education for sustainability (EfS). In Swedish preschools EfS has been a part of the national curriculum since 2019, but little is known about what this means in practice. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to increase our understanding about preschool teachers’ perspectives on teaching for sustainability. Using individual semi-structured interviews with 16 randomly selected preschool teachers in Sweden, the results of which were analyzed thematically and then quantitatively, this study examines how teachers put EfS into practice. Four teaching practices were identified: actively present teachers, children’s experiences as a basis for learning, children’s opportunity for agency–a democratic approach, and communication between children and teachers. Taken together, these four teaching practices demonstrate a pluralistic teaching tradition. The analysis also demonstrates a holistic perspective on subject content where environmental, social and economic issues are addressed. A third result is that EfS is carried out using three teaching strategies planned, spontaneous and semi-spontaneous. The identification of semi-spontaneous teaching is an important finding which is made possible in created learning environments aiming to stimulate children’s agency, which is of central importance in EfS and an important contribution from this study.