The future is in childhood: Evaluation of the quality of sustainability programmes in the early years

Abstract

During the last decade Environmental Education (EE) programs have drawn attraction from both experts and educators as a way to answer the increasing preoccupation about the different challenges and problems faced by the Environment. For this reason, many schools have started programmes and strategies related to EE with different success. In this work, we have carried out a case study over 30 teachers of Early Years Education (EYE), working at preschools in Granada, Spain, in order to assess the implementation of Environmental Education in their daily practice. By means of an interview protocol we have gathered information about 15 different categories encompassed in topics which are central to EE such as curricular innovation, participation of the educational community and sustainable management of the school. Results show how teachers are positive regarding the inclusion of EE in their daily practice and the participation of the community. On the other hand we observed the difficulties faced by the educators to effectively implement EE programs due to lack of economic support by the Administration and the need to carry out an objective consultancy to overcome possible biases which may exist when teachers evaluate their own performance.