Creating a culture of sustainability: From project to integrated education for sustainability at Campus Kindergarten

Abstract

A growing body of research identifies the early years as a critical and highly influential period in children’s development. In areas as diverse as crime prevention and health promotion, early years investments are considered cost –effective. Early investments around sustainability issues, too, can be expected to lead to positive individual and societal outcomes. While the early childhood education field has been slow to take up the challenges of the sustainability agenda, a sea-change is becoming apparent, and Campus Kindergarten is one such early childhood education centre in Australia leading the way. In 1997, the centre initiated a Sustainable Planet Project involving a variety of curriculum and pedagogical activities that have led to improvements in play spaces, reduced waste, lowered water consumption and improved biodiversity. However, such changes are not curriculum ‘add-ons’. A qualitative study of curriculum decision-making by staff shows that a culture of sustainability permeates the centre. One way that this is reflected is that children’s ideas provide much of the motivation and inspiration for changing to more sustainable practices. A whole centre project on water conservation, for example, was sparked when preschoolers (aged 4 years) articulated their concerns to staff about water use in the sandpit. Creating a culture of sustainability is a slowly evolving process requiring a big vision that incorporates small but realistic goals and achievements.