Promoting Sustainability in Early Childhood Education

Sustainability in early childhood education influences every corner of a service’s practice. The National Quality Standard embeds environmental responsibility into Petit Early Learning Journey’s operations, everyday curriculum and the children’s learning program.

In an article on The Spoke (May 2019), Dr Sue Elliot, an expert on early childhood education and sustainability, describes the topic as complex. Often thought of as “green issues”, Elliot emphasises how global climate change makes us think deeper about the four dimensions of sustainability which UNESCO illustrates as economic, natural, social and political.

In “Ways of thinking, acting and relating about sustainability” (Research in Practice Series Volume 21 Number 3 2014), Tracy Young and Dr Sue Elliott encourage Educators to reflect deeply on the complexity of sustainability in early childhood education and what it means.

Our Petit ELJ centre teams partner with their families, children and communities to embed locally relevant sustainable practices into their services. For some, this may be a recycling station where families drop off recyclable items, while for others it includes a garden to the plate project or a community garden.

To help us understand how environmental responsibility impacts early childhood education, we invited Petit ELJ Caloundra and Petit ELJ Wooloowin to reflect on sustainability and openly share what it means to them. Our teams also discuss:

  • Teaching sustainability in early childhood education and care.
  • The responsibility and goals of environmental education.
  • Sustainability learning for children through everyday experiences.

Children at Petit ELJ Caloundra create a community garden while learning about sustainability in early childhood.


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