You're never too young to start being sustainable, according to a Queensland University of Technology early childhood education academic who says educating children to be environmentally aware from birth can impact on environmental issues such as climate change.
Dr Julie Davis, from QUT's School of Early Childhood, is the editor and co-author of a new book titled Young Children and the Environment, tackling one of the biggest contemporary issues of our time - living sustainably.
Designed to promote education for sustainability from birth to eight years, Dr Davis said the book was an essential text for student teachers in early childhood education and a practical resource for childcare practitioners and primary school teachers.
"The book looks at why sustainability issues are important for young people and why early childhood educators should become involved with it," she said.
"Who knows what ideas and impressions they have? It is vitally important that we help young children to properly understand matters such as water shortages and water conservation, or energy issues or energy conservation, though in ways that encourage positive responses.
"This is not 'doom and gloom' education. It is transformative education, that values, encourages and supports children to be problem-seekers, problem-solvers and takers of action in their own environments.
"For example they can plant and maintain gardens, care for a piece of local bushland, repair the eroded playground patch, learn to manage limited resources such as water and learn about and care for the insects and lizards in the playground."
Dr Davis said it was a mistake to think of children only as victims in the face of present and future sustainability challenges.
"With support, protection and education, young children can be extraordinarily resilient and positive about the state of the world and their place in shaping it," she said.
"It is about enriching a child's experiences and building upon young children's knowledge and skills to make a difference in their own lives and on sustainability related matters, now and into the future.
"Many of their early thoughts and actions around environmental topics and issues also have the potential to become social and environmental habits that can be transferred into their lives outside of kindergarten or preschool and that they can take with them into the future as adults."
Dr Davis said Young Children and the Environment was not a book about the perils of global warming or its impact on children, although climate change did provide an impetus.
"Nor was it a response to environmental issues that shifts responsibilities from adults to children, asking them to fix what we leave behind," she said.
"It is about helping societies move towards sustainable living specifically in the emerging field of early childhood education for sustainability.
"To change how we live, first, we need to change how we think."
Dr Davis said investing in early education for sustainability was well worth the time and effort.
"Not only can young children learn about environmental issues, they can and do, take action to change their behaviours in both the educational setting and at home," she said.
"Furthermore, the adults around them - their teachers and parents - also learn and act for the environment as a result of the curriculum decisions that are made.
"This book is about the power of early childhood education for sustainability as a catalyst for change and the power of the very young as agents of change for sustainability."
Young Children and the Environment is published by Cambridge University Press and is available from The Book Garden (Brisbane) at www.thebookgarden.com.au.
Media contacts:
Niki Widdowson, QUT media officer, 07 3138 1841 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au
Sandra Hutchinson, QUT media officer (Tue/Wed), 07 3138 2999 or s3.hutchinson@qut.edu.au
**A high-resolution photo of Dr Davis is available for media use
