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Early childhood education for sustainability in Sweden, Norway and Italy, a comparison of national curricula
Queen Maud University College for Early Childhood Education, Norway.
Högskolan Dalarna, Pedagogiskt arbete.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4937-8413
University Aldo Moro Bari, Italy.
2024 (English)In: 32nd EECERA Annual Conference. Developing Sustainable Early Childhood Education Systems: Comparisons, Contexts and the Cognoscenti. Brighton, United Kingdom. 3rd – 6th September 2024. Programme of Symposia, EECERA , 2024Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

The aim of our study is to explore and compare the curricula for preschool in Norway, Italy and Sweden, with special focus on sustainability. Research indicates that national curricula play a significant role in developing educational activities for young children, who will bear the consequences of inaction in the actual climate and biodiversity crisis and should therefore be empowered to effectively engage themselves towards a sustainable future (Ärlemalm- Hagsér et al., 2014; Borg et al., 2022; Ohlsson et al., 2022; United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2022). This study uses Bruner’s theory of learning and process of education (1960, 1966) as well as an integrated approach to sustainability. A qualitative research paradigm will be used to conduct a critical content analysis (Cohen et al., 2018) to interpret and compare differences and similarities among the curricula. Although this is a curricula analysis that is based solely on secondary data, ethical consideration was given to ensuring fair representation of literature from relevant sources, to avoid possibility of bias. The findings indicate that in Norway and Sweden, the term sustainability is explicitly mentioned several times in the curricula as one of the core values of the Framework plan for preschools. In Italy the term is not explicitly mentioned, although many parts of the curriculum can be directly linked to the UN sustainability goals. Our study contributes to increase knowledge about policies in preschool education in Norway, Sweden, and Italy. The results are discussed in the light of the different national contexts. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
EECERA , 2024.
Keywords [en]
sustainability, comparative study, critical content analysis, integrated approach, climate change
National Category
Pedagogy
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-73004OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-73004DiVA, id: diva2:1989473
Conference
32nd EECERA Annual Conference. Developing Sustainable Early Childhood Education Systems: Comparisons, Contexts and the Cognoscenti. Brighton, United Kingdom. 3rd – 6th September 2024
Available from: 2025-08-16 Created: 2025-08-16 Last updated: 2025-10-10Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
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