Dalarna University's logo and link to the university's website

du.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • chicago-author-date
  • chicago-note-bibliography
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Implementing education for sustainability in preschool: Teaching strategies and learning environments
Dalarna University, School of Teacher Education, Educational Work.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6727-2196
Dalarna University, School of Teacher Education, Educational Work.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4937-8413
2024 (English)In: Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, ISSN 2206-3110Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Sustainable development
RECAST, SDG 4: Quality education, SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production
Abstract [en]

Education for Sustainability (EfS) has been included in preschool teaching in several countries. Yet few studies investigate EfS in practice or the way learning environments affect teaching. This study investigates which learning environments and teaching strategies facilitate or, indeed, hinder EfS. An observational study was conducted at two preschools where the teaching and EfS practices of two teachers were observed both indoors, in the outdoor play area, and in the forest. Observations were analysed using qualitative content analysis and coded based on the teaching strategies and EfS practices in these three learning environments. An inductive analysis was then conducted to identify enablers and barriers for implementing EfS. Results show that planned teaching is the dominant teaching strategy indoors and in the forest but was absent in the outdoor play. Semi-spontaneous teaching was common in those learning environments that had been adapted to stimulate teaching. An enabler in the forest was movement in the place. In the outdoor play area, an adapted learning environment was an enabler just as it was indoors, where available teaching material was also an enabler for EfS. Barriers indoors were low expectations of children and the teacher’s supervisory role in the outdoor play area. In the forest, a strict teaching structure was a barrier for EfS. This study shows that it is useful for a variety of EfS practices to use different learning environments, indoors and outdoors, as well as different teaching strategies and that preschool teachers might need in-service training to overcome the identified barriers.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2024.
Keywords [en]
Learning environments, Outdoor education, Preschool, Sustainability education, Teaching practices, Teaching strategies
National Category
Pedagogical Work
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-49826DOI: 10.1007/s42322-024-00181-5ISI: 001376230100001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85211906356OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-49826DiVA, id: diva2:1921717
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2018-04445Dalarna UniversityAvailable from: 2024-12-17 Created: 2024-12-17 Last updated: 2025-10-09

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(719 kB)155 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 719 kBChecksum SHA-512
ada9321875210340f4e276f3dab4c6bdb0073d3f3fa7ca9b6c96dea9735cc22c5ac529366a9b8e288795d86ac51b01fa2b389e0cb7bbe7a8f20f0bcb796eec23
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Ohlsson, AndersBorg, Farhana

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Ohlsson, AndersGericke, NiklasBorg, Farhana
By organisation
Educational Work
Pedagogical Work

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 155 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 164 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • chicago-author-date
  • chicago-note-bibliography
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf