Research Information System
32nd EECERA ANNUAL CONFERENCE Developing Sustainable Early Childhood Education Systems: Comparisons, Contexts and the Cognoscenti , Brighton, England, 3 - 06 September 2024, pp.147, (Summary Text)
This research aims to investigate the experiences of teachers who have engaged in professional development
programs focused on education for sustainability (EfS), scrutinizing their current EfS practices, identifying challenges
in implementing effective EfS, and gathering their perspectives on enhancing collaboration between schools,
families, and communities to bolster sustainability. Various research conducted with preschool teachers to reveal
teachers’ EfS practices (Engdahl et al., 2023), teachers’ perspectives towards barriers to EfS implementations (Davis
& Davis, 2021), and collaboration of stakeholders for SD (Davis, 2010) are related to the current study. This research
was based on the idea of EfS as a complex and interrelated concept that involves teacher experiences, EfS practices,
and stakeholder collaboration (Arlemalm-Hagser et al., 2022) have been highlighted as core elements and on the
notion of critical pedagogy which integrates reflexivity, critique, and social engagement to transform learning for
sustainable practices (Kellner, 2023). Face-to-face interviews were conducted with the qualitative research method
in order to reveal the best EfS practices and to obtain the opinions of preschool teachers. Before the interviews,
researchers are going to share the aim of the study with participants and informed consent forms will be obtained
from the participants. It is assumed that sustainability-oriented trainee preschool teachers' good EfS practices that
reflect each pillar of sustainability with a holistic approach and multifaceted factors affecting the quality of EfS
practices will be revealed. The anticipated outcomes of this research are expected to influence the formulation of
educational policies that address community needs and enhance EfS implementations.