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Care as a Foundational Organizing Principle of Social Sustainability in Early Childhood Education

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 March 2022) | Viewed by 15283

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Lasse Lipponen

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
Interests: cultural-historial activity theory; empathy and compassion in ECE; sustainability

Dr. Annukka Pursi

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
Interests: conversation analysis; emotions in ECE; very young children

Dr. Jaakko Hilppö

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
Interests: children’s agency, learning and development; children’s projects; cultural-historial activity theory

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The idea that education should support sustainable development has been a long-standing assumption. Following the UN’s 2030 agenda (United Nations, 2015), sustainability is often conceptualized as comprising three mutually constitutive and intertwined aspects, namely environmental, economic and social sustainability. Yet, in public and educational discussions, environmental and economic sustainability have received considerably more attention despite the fact that the importance of understanding and enhancing social sustainability is now more urgent than ever. This need has been brought about and made visible by, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic. In similar fashion, research about and on social sustainability in education is limited, especially in the early childhood sector (Boldermo and Ødegaard, 2019). This lack of research may stem from the challenge of defining what social sustainability fundamentally is. In fact, social sustainability appears to be an elusive and multifaceted concept with no universal or agreed definition and something that changes over time and place (McGuinn, J. et al., 2020). For example, in the UN’s 2030 agenda (United Nations, 2015), social sustainability covers a wide range of topics and issues, such as quality of life among all individuals, gender equality, inclusion, health and education, just to mention a few. Despite these various definitions and conceptualizations, there is, however, a shared motivation between researchers to design socially sustainable early childhood education. For us, one promising direction to approach, conceptualize and design for social sustainability is through the notion of care (The Care Collective, 2020; Wals, 2017).

The aim of this Special Issue is to explore social sustainability in early childhood education by considering care as a foundational organizing principle of social sustainability. Focusing on care, this Special Issue aims to provide an informative and complementary perspective on current discussions about social sustainability. We invite article contributions to this Special Issue on various topics, including, but not limited to, the following:

research that makes visible the potentialities of care as a core principle of social sustainability;
research on theoretical frameworks on understanding care as part of social sustainability;
research on methodologies to study care and social sustainability;
research that addresses the contextual features of care and social sustainability;
research on socio-material technologies/tools people use to organize care;
research on pedagogical practices of care and social sustainability, such as caring responsibilities, young children as carers, relationships of care, children’s care needs, quality and availability of care and informal and formal care.

Deadline for abstract/proposal submission 31 May 2021 (length of abstracts 250 words)

The abstract can be sent to [email protected]

Acceptance/rejection of abstracts: 15 June 2021.

Full manuscripts due 31 January 2022.

References:

1. Boldermo, S. and Ødegaard E. E. (2019) What about the migrant children? The state-of-the-art in research claiming social sustainability. Sustainability, 11, (2), 459.

2. The Care Collective (2020). The care manifesto. The politics of interdependence.

3. McGuinn, J. et al. (2020). Social Sustainability. Concepts and Benchmarks. Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies Directorate. Requested by the EMPL committee. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2020/648782/IPOL_STU(2020)648782_EN.pdfRetrieved, 31.01.2021.

4. United Nations (2015). Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. https://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E, Retrieved, 31.01.2021.

5. Wals, A. E. J. (2017). Sustainability by Default: Co-Creating Care and Relationality Through Early Childhood Education. International Journal of Early Childhood, 49, 155–164.

Prof. Dr. Lasse Lipponen
Dr. Annukka Pursi
Dr. Jaakko Hilppö
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

care
early childhood education
social sustainability

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 289 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Caring about and with Imaginary Characters: Early Childhood Playworlds as Sites for Social Sustainability

by Robert Lecusay, Anna Pauliina Rainio and Beth Ferholt

Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5533; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14095533 - 05 May 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1923

Abstract

We investigate the concept of care in adult-child joint play through two cases that illustrate ways in which the development of care relations among researchers, pedagogues, and children—and the imaginary characters they create through their joint play—shape and sustain early childhood education and care research and practice. We focus on the ways that early childhood education and care pedagogues’ approaches to care provide insights into practices of social sustainability, specifically social inclusion. The cases we present are drawn from recent studies of early childhood play. The studies belong to a corpus of international research projects that are researcher-teacher collaborations. These studies explore a unique form of adult-child joint imaginary play known as playworlds. Playworlds are based on cultural historical theories of development and art, Gunilla Lindqvist’s studies of playworlds, and local theory and practice of early childhood education and care. Our analyses of playworlds are based, in part, on Winnicott’s concept of transitional objects. The two cases are drawn from ECEC playworlds in Finland and the US. Each exemplifies how playworlds, as forms of participatory design research, make social sustainability possible. Furthermore, these cases highlight how, by working with the boundaries between and moving between real and imagined, the participants are able to develop new ways of being that are radically inclusive. We argue that they do so by facilitating and maintaining the development of care relations among researchers, teachers, children, and, importantly, imaginary characters, in ways that create what we call transitional subjects. We conclude that social sustainability, like care, should be conceived of as an ecology of caring practices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Care as a Foundational Organizing Principle of Social Sustainability in Early Childhood Education)

15 pages, 299 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Care and Social Sustainability in Early Childhood Education: Transnational Perspectives

by Kassahun Weldemariam, Angel Chan, Ingrid Engdahl, Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson, Timothy Chepkwesi Katiba, Tewodros Habte and Roland Muchanga

Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 4952; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14094952 - 20 Apr 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2801

Abstract

This article explores how the notion of care is conceptualised and described in early childhood education policies across countries in the majority (Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia) and minority (New Zealand and Sweden) world. A central focus is the relationship and balance between care and education. The authors examined whether there are trends and tendencies to strengthen or weaken the care/education component at the expense of the other. Grounded in local and national knowledge, the authors employed a cross-national collaborative inquiry approach and interrogated the notion of care while extrapolating its implications for the endeavour to design socially sustainable early childhood education. The results revealed that care has remained ingrained within policies in the minority world, while there is a tendency to view it as separate from education in the majority world. Although quantitative goals for early childhood education and care still dominate the majority world, the importance of care and sustainable development are present in all policy documents across the five nations. The authors concluded that strengthening these promising policy endeavours paves the way towards effective educare approaches, which lay the foundation for social sustainability in early childhood education. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Care as a Foundational Organizing Principle of Social Sustainability in Early Childhood Education)

9 pages, 220 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Revolutionary Love: Early Childhood Education as Counter-Culture

by Geoff Taggart

Sustainability 2022, 14(8), 4474; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14084474 - 08 Apr 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1809

Abstract

This paper places the pedagogies of love and care which typify the early years of practice in the context of evolution, arguing that, during an optimum window of development, young children are predisposed physiologically to benefit from the attention of multiple alloparents. This anthropological model of community stands in stark contrast to the individualistic and privatised notion of love in neoliberal cultures, indicating reasons why practitioners may be ambivalent about it. Moreover, it is argued that, whilst the notion of care is easily commoditised, the deeper concept of love, contextualised within wisdom and faith paths, is resistant to the money culture. In looking beyond neoliberalism at counter-cultural alternatives, alloparenting traditions suggest a way in which ECEC settings can establish themselves as models of social sustainability rooted in ‘philia’ and mutuality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Care as a Foundational Organizing Principle of Social Sustainability in Early Childhood Education)

20 pages, 1156 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Constructing a Socially Sustainable Culture of Participation for Caring and Inclusive ECEC

by Elina Weckström, Anna-Leena Lastikka and Sari Havu-Nuutinen

Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 3945; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14073945 - 26 Mar 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2636

Abstract

The aim of this research was to explore a socially sustainable culture of participation in which all members of the community can be heard, make initiatives, express their opinions, and alter their practices. We conducted the study by analysing three separate sets of empirical research data in which participation was investigated in an early childhood education and care (ECEC) context and in club activities for children aged 4–12 and the elderly. The data include children’s perspectives regarding participation, ECEC practitioners’ perspectives on a culture of participation, and children’s and ECEC practitioners’ shared project-based practices. The results show that children and ECEC practitioners were willing to commit to new practices and construct a collective ‘we-narrative’. A we-narrative created a foundation for the conceptual model of a socially sustainable culture of participation, including the prerequisites of participation in adult practices, the goal of participation in children’s and adults’ shared activities, and a tool for strengthening participation. According to the results, a socially sustainable culture of participation is holistic and dynamic, and children can have an effect on daily activities, including basic care situations, as well as part of the educational activities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Care as a Foundational Organizing Principle of Social Sustainability in Early Childhood Education)

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16 pages, 638 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Caring for Worldviews in Early Childhood Education: Theoretical and Analytical Tool for Socially Sustainable Communities of Care

by Magdalena Raivio, Ellinor Skaremyr and Arniika Kuusisto

Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 3815; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14073815 - 24 Mar 2022

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3610 | Correction

Abstract

Societies of today are becoming increasingly pluralistic. This applies also to the diversity of values and worldviews in Swedish early childhood education and care (ECEC). Still, in the increasingly secular contexts, societal hegemony often fails to include children’s home religions and worldviews in the actions and understandings aiming towards inclusiveness. We argue that it is of critical importance to also include the plurality of worldviews in the educational perception of “the whole child” in the care and education taking place in ECEC. The purpose of this article is to connect the discussions in the fields of intercultural and interreligious education, in particular those dealing with the diversity of religions and worldviews, to discussions on care and social sustainability in ECEC. The UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development promotes inclusive and equitable education, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child states children’s right to freedom of religion and a concern for the spiritual, moral, and social development. Our previous findings have illustrated the importance of religions and worldviews in the intercultural work within early childhood education, both empirically and conceptually, and as part of the moral core of teaching. This article employs feminist and postcolonial ethics of care as a theoretical lens in elaborating on the three key notions: social sustainability, care, and worldviews. Several discursive challenges that ECEC teachers in Sweden face in their work, to enhance social sustainability by supporting the child’s well-being and sense of belonging in the ECEC, have been outlined. To conclude, we bring forth a theoretical and analytical tool for the understanding, researching, and planning of socially sustainable communities of care. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Care as a Foundational Organizing Principle of Social Sustainability in Early Childhood Education)

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