A Critical Analysis of Education for Sustainability in Early Childhood Curriculum Documents in China and Norway

The article analyses and compares how kindergarten curricula in two different cultural contexts, Norway and China, deal with the topic of sustainable development. The research questions are: 1) Is the concept of sustainable development explicitly and implicitly used in Chinese and Norwegian curriculum documents? 2) How and in what ways are the children, as active participants in creating change, represented in the Norwegian and Chinese kindergarten curriculum documents? 3) How and in what ways is the notion of sustainable development in children’s everyday lives reflected in these documents?

The analysis shows that China and Norway place different emphasis on the three dimensions of sustainable development that the analysis focused on, i.e. socio-cultural, economic and environmental sustainability. Norway has a more autonomous view of children’s opportunities for self-determination, while China focuses more on teacher support. The two countries also have different perspectives on kindergarten collaboration with the children’s families and the local community due to different traditions. The comparative document analysis shows that dominant cultural dimensions in both countries, such as collective and individualistic factors, can shape the understandings of sustainable development in the countries’ national curricula.

The authors have analysed and compared national curriculum documents for kindergartens in Norway and China with a focus on how different forms of sustainable development are implemented in the curricula. In the document analyses, emphasis has been placed on three topics related to sustainable development: 1) The concept of sustainable development (economic, socio-cultural and environmental), 2) Children as agents of change for sustainable development and 3) Sustainable development in children’s everyday lives.

Li, M., Zhang, Y., Yuan, L. & Birkeland, Å. (2019). «A Critical Analysis of Education for Sustainability in Early Childhood Curriculum Documents in China and Norway”. ECNU Review of Education, 2(4):441–457.