Purpose
The study investigates how education for sustainable development (ESD) is integrated into the annual plans of kindergartens in Norway. The purpose is to understand how sustainable development is expressed in these plans, and whether it reflects the intentions of the Framework Plan for Kindergartens. The study analysed 30 randomly selected annual plans using document analysis to assess how sustainable development is implemented in practice.
Result
The results showed that 18 of the annual plans did not mention sustainable development at all, while several others only used the term without further elaboration. The few plans describing sustainability focused mainly on ecological aspects such as recycling and nature conservation. There was little focus on social and economic dimensions of sustainable development. The study indicates that sustainability is often addressed without being concretely rooted in pedagogical practice.
Design
Data were collected through investigations of 30 randomly selected annual plans downloaded from the internet, and a document analysis approach was used. The annual plans were all from 2019-2020.
References
Meland, A. T. (2022). Tracking education for sustainable development in ECEC institutions’ annual plans. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 30(5), 791–805.
Online year: 2021
Issue year: 2022
Review year: 2022