Learning from Nature: How Early Years Education Can Shape a Sustainable Future
On World Environment Day, we are invited to reflect not only on the beauty of the natural world, but on our responsibility to nurture it. At the ÃÜÌÒ´«Ã½, Glenda Tinney, a lecturer from the BA (Hons) Early Years Education and Care programme, shares how the course has embedded environmental awareness at its heart. Through a blend of classroom learning, outdoor exploration, and hands-on conservation, students are discovering the profound connection between early years education and sustainability. In this thought piece, Glenda reflects on how small acts of noticing, caring, and being curious about the world can shape future generations to become informed, ethical citizens rooted in a deep sense of place and responsibility.
The BA (Hons) Early Years Education and Care team have made exploring and raising awareness of the world around us a key part of their course.
This term is no different with students having an opportunity to consider their connection with the environment and explore in detail how we can encourage and develop children as well as adults to explore and advocate for the environment.
One of the keyways we do this is get outside and be curious to see what other living things we share the world with and to take time to notice and learn about them. Our third year students have been enrolled on the John Muir Award and as part of this work they have been exploring the local area and learning about the significance of different plants, animals, microbes and cycles of life for our own wellbeing and key aspects of sustainability. Students have also taken the time to do some practical conservation including litter picking, making bird feeders, bug hotels, planting pollinating plants.
Doing these experiences as a group and having a chance to explore their own areas of interest has helped support students understanding of child-led learning and ideas such as the 100 languages of Reggio and learning from nature. By doing it themselves in safe and encouraging environment we hope build their confide to engage children in early years settings and schools to take part in nature walks, undertake small conservation projects and b more confident to notice and investigate the natural world we are a part of.
It has been a mix of classroom learning, practical tasks and outdoor learning. All designed to help students notice the importance of connecting to the world around us and to reflect on the benefits this may have for children and the other parts of the natural world.
In our view sustainability should not be an add on or extra thing it should be integrated into all our work as students and with children in practice. It should inform how we see resources for learning, how we can be inspired to create art and how we remember the importance of all living things, and acknowledge our gratitude beyond just the human world.
One student reflected upon her own practice when children asked her to save a ‘daddy long legs’ stuck by a window and how this became a significant learning experience for the children. They took time to put the insect in a safe container, with holes for air, before then carrying the creature safely to the outdoor garden. These acts of kindness towards other living things, however small can start the journey to discovering how humans are part of a interconnected world and how we can act look to after other living things. It can also be the start of discovery and exploration in terms of what these different animals and plant are and how they impact the world and sustain the systems we rely on Earth.
Environmental day is worth celebrating and we understand that those working in the early years have a key role in supporting children’s discovery and exploration and empathy for the world.
In Wales we have a curriculum which foregrounds belonging and ‘Cynefin’ (that sense of place in our own area and cultural context) and ethical citizenship. Taking time to explore and notice the awe and wonder of the world around us and consider how we can work in a positive way to encourage to support daddy ling leges, ladybird, woodlice , dandelion and daisy is a start of that journey to being ethical and informed citizens.
For more information about UWTSD’s Early Years Education course, please visit: Early Years Education and Care: Early Years Practitioner Status (2 Years) | University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Further Information
Lowri Thomas
Principal Communications and PR Officer
Corporate Communications and PR
Email: lowri.thomas@uwtsd.ac.uk
Phone: 07449 998476