Tag: Language Awareness

• Key idea: We all have a role to play – e.g. involving the children in awareness raising or practical campaigns in supporting environmental sustainability (UC4.4).
• Key idea: Care for our environment will contribute to our individual and social wellbeing – e.g. Celebrating the sustainable actions of the preschool, local. National and international community (UC5.5).
• Key idea: Children learn that they have AGENCY when they grow and make things, they learn that their efforts and choices have a tangible impact. In the process children gain a sense of belonging, self-efficacy, competence, resilience and responsibility, all crucially important in their development of a strong sense of identity and independence.

Emergent learning:

Climate Change Action requires international solidarity, co-operation and collaboration which in turn requires humility and mutual respect.  No individual, and no nation, can achieve what is required to save the planet on their own, and yet we live in a world where historical conflicts and competition have often encouraged the development of prejudices and mistrust.

To some extent concerns about people we are less familiar with might be considered inevitable, from their very first weeks baby’s develop attachment to the familiar faces and sounds that they have heard from their parents and primary carers. These attachments are important, but in the absence of any experience of alternative skin colours and languages, prejudiced ideas may later come to be uncritically accepted. That is why most nurseries encourage children to play with dolls that have different skin colours. Picture story books showing the common concerns of people and children from around the world can also provide an important contribution, and in early childhood Language Awareness Education also has a major contribution to make. 

Activity recommendation:

A recurring theme throughout all of these episodes has been the importance of involving the children in sustainable practices. If we are concerned to provide the foundations for our sustainable citizens of the future, we must encourage sustainable habitual actions, and habits of mind.   Where we share sustainable activities with the children they benefit doubly, because they can see that the significant adult role models in their lives also consider them important.

Growing food, herbs and flowers for a purpose is a wonderfully sustainable, and fulfilling activity for children and colleagues to engage in and there are a wide range of different gardening activities that can be implemented in nurseries, schools and homes.  Even more importantly the child will come to recognise their own agency, their ability to change and make the world a better more sustainable place which will have long lasting benefits when they come later to bring up children of their own.

As an educational subject, Design and Technology education also has a role to play. It involves children in designing, making and evaluating products out of resistant materials, adding value and creating food products, and considerations of conservation and nutrition. 

Technology and its products are shaped by, but also serves to shape society, our behaviours,  institutions and relationships.  Education for citizenship must aim to develop technological awareness, so that our children grow up to be sensitive to the social and cultural implications of technology and their role as critical consumers and creators.

Bilingual Picture Story Books and Videos may be especially valuable in supporting children’s emergent language awareness.  A familiar story heard initially in the child’s mother tongue will be recognised when presented in a different language.  Children are often delighted to discover the cleverness of other languages.

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