Achieving Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Early Childhood Education Through Critical Reflection in Transformative Learning

Abstract

The central role of education in creating a more sustainable future has been already recognized by educators and policy-makers alike. This chapter argues that this can only be truly achieved through the efforts of teachers in implementing an “education of a different kind,” a general educational shift that seeks to encompass a converging transformation of the priorities and mindsets of education professionals. In this regard, the professional preparation of teachers, as the leading actors in shaping children’s learning processes, and their continuous professional development are vital considerations for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to be successfully achieved. Linking transformative learning and ESD has emerged as a distinct and useful pedagogy because they both support the process of critically examining habits of mind, then revising these habits and acting upon the revised point of view. This study aims to describe and evaluate the potential of transformative learning in innovating mainstream education toward sustainability by focusing on the role of critical reflection in a capacity building research project realized in Turkey. The data was gathered from 24 early childhood educators using a mixed-method research design involving learning diaries, a learning activities survey, and follow-up interviews. This chapter identified content, context, and application method of the in-service training as factors that have contributed to the reflective practices of the participants. In addition, presenting the implications regarding the individual differences in how learners engage in critical reflection practices, this research offers a framework for a content- and process-based approach derived from Mezirow’s conception of critical reflection.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Critical Reflection Opportunities in the Training in Relation to Mezirow’s Three Forms of Critical Reflection

Timing of the sessions	Training content and critical reflection opportunities (the questions posed by the trainer to the participants throughout the sessions)	Mezirow’s three forms of critical reflection
First day	Nine dots: You were instructed to join up nine dots using four straight lines without lifting your pen from the paper. None of you were able to complete the task, because you did not consider the possibility that you could draw lines which extended beyond the box formed by the nine dots. Yet you were not given any instruction to the effect that you could not go outside this box. Now let’s think about what other examples of this exist in our everyday life. What might such situations stem from?	Content reflection Premise reflection
	Data discussion: Based on the factual data provided, what can you say about the state of life on our planet? What other examples can you give from your own experience that support or contradict this information?	Content reflection
Second day	Ecological footprint: What do you think about the situation that has emerged? Is knowing this important for you? Why? What do you think about your own ecological footprint? What made you think like that? What did this process lead you to think about your own choices?	Content reflection Premise reflection
	Stations of cause: Among the causes of unsustainability, which ones did you find most and least important? How did you select these causes? Are the experiences you have had about the causes of unsustainability in line with your previous assumptions? If so, in what ways do they match? If not, in what ways do they clash? Do you feel any need to review your previous assumptions at this point?	Content reflection Premise reflection
	Commercials: How do you construct your values? How are your consumption habits formed? Commercials create the impression that consumption brings happiness. What do you think about this?	Content reflection Premise reflection
Third day	Life of a chair and an apple tree: What are the similarities and differences between these two life cycles? When you look at them as a whole, how do these two systems operate? What kind of inferences can you make about your own daily lives on this basis?	Content reflection Premise reflection
	Cradle-to-cradle thinking: What do you think about this model? What might be the reasons why we people do not put this model into practice? What would have to be done for this model to become a part of our lives?	Process reflection
	Story of stuff/video film: What kinds of cause-and-effect relationships did you observe in what you watched? What kind of place do you think these relationships occupy in our daily lives? Was there any moment when you felt surprised, sad, happy, or disappointed? Did you become aware of any connection between what you were watching and your own lives? Was there any moment that made you question your own situation? Can you tell more about it? What do you think about the impact of social and economic norms? After watching this film, did you feel any need to reconsider the way you have come to look on the global system?	Content reflection Process reflection Premise reflection
Fourth day	Trading game: This activity is a version of the production patterns that exist today turned into a game. By playing the game, the participants were given the chance to experience the way in which competition and the desire to gain increases in the level of production, the dominant role of money in this process, and the uneven distribution of resources. Later, the game was used to demonstrate that there is an underlying economic basis to human-made systems, and lead the participants to think about the difference between needs and wants, about sustainable production and about the various elements of social justice. At the end of the game, the following questions were asked: How did you feel during the game? How did you get on with one another? What kind of relationship did you have with the banker? Did the groups act in accordance with the economy or did they direct the economy in line with their own needs? Is this situation true to life? In your view, how much production was sufficient? Did the groups treat each another fairly? Was money more important? Or was the important thing always to have more?	Content reflection Process reflection Premise reflection
	Circles: What kinds of relationship do you think there are between these three components? What is your thinking based on? What kind of a cause-and-effect relationship can you establish between the three components?	Content reflection
Fifth day	We are building sustainable schools: What do you think about the sustainable school models that have been generated? Within these models, what do you think could be put into practice and what do you think could not be put into practice? Why do you think like that? What could be done to make these models more workable?	Process reflection Premise reflection
	Characteristics of a sustainable lesson plan: After all this process, what do you think would be the salient characteristics of a lesson plan developed within the framework of sustainability? Based on these plans, do you think you could develop and implement sustainable lesson plans for your own students? What would help you to do this?	Process reflection
Sixth day	Who told us that we cannot fly planes?: When you consider your definitions of sustainability and the discussions of these definitions, do you observe anything that you had not noticed before? What kind of inferences did you draw from this activity? At the end of the day, has there been any change in your original definition of sustainability? What factors might have influenced this?	Content reflection Process reflection Premise reflection
	Sustainability eyeglasses: What kind of connection can be made between the ECE curriculum and sustainability? Did you notice this connection before? If not, what might have led to this awareness?	Content reflection Process reflection
Seventh day	Micro-teaching and traffic lights: Do you believe that these lesson plans and sustainable education projects can be put into practice? What sort of obstacles might you face in this respect? What can you do to overcome these obstacles?	Process reflection

Appendix 2: The Categorization Scheme (Wallman et al., 2008) Used for the Analysis of Learning Diaries and Learning Activities Open-Ended Questions

6. Premise reflection	Reflective
5. Process reflection
4. Content reflection
3. Introspection	Non-reflective
2. Thoughtful action
1. Habitual action

Non-reflection

• 1. Habitual action. Habitual action is an unconscious act that takes place without thought and can be performed at the same time as another act. A description of an act performed without thought or having to focus could be, for example, driving a car. A description of the course of events can be categorized as habitual action. For example: “I started to learn names of the other participants. We discussed the relationship among human-money-tree, we made drawings about that. We played the trading game which replicates the competition among countries. We used stations technique to evaluate the past three days of the training.”

• 2. Thoughtful action. Thoughtful action draws upon existing knowledge with no critical appraisal. The starting point lies in the previously existing knowledge, and choices between different alternatives regarding how to perform the task are made either unconsciously or not at all. Why a certain choice is made is not questioned and no interpretation is made. No thought is given to the consequences of this particular choice. An example of this is a description of the participant how she/he is going to use the experience she/he gained from the training “Due to what I’ve learned from this training, I have decided to cut back on my consumption, buy something only if I need it, be more conscious about my consumption habits.”

• 3. Introspection. Introspection refers to thoughts about oneself, one’s own thoughts or feelings about performing a task. There is no comparison between the actual task and/or one’s previous experiences, nor are there any thoughts as to why these feelings occur or what they might lead to. An example of this is a description of how it feels to learn something, or how the participant feels when she/he faced the critical facts about the planet “Frankly, I became very pessimistic. I always keep my hope alive. But I am so pessimistic that I am thinking of myself as someone who harbors a faint hope wishing that a single candle could illuminate the entire room” or how she participants felt about the involvement of other participants “During the activities today, I saw that there is no difficulty which could not be overcome by friendship and solidarity. I really appreciated the stations technique.”

Reflection

The definition of reflection as it is used below is that a situation is identified in relation to an actual experience. This problem must somehow be analyzed in order for the task to be executable. Previous knowledge is used in the specific situation and is questioned and criticized when necessary.

• 4. Content reflection . Content reflection pertains to what one perceives, thinks, or feels, or how one acts when undertaking a task. There should be a questioning or an interpretation of a behavior in order to be categorized as reflection, otherwise it is most often categorized as “2. Thoughtful action.” While engaging in content reflection, the person consciously thinks about the problem, his/her role on the examined problem and what she/he needs to do to solve the actual problem. This is similar to asking, “What is happening here? What is the problem?” (Cranton, 2006, p. 34). She/he does not, however, reflect upon why the action taken works or how his/her own behavior developed. What effect the thought, feeling, or act may have should be discussed. For example, “During the course of this training I realized that I started to think about the issues that had never crossed my mind before. I never imagined what a large ecological footprint I have. It never occurred to me that I had such an ecological impact on the planet.”

• 5. Process reflection. Process reflection refers to how one performs the functions of perceiving, thinking, feeling, or acting, and to an assessment of the efficacy of the performance. There should be a proposal for, or an interpretation of, problem solving for a categorization as process reflection. For example, the participant explains his/her ideas on how to integrate sustainability issues into his/her curriculum and she/he further thinks how this change might work out. In comparison with content reflection, there is more focus on problem-solving strategies: “It is asking questions of the form, how did this come to be?” (Cranton, 2006, p. 34). Reflection of process can also contain reflection of the person’s feelings and actions, as well as what she/he has been doing to handle the experience. For example, “I got involved in deep discussions with my colleagues which in itself was a new experience for me. The setting of the training enabled us to acknowledge and respect diverse perspectives. Consequently, I realized that my own perspective has also been broadened. I believe that thanks to my enhanced ability of approaching a subject from various angles, my workshops with the parents would produce results of better quality.”

• One’s thoughts and beliefs about how the thought, feeling, or act has an effect should be discussed in addition to how others apprehend the act. For example, “I was terrified when I read the reading assignment about the technological prisons in China. I read it to my husband, then also to my neighbor. This piece of news had such an impact on me that I believed that we should disseminate it to as many people as possible.”

• 6. Premise reflection (Theoretical reflection). Premise reflection relates to why one apprehends, thinks, feels, or acts the way one does and the consequences of that existing knowledge sets the framework for how a person acts in different situations. This should include an analysis of the whole situation/problem, including the root-causes by incorporating the answers to the “what,” “how,” and “why” questions. The political, cultural, and social contextual factors should be considered so that they can be included in a deeper understanding or reinterpretation of the problem. If the participant explains that she/he will consider alternative methods such as changing his/her behavior patterns, she/he should also justify and interpret this new choice of action. While doing that becoming aware of the answers to “Why is this important to me? Why do I care about this in the first place?” (Cranton, 2006, p. 34) questions by examining deeply held assumptions about how an individual makes meaning of his or her self and the world is also critical as in the following example “When I reviewed over the issues we discussed during the training, I noticed that we are in fact in a vicious circle, a global exploitation setup. Nothing is what it seems. What have we turned into? On top of that, I was also one of those who has been feeding into this vicious circle and exploitation setup. As a matter of fact, we have a very good example to look at. Nature offers us all the answers we are looking for. I am thinking of simplifying and deepening my perspective and life style.”