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Case Studies and Scenarios

Case studies.

Each case study describes the real experience of a Registered Early Childhood Educator. Each one profiles a professional dilemma, incorporates participants with multiple perspectives and explores ethical complexities. Case studies may be used as a source for reflection and dialogue about RECE practice within the framework of the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice​.

Scenarios are snapshots of experiences in the professional practice of a Registered Early Childhood Educator. Each scenario includes a series of questions meant to help RECEs reflect on the situation.

Case Study 1: Sara’s Confusing Behaviour

Case study 2: getting bumps and taking lumps, case study 3: no qualified staff, case study 4: denton’s birthday cupcakes, case study 5: new kid on the block, case study 6: new responsibilities and challenges, case study 7: valuing inclusivity and privacy, case study 8: balancing supervisory responsibilities, case study 9: once we were friends, ​​​​scenarios​​, communication and collaboration.

Barbara, an RECE, is working as a supply staff at various centres across the city. During her week at a centre where she helps out in two different rooms each day, she finds that her experience in the school-age program isn’t as straightforward as when she was in the toddler room. Barbara feels completely lost in this program.

Do You Really Know Who Your Friends Are?

Joe is an RECE at an elementary school and works with children between the ages of nine and 12 years old. One afternoon, he finds a group of children huddled around the computer giggling and whispering. Joe quickly discovers they’re going through his party photos on Facebook as one of the children’s parents recently added him as a friend.

Conflicting Approaches

Amina, an experienced RECE, has recently started a new position with a child care centre. She’s assigned to work in the infant room with two colleagues who have worked in the room together for ten years. As Amina settles into her new role, she is taken aback by some of the child care approaches taken by her colleagues.

What to do about Lisa?

Shane, an experienced supervisor at a child care centre, receives a complaint about an RECE who had roughly handled a child earlier that day. The interaction had been witnessed by a parent who confronted the RECE. After some words were exchanged, the RECE left in tears.

Duty to Report

Zoë works as an RECE in a drop-in program at a family support centre. She has a great rapport for a family over a 10-month period and beings to notice a change in the mom and child. One day, as the child is getting dressed to go home for the day, she notices something alarming and brings it to the attention of her supervisor.

Posting on Social Media

Allie, an RECE who has worked at the same child care centre for the last three years, recently started a private social media group to collaborate and discuss programming ideas. As the group takes a negative turn with rude and offensive comments, it’s brought to her supervisor’s attention.

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Casebook: Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8

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About the book.

• Make connections to the fourth edition of Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs 
• Think critically about the influence of context on educator, child, and family actions 
• Discuss the effectiveness of the teaching practices and how they might be improved 
• Support your responses with evidence from the DAP position statement and book 
• Explore next steps beyond the case details 
• Apply the learning to your own situation 

Table of Contents

• Editors, Contributors, and Reviewers
• Introduction and Book Overview | Jennifer J. Chen and Dana Battaglia
• 1.1 Missed Opportunities: Relationship Building in Inclusive Classrooms | Julia Torquati
• 1.2 “My Name Is Not a Shame” | Kevin McGowan
• 1.3 Fostering Developmentally Appropriate Practice Through Virtual Family Connections | Lea Ann Christenson
• 1.4 Counting Collections in Community | Amy Schmidtke
• 1.5 The Joy Jar: Celebrating Kindness | Leah Schoenberg Muccio
• 1.6 Prioritizing Listening to and Learning from Families | Amy Schmidtke 
• 2.1 Julio’s Village: Early Childhood Education Supports for Teen Parents | Donna Kirkwood
• 2.2 Healthy Boundaries: Listening to Children and Learning from Families | Jovanna Archuleta
• 2.3 Roadmap of Family Engagement to Kindergarten: An Ecological Systems Approach | Marcela Andrés
• 2.4 Taking Trust for Granted? The Importance of Communication and Outreach in Family Partnerships | Suzanna Ewert
• 2.5 Book Reading: Learning About Migration and Our Family Stories | Sarah Rendón García 
• 3.1 Pairing Standardized Scale with Observation | Megan Schumaker-Murphy
• 3.2 The Power of Observing Jordan | Marsha Shigeyo Hawley and Barbara Abel
• 3.3 “But What Is My Child Learning?” | Janet Thompson and Jennifer Gonzalez
• 3.4 Drawing and Dialogue: Using Authentic Assessment to Understand Children’s Sense of Self and Observe Early Literacy Skills | Brandon L. Gilbert
• 3.5 The ABCs of Kindergarten Registration: Assessment, Background, and Collaboration Between Home and School | Bridget Amory
• 3.6 Creating Opportunities for Individualized Assessment Activities for Biliteracy Development | Esther Garza
• 3.7 Observing Second-Graders’ Vocabulary Development | Marie Ann Donovan
• 3.8 Writing Isn’t the Only Way! Multiple Means of Expressing Learning | Lee Ann Jungiv 
• 4.1 Engaging with Families to Individualize Teaching | Marie L. Masterson 
• 4.2 Tumbling Towers with Toddlers: Intention and Decision Making Over Blocks | Ron Grady  
• 4.3 What My Heart Holds: Exploring Identity with Preschool Learners | Cierra Kaler-Jones 
• 4.4 “I See a Really Big Gecko!” When Background Knowledge and Teaching Materials Don’t Match | Germaine Kaleilehua Tauati and Colleen E. Whittingham 
• 4.5 Using a Humanizing and Restorative Approach for Young Children to Develop Responsibility and Self-Regulation | Saili S. Kulkarni, Sunyoung Kim, and Nicola Holdman 
• 4.6 Joyful, Developmentally Appropriate Learning Environments for African American Youth | Lauren C. Mims, Addison Duane, LaKenya Johnson, and Erika Bocknek 
• 5.1 Using the Environment and Materials as Curriculum for Promoting Infants’ and Toddlers’ Exploration of Basic Cause-and-Effect Principles | Guadalupe Rivas 
• 5.2 Social Play Connections Among a Small Group of Preschoolers | Leah Catching 
• 5.3 Can Preschoolers Code? A Sneak Peek into a Developmentally Appropriate Coding Lesson | Olabisi Adesuyi-Fasuyi 
• 5.4 Everyday Gifts: Children Show Us the Path—We Observe and Scaffold | Martha Melgoza 
• 5.5 Learning to Conquer the Slide Through Persistence and Engaging in Social Interaction | Sueli Nunes 
• 5.6 “Sabes que todos los caracoles pueden tener bebés? Do You Know that All Snails Can Have Babies?” Supporting Children’s Emerging Interests in a Dual Language Preschool Classroom | Isauro M. Escamilla 
• 5.7 “Can We Read this One?” A Conversation About Book Selection in Kindergarten | Larissa Hsia-Wong  
• 6.1 Take a Chance on Coaching: It’s Worth It! | Lauren Bond 
• 6.2 It Started with a Friendship Parade | Angela Vargas 
• 6.3 The World Outside of the Classroom: Letting Your Voice Be Heard | Meghann Hickey 
• 7.1 Communication as a Two-Way Street? Creating Opportunities for Engagement During Meaningful Language Routines | Kameron C. Cardenv 
• 7.2 Eli Goes to Preschool: Inclusion for a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder | Abby Hodges
• 7.3 Preschool Classroom Supports and Embedded Interventions with Coteaching | Racheal Kuperus and Desarae Orgo
• 7.4 Addressing Challenging Behavior Using the Pyramid Model | Ellie Bold
• 7.5 Dual Language or Disability? How Teachers Can Be the First to Help | Alyssa Brillante
• 7.6 Adapting and Modifying Instruction Using Reader’s Theater | Michelle Gonzalez
• 7.7 Supporting Children with Learning Disabilities in Mathematics: The Importance of Observation, Content Knowledge, and Context | Renee B. Whelan 
• 8.1 Facilitating a Child’s Transition from Home to Group Care Through the Use of Cultural Caring Routines | Josephine Ahmadein
• 8.2 Engaging Dual Language Learners in Conversation to Support Translanguaging During a Small Group Activity | Valeria Erdosi and Jennifer J. Chen
• 8.3 Incorporating Children’s Cultures and Languages in Learning Activities | Eleni Zgourou
• 8.4 Adapting Teaching Materials for Dual Language Learners to Reflect Their Home Languages and Cultures in a Math Lesson | Karen Nemeth
• 8.5 Studying Celestial Bodies: Science and Cultural Stories | Zeynep Isik-Ercan
• 8.6 Respecting Diverse Cultures and Languages by Sharing and Learning About Cultural Poems, Songs, and Stories From Others | Janis Strasser

Book Details

Faculty resources.

To access tips and resources for teaching the cases, please complete this brief form.  You’ll be able to download the items after you complete the form. 

Teacher Inquiry Group Resources

To access reflection questions to deepen your learning, please click here.

More DAP Resources

To read the position statement, access related resources, and stay up-to-the-minute on all things DAP, visit  NAEYC.org/resources/developmentally-appropriate-practice .

Pamela Brillante,  EdD, is professor in the Department of Special Education, Professional Counseling and Disability Studies, at William Paterson University. She has worked as an early childhood special educator, administrator, and New Jersey state specialist in early childhood special education. She is the author of the NAEYC book The Essentials: Supporting Young Children with Disabilities in the Classroom. Dr. Brillante continues to work with schools to develop high-quality inclusive early childhood programs. 

Jennifer J. Chen, EdD, is professor of early childhood and family studies at Kean University. She earned her doctorate from Harvard University. She has authored or coauthored more than 60 publications in early childhood education. Dr. Chen has received several awards, including the 2020 NAECTE Foundation Established Career Award for Research on ECTE, the 2021 Kean Presidential Excellence Award for Distinguished Scholarship, and the 2022 NJAECTE’s Distinguished Scholarship in ECTE/ECE Award. 

Stephany Cuevas, EdD, is assistant professor of education in the Attallah College of Educational Studies at Chapman University. Dr. Cuevas is an interdisciplinary education scholar whose research focuses on family engagement, Latinx families, and the postsecondary trajectories of first-generation students. She is the author of Apoyo Sacrifical, Sacrificial Support: How Undocumented Parents Get Their Children to College (Teachers College Press). 

Christyn Dundorf, PhD, has more than 30 years of experience in the early learning field as a teacher, administrator, and adult educator. She serves as codirector of Teaching Preschool Partners, a nonprofit organization working to grow playful learning and inquiry practices in school-based pre-K programs and infuse those practices up into the early grades.

Emily Brown Hoffman, PhD, is assistant professor in early childhood education at National Louis University in Chicago. She received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Curriculum & Instruction, Literacy, Language, & Culture. Her focuses include emergent literacy, leadership, play and creativity, and school, family, and community partnerships. 

Daniel R. Meier, PhD, is professor of elementary education at San Francisco State University. His publications include Critical Issues in Infant-Toddler Language Development: Connecting Theory to Practice (editor), Supporting Literacies for Children of Color: A Strength-Based Approach to Preschool Literacy (author), and Learning Stories and Teacher Inquiry Groups: Reimagining Teaching and Assessment in Early Childhood Education (coauthor). 

Gayle Mindes, EdD, is professor emerita, DePaul University. She is the author of Assessing Young Children , fifth edition (with Lee Ann Jung), and Social Studies for Young Children: Preschool and Primary Curriculum Anchor, third edition (with Mark Newman). Dr. Mindes is also the editor of Teaching Young Children with Challenging Behaviors: Practical Strategies for Early Childhood Educators and Contemporary Challenges in Teaching Young Children: Meeting the Needs of All Students . 

Lisa R. Roy, EdD, is executive director for the Colorado Department of Early Childhood. Dr. Roy has supported families with young children for over 30 years, serving as the director of program development for the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, as the executive director of early childhood education for Denver Public Schools, and in various nonprofit and government roles.

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The Good that’s Within You: A Case Study of Early Childhood Curriculum Practice

• Published: 16 July 2021
• Volume 50 , pages 1047–1058, ( 2022 )

Cite this article

• Daniel J. Castner   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6612-2092 1 ,
• Lacy Fajerstein 1 &
• Gretchen Butera 1  

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Few matters are of greater importance to high quality early childhood education than the content and mediation of curriculum. In spite of this, early childhood curriculum practices are rarely examined through the lens of curriculum theory. This research employs educational connoisseurship and criticism as a methodology to shed light upon the curriculum discourse and practices at one public elementary school in relation to one preschool classroom. The findings indicate multiple curriculum orientations subtly coexist at the school. We argue that identifying stakeholders' curriculum orientations and understanding how they operate in the context of a particular school provides a basis for more generative curriculum deliberations that make use of the strengths and recognize the limitations of disparate curricular traditions.

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Castner, D.J., Fajerstein, L. & Butera, G. The Good that’s Within You: A Case Study of Early Childhood Curriculum Practice. Early Childhood Educ J 50 , 1047–1058 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01243-9

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Accepted : 24 June 2021

Published : 16 July 2021

Issue Date : August 2022

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01243-9

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A young child spends weekdays with her grandmother down the street while her parents work. Another attends an unlicensed day care center run by a neighbor. A third is with his stay-at-home dad. A fourth is cared for by a private nanny in the comfort of her own house.

Researchers have long studied how small children grow and learn in formal, high-quality preschool programs, and have found that they develop better language, math, and literacy skills as well as stronger social and emotional connections than those who don’t attend.

Yet little is known about the children who are looked after under informal arrangements involving neighbors, relatives, friends, or nannies, even though these cover 40 percent of children in Massachusetts.

Two Harvard researchers are working to figure that out.

Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) professors Nonie Lesaux and Stephanie Jones , both developmental psychologists, are launching an ambitious study to follow 5,000 children, ages 3 and 4, for four years. The study will track some students before and after their elementary school years, and perhaps into adulthood. The cohort, recruited from 168 communities, is designed to reflect the changing demographics of children across the state.

Through the Early Learning Study at Harvard , Lesaux and Jones aim to update the science around child care by examining the links between children’s development and the characteristics of the educational and care settings where they spend their formative years, be those relatives’ homes or unlicensed daycare centers or, for comparison, local Head Starts and Montessori preschools.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions that parents, communities, policymakers, and school districts are grappling with,” said Lesaux, the Juliana W. and William Foss Thompson Professor of Education and Society and the School’s academic dean. “And we don’t have enough specific information to drive 21st-century policy in early education.”

HGSE professors Nonie Lesaux (left) and Stephanie Jones, leaders of the Early Learning Study at Harvard, recently spoke at a seminar on early education and stress.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

“Our body of evidence is outdated. … And what’s missing is the settings described as informal or non-licensed that are offered outside the formal centers. We just don’t know very much about them.” Stephanie Jones

The researchers want to know how those environments affect children’s learning skills and development. Researchers also hope to find out whether children’s learning varies by groupings, and what features of early schooling help support or undermine them.

“Our body of evidence is outdated,” said Jones, a professor of education. “It’s based on studies from the 1960s, primarily. It also focuses primarily on the center-based, licensed, formal early education offerings. And what’s missing is the settings described as informal or non-licensed that are offered outside the formal centers. We just don’t know very much about them.”

Unprecedented scope

In early childhood education, the most influential research includes the Perry Preschool Study , conducted in the mid-1960s at a Michigan preschool, and the Abecedarian Project , conducted in the 1970s in North Carolina. Both studies, which followed children into their adult years, found that the children who received preschool education thrived more than those who did not. The preschool children earned more money, were more law-abiding, were more likely to graduate from high school, and even were healthier.

Conducted by the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Ed School, the new Harvard study is designed to be groundbreaking in scope and unprecedented in reach, said Lesaux.

For the first time, researchers will study informal care settings and link their features to children’s social and emotional development. The researchers plan to connect what they learn about early math, literacy, and language skills with data that reflect today’s populations and current settings. A 2016 study , supported by the U.S. Department of Education, examined the quality of informal preschool settings versus formal settings, but used decade-old data.

Earlier studies showed that children who spend more time in daycare centers make advances in language and cognitive skills, but, depending on the number of hours and the characteristics of the settings, may also develop more behavioral problems than children who spend fewer hours there.

A recent study led by  Dana Charles McCoy  at  HGSE  analyzed 22 studies on early childhood education published between 1960 and 2016 and found that the benefits of early childhood education have lasting effects. The study concluded that those who went to preschool were less likely to be placed in special education classes and be required to repeat a grade, and more likely to graduate from high school.

In the new study, researchers will assess children’s progress in language, early math, and literacy skills, but also their social, emotional, neurophysiological, and cognitive development by examining their interactions with other children and their relationships with adults in their lives. Lesaux and Jones hope the Early Learning Study eventually will have an impact on national educational policy.

“It certainly has the potential to change the national conversation about early education,” said Lesaux. “It will be the first look, statewide, at both children and the variety of early education settings.”

The researchers also hope to learn why some advances from early education persist for children while others fade in the first years of elementary school.

“A lot of the focus of other studies is the fadeout of academic skills,” said Tara Chiatovich, the Zaentz Initiative’s research scientist and the study’s manager. “We want to see what happens with gains in social and emotional development, which may tend to persist over time more than academic skills. We also want to see where those gains are maintained or undermined in the early years of elementary school.”

Research suggests that high-quality early education makes an important difference in children’s lives, but only a minority of them benefit from it. Of the 60 percent enrolled in some form of preschool nationwide, only 20 percent attend what would be considered a high-quality program. The features of high-quality early schooling include small group sizes, low adult-to-child ratios, and caregiver competencies.

“Children only get one start. Pay now or pay later.” Nonie Lesaux

“Many families don’t have access to a high-quality early education experience for their child,” said Jones. “And we know from decades of research that what really impacts outcomes for children is exposure to high quality. It’s meant to level the playing field, and we’re not there yet.”

The 2006 Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development found a strong correlation between higher-quality child care and school readiness. Children in high-quality settings were found to have broader vocabularies, coupled with stronger language and early math skills. They also generally were more cooperative than peers in low-quality preschool programs.

High-quality early education is especially important for children from vulnerable populations, said Lesaux and Jones. Stress and adversity affect children’s learning. Research has shown that children from low-income families benefit the most from high-quality early education, and yet the movement toward universal high-quality preschool has been an uphill battle nationally.

“It has been hard to build the political will to fund high-quality preschool experiences,” said Lesaux. “As a country, we’re not in agreement that it’s worth the investment.”

Field worker Yvonne Illich is helping to recruit families to participate in the Early Learning Study. Her pitch? “I tell them they can see how their child is growing and developing.”

Already in the works

The new study has begun a household survey of parents across Massachusetts to recruit children and families. On a recent afternoon, Yvonne Illich, a field worker with Abt Associates, a research firm partnering with Harvard to conduct the study, took a break from knocking on doors in Lexington, one of her designated work areas.

“Parents ask me, ‘What’s in it for my child?,’ ‘What’s in it for my family?’ ” said Illich. “I tell them they can see how their child is growing and developing. Parents want to make sure their children are having the best jump-start in life.”

In addition to launching an academy for professional learning in early childhood education to hone policymakers and practitioners’ expertise, the Zaentz initiative has begun a fellowship program to build a new pipeline of leaders in the field.

Lesaux and Jones hope that the study’s eventual findings will shift the needle in the debate on universal high-quality preschool. With the number of working families growing nationally, child care is a necessity, said Jones, and having more and better options is important.

“We can ignore these opportunities, or we can invest and do something about it by working on quality,” Jones said. “Whether it’s worth it is not the question; it’s how to maximize it.”

By helping to strengthen early education nationally, the study also could help to strengthen families and society in general, said Lesaux.

“In a high-quality preschool, kids are emotionally more regulated, they do better by their behavior, they bring more to interactions with adults, and adults feel good about both working and knowing that their child is safe and healthy,” said Lesaux.

“Children only get one start,” she added. “Pay now or pay later. We don’t need any more data in this country about the effects of a lousy education on the life of an individual and the life of a community and the strength of the society.”

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Effective early childhood education programmes: case studies

Oli de Botton

This review aims to establish evidence for policy makers and practitioners as they design and deliver early education interventions.

Findings suggest that effective early education programmes:

• Offered intensive support to practitioners to achieve full and faithful programme implementation. This included one-to-one coaching and assessment from experts. Often support was designed to remediate the relatively poor pre-service training received by early years professionals.
• Provided a planned curriculum including suggested activities, lesson plans and schemes of work linked to specific learning and developmental objectives. Most also had assessment frameworks. Overall, teacher materials mirrored, both in level of detail and scope, support commonly available to teachers of older children.
• Emphasised teacher-led practice supported by structured, child-chosen activities. Strong practitioner input combined with purposeful and planned child-chosen sessions were key features of successful programmes.
• Linked programme design and practice to academic research. Most programmes underlined the precise links to academic research in their teaching materials. One programme under review was directly managed from a university and two others originated from Government-funded research grants.
• Emphasised academic outcomes such as sound, letter and word recognition to prepare children for reading and writing. However, practitioners used a variety of teaching methods to achieve this. Most used a combination of a blended whole language approach (i.e. using oral language, books and pictures to aid understanding and generate interest) with some distinct skill teaching (e.g. letter and phonemic awareness).

Effective early childhood education programmes: case studies (Synthesis)

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Early Childhood Education: How to do a Child Case Study-Best Practice

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Description of Assignment

During your time at Manor, you will need to conduct a child case study. To do well, you will need to plan ahead and keep a schedule for observing the child. A case study at Manor typically includes the following components: 

• Three observations of the child: one qualitative, one quantitative, and one of your choice. 
• Three artifact collections and review: one qualitative, one quantitative, and one of your choice. 
• A Narrative

Within this tab, we will discuss how to complete all portions of the case study.  A copy of the rubric for the assignment is attached. 

• Case Study Rubric (Online)
• Case Study Rubric (Hybrid/F2F)

Qualitative and Quantitative Observation Tips

Remember your observation notes should provide the following detailed information about the child:

• child’s age,
• physical appearance,
• the setting, and
• any other important background information.

You should observe the child a minimum of 5 hours. Make sure you DO NOT use the child's real name in your observations. Always use a pseudo name for course assignments. 

You will use your observations to help write your narrative. When submitting your observations for the course please make sure they are typed so that they are legible for your instructor. This will help them provide feedback to you. 

Qualitative Observations

A qualitative observation is one in which you simply write down what you see using the anecdotal note format listed below. 

Quantitative Observations

A quantitative observation is one in which you will use some type of checklist to assess a child's skills. This can be a checklist that you create and/or one that you find on the web. A great choice of a checklist would be an Ounce Assessment and/or work sampling assessment depending on the age of the child. Below you will find some resources on finding checklists for this portion of the case study. If you are interested in using Ounce or Work Sampling, please see your program director for a copy. 

Remaining Objective 

For both qualitative and quantitative observations, you will only write down what your see and hear. Do not interpret your observation notes. Remain objective versus being subjective.

An example of an objective statement would be the following: "Johnny stacked three blocks vertically on top of a classroom table." or "When prompted by his teacher Johnny wrote his name but omitted the two N's in his name." 

An example of a subjective statement would be the following: "Johnny is happy because he was able to play with the block." or "Johnny omitted the two N's in his name on purpose." 

• Anecdotal Notes Form Form to use to record your observations.
• Guidelines for Writing Your Observations
• Tips for Writing Objective Observations
• Objective vs. Subjective

Qualitative and Quantitative Artifact Collection and Review Tips

For this section, you will collect artifacts from and/or on the child during the time you observe the child. Here is a list of the different types of artifacts you might collect: 

Potential Qualitative Artifacts 

• Photos of a child completing a task, during free play, and/or outdoors. 
• Samples of Artwork 
• Samples of writing 
• Products of child-led activities 

Potential Quantitative Artifacts 

• Checklist 
• Rating Scales
• Product Teacher-led activities 

Examples of Components of the Case Study

Here you will find a number of examples of components of the Case Study. Please use them as a guide as best practice for completing your Case Study assignment. 

• Qualitatitive Example 1
• Qualitatitive Example 2
• Quantitative Photo 1
• Qualitatitive Photo 1
• Quantitative Observation Example 1
• Artifact Photo 1
• Artifact Photo 2
• Artifact Photo 3
• Artifact Photo 4
• Artifact Sample Write-Up
• Case Study Narrative Example Although we do not expect you to have this many pages for your case study, pay close attention to how this case study is organized and written. The is an example of best practice.

Narrative Tips

The Narrative portion of your case study assignment should be written in APA style, double-spaced, and follow the format below:

• Introduction : Background information about the child (if any is known), setting, age, physical appearance, and other relevant details. There should be an overall feel for what this child and his/her family is like. Remember that the child’s neighborhood, school, community, etc all play a role in development, so make sure you accurately and fully describe this setting! --- 1 page
• Observations of Development :   The main body of your observations coupled with course material supporting whether or not the observed behavior was typical of the child’s age or not. Report behaviors and statements from both the child observation and from the parent/guardian interview— 1.5  pages
• Comment on Development: This is the portion of the paper where your professional analysis of your observations are shared. Based on your evidence, what can you generally state regarding the cognitive, social and emotional, and physical development of this child? Include both information from your observations and from your interview— 1.5 pages
• Conclusion: What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of the family, the child? What could this child benefit from? Make any final remarks regarding the child’s overall development in this section.— 1page
• Your Case Study Narrative should be a minimum of 5 pages.

Make sure to NOT to use the child’s real name in the Narrative Report. You should make reference to course material, information from your textbook, and class supplemental materials throughout the paper . 

Same rules apply in terms of writing in objective language and only using subjective minimally. REMEMBER to CHECK your grammar, spelling, and APA formatting before submitting to your instructor. It is imperative that you review the rubric of this assignment as well before completing it. 

Biggest Mistakes Students Make on this Assignment

Here is a list of the biggest mistakes that students make on this assignment: 

• Failing to start early . The case study assignment is one that you will submit in parts throughout the semester. It is important that you begin your observations on the case study before the first assignment is due. Waiting to the last minute will lead to a poor grade on this assignment, which historically has been the case for students who have completed this assignment. 
• Failing to utilize the rubrics. The rubrics provide students with guidelines on what components are necessary for the assignment. Often students will lose points because they simply read the descriptions of the assignment but did not pay attention to rubric portions of the assignment. 
• Failing to use APA formatting and proper grammar and spelling. It is imperative that you use spell check and/or other grammar checking software to ensure that your narrative is written well. Remember it must be in APA formatting so make sure that you review the tutorials available for you on our Lib Guide that will assess you in this area. 
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Early childhood policy case studies provide concrete examples of policy efforts, success factors, and ongoing implementation challenges in the field of early childhood. Cases can be used to enhance discussion in early childhood policy courses in higher education and to provide lessons for current policymakers in the field of early childhood.

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The Early Childhood Policy in Institutions of Higher Education (ECPIHE) seeks to support the development of a new field of early childhood policy. In so doing, it strives to enhance the study of, and experiences related to, advancing early childhood policy in American institutions of higher education (IHEs).

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Sustainability in Early Childhood Education

Introduction, theme 1: what is early childhood education for sustainability (ecefs) and why it matters,.

• Theme 2: Antecedents and Historical Threads Underpinning ECEfS
• Theme 3: (Re)framing ECE Theories and Curricula through EfS
• Theme 4: What ECEfS Looks Like in Practice
• Theme 5: Beyond Children’s Rights in the Anthropocene
• Theme 6: Growing a Diverse International Field
• Theme 7: Trends in ECEfS

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Sustainability in Early Childhood Education by Julie M. Davis LAST REVIEWED: 26 May 2022 LAST MODIFIED: 26 May 2022 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0292

Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) explores sustainability and its educational responses in Early Childhood Education (ECE). While climate change is at the forefront, broader planetary concerns are also addressed, including biodiversity, food and water security, pandemics, plastic pollution, and growing gaps between rich and poor within and between nations and generations. Sustainability—also known as Sustainable Development (SD)—is often referred to as meeting the needs of current generations without compromising those of future generations. Led by the United Nations (UN) and UNESCO, policy drivers for ECEfS are largely international, with the current focus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A contentious concept nevertheless, sustainability at its best is regarded by many as paying attention to all aspects of development—environmental, social, political, and economic. Recently, sustainability concerns have been encapsulated in the term “the Anthropocene,” defined as an epoch from the Industrial Revolution onwards when the impact of humans has become so significant as to dramatically reshape Earth’s ecological systems. There have been increasingly urgent calls for education to play a key role in addressing sustainability concerns. For example, in 1978, the UN called for environmentally-educated teachers to become a key priority because of their potential role in educating societies towards sustainability. Environmental Education (EE) emerged as a response, evolving in the 21st century into what is now known as EfS. An essential characteristic of EfS is that it is transformative, aimed at challenging the status quo. Learning attributes include critical thinking, leading and building community, and action-taking aimed at personal and social transformation. While ECE has been a slow starter in EfS, it is catching up in daycare, kindergarten, and preschools, with corresponding policy and research shifts. This article outlines research across seven themes. The first, Theme 1: What is Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) and Why It Matters? , offers explanations of its importance. The second, Theme 2: Antecedents and Historical Threads Underpinning ECEfS , identifies foundations to ECEfS, especially outdoor and nature play curriculum and learning, as well as children’s rights. The third, ( Theme 3: (Re)framing ECE Theories and Curricula through EfS discusses ways of viewing ECEfS curriculum and theories and outlines arguments for moving beyond nature learning. Theme 4: What ECEfS Looks Like in Practice , identifies contemporary ECEfS characteristics and how some international ECE curriculum policies are responding to ECEfS and helping to drive pedagogical change. Theme 5: Beyond Children’s Rights in the Anthropocene , identifes research that challenges humancentric and childcentric worldviews. The sixth theme, Theme 6: Growing a Diverse International Field , considers how ECEfS is expanding internationally through the encouragement of diverse researcher and practitioner networks and the promotion of multiple perspectives on key topics that fall under the broad umbrella of ECEfS. The final theme, Theme 7: Trends in ECEfS , outlines the ongoing evolution of ECEfS as newer theoretical frames and diverse sociocultural influences impact the field.

This theme explores major international drivers for ECEfS and explains why EfS is essential in ECE. ECEfS is early education’s response to global environmental and sustainability challenges. As ECE is concerned with the lives of children, at the broadest level, it seeks to promote an “ethic of care” through its educational practices, with a mandate as the foundation of sustainability ( Pramling Samuelsson 2011 ). A key driver for ECEfS has been the impact of unsustainable lifestyles and global inequalities on children, young people, and generations not yet born. Recently, alarms regarding climate disruptions have come from a diverse range of concerned citizens, nongovernment organizations, and professionals—with climate change effects, however, no longer a future effect. As Currie and Deschênes 2016 write, climate disruptions are already negatively impacting children. However, while climate change is an impetus for ECEfS, it is not its only focus. Issues such as water scarcity, energy consumption, plastic pollution, and habitat destruction have local meaning. Addressing broad social issues such as poverty and gender inequalities also come under the ambit of ECEfS. Sustainability warnings raise major concerns to many in ECE that are being amplified through a range of UN/UNESCO policies and recommendations aimed at addressing environmental and sustainability issues. In the education sector, advocacy for environmentally-educated teachers was proposed as early as 1978 ( UNESCO-UNEP 1990 ). In the 1980s, the Bruntland Report increased interest in EfS ( WCED 1987 ). Perhaps the most significant international policy initiative for ECE and EfS was the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) (2005–2014). While the focus was largely on schooling, a small band of ECEfS pioneers were working within the UNDESD movement to encourage EE/EfS perspectives to become more widespread and mainstreamed within early years’ education. As identified in the NSW EPA 2003 report, prior to this international initiative, efforts in ECEfS were mostly piecemeal. The DESD gave impetus to “green shoots” that have ultimately become an international movement. The final report from UNESCO ( Buckler and Creech 2014 ), for example, focuses on the expanding impact and opportunities for ECEfS, identifies ongoing gaps, and highlights the further potential of ECEfS investments. ECEfS since the DESD, and more recently through UNESCO 2017 Sustainable Development Goals, has continued to have an increasing profile. As Davis 2015 and Siraj-Blatchford, et al. 2010 discuss, it is becoming an important part of the larger international EfS and ECE movements while ratification by the UN Human Rights Council in 2020 of the right of children to a healthy environment further strengthens ECEfS’s role. Overall, the ECE field has been paralleling, and in some respects leading, the broader EfS field.

Buckler, C., and H. Creech. 2014. Shaping the future we want: UN decade of education for sustainable development (2005–2014): Final report . UNESCO Digital Library, UNESCO.

This UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development report identified significant advances in reorienting education toward the societal goal of learning to live sustainably. For example, this report argued that ECE is foundational for sustainable development and its beginning point. However, it also recognizes ECEfS as fragmented with many ECE educators lacking capacity to incorporate EfS into their activities. These findings give impetus to the ECEfS field to continue to strengthen and grow.

Currie, J., and O. Deschênes. 2016. Children and climate change: Introducing the issue. The Future of Children 26.1: 3–9.

DOI: 10.1353/foc.2015.0000

This research focused on climate change and its impacts on children, with contributions by economists, scientists, epidemiologists, and others. It provides a compelling argument that today’s children and future generations will bear a disproportionate share of the burden of climate change with negative effects on well-being in multiple ways. It serves to embolden those working in ECEfS to work harder in ECE for children’s well-being now and into the future.

Davis, J., ed. 2015. Young children and the environment: Early learning for sustainability . Melbourne, VC: Cambridge Univ. Press.

This textbook, designed to explain ECEfS to early childhood student teachers and practitioners, covers key terms related to sustainability and EfS with international case studies and vignettes on ways that ECEfS might be enacted. A basic premise is that ECEfS should focus on the assumption that young children are already citizens and have the rights to be engaged in matters of concern and interest, including climate change and social justice.

NSW EPA. 2003. Patches of green: Early childhood environmental education in Australia: Scope, status and direction . Sydney, NSW: EPA.

Provided the first overview in Australia of ECEE and is one of the first international reports on ECEE. In the early 2000s, ECEE was only patchily implemented, mostly initiated by committed individuals. This book emphasized the meager number of resources to support environmental education, the lack of consistent policy support, and the need for action at all levels of ECE in order for ECEE to become mainstreamed into early childhood settings.

Pramling Samuelsson, I. 2011. Why we should begin early with ESD: The role of early childhood education. International Journal of Early Childhood 43.2: 103–118.

DOI: 10.1007/s13158-011-0034-x

In this paper, the author argues against the idea that, while understandable, young children should be sheltered from the problems of the world. The author argues, instead, for Education for Sustainable Development to be both content and a way of working with children in the early years and this this is a matter of democracy, morality, and societal values.

Siraj-Blatchford, J., K. C. Smith, and I. Pramling Samuelsson. 2010. Education for sustainable development in the early years . Gothenburg, Sweden: OMEP.

This book was produced through the World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP), as a summary of key terms and concepts related to ECEfS and why it is necessary in the early years. It presents a range of ECEfS activities developed and distributed through OMEP networks to illustrate broad possibilities for ECEfS across the globe, from nations as diverse as Gambia and Sweden.

UNESCO-UNEP. 1990. Environmentally-educated teachers: The priority of priorities? Connect 15.1:1–8.

This article is pivotal in identifying the role of EE in caring for the environment in its entirety—natural, built, personal, collective, economic, social, cultural, technological, ecological, and esthetic—with specific focus on teachers in this vital process. It outlined a set of competencies for EE, that, forty years later, continue to be relevant and unfortunately, need to be addressed in terms of teacher education, including ECE.

UNESCO. 2017 Education for sustainable development goals learning objectives . New York: UNESCO.

The SDGs address global challenges including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, gender equality, and health through seventeen interconnected Goals. While being critiqued for their anthropocentric aims and pursuit of economic growth while ignoring underlying inequalities in the global economic system, nevertheless, they have a high level of international acceptance. Allied with the goals are a range of strategies for education to assist in addressing these goals.

United Nations Human Rights Council. 2022. 44th Session of the Human Rights Council, Annual Day on the Rights of the Child: Realizing the rights of the child through a healthy environment . 1 July 2020. Statement by Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The UN Human Rights Council adopted this historic Resolution in 2020, incorporating the right to a healthy environment as fundamental to the Rights of the Child. It identifies environmental education as the key enabler for achieving this right. Education is called on to address environmental issues by integrating these into all levels of education to increase understanding and respect for nature and prepare children for future decisions around sustainability.

World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. Our common future . New York: United Nations.

This report (also known as the Brundtland Report) is considered to be the first major international report using the term “sustainable development.” It sought to establish a “global agenda for change” to deal with interlocking social, economic, political, technological, and environmental crises. The report identifies education as central to addressing sustainability issues. and for EfS to foster a sense of responsibility for the state of the environment.

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The value of longitudinal studies during the early years

Longitudinal studies — research that tracks large numbers of people over time (see Box 1) — are an essential element of putting data to work for the early years [1] .

Tracking children through early childhood and beyond presents three key opportunities for strengthening our understanding of early childhood, providing evidence of:

Why the early years matter: Longitudinal studies allow us to understand the lifelong effects of early childhood experiences and development. 

What matters during the early years: Longitudinal studies allow us to understand the different factors — including educational, emotional, material and genetic — associated with healthy development and the origins of inequalities.

What works in supporting families during the early years: Longitudinal studies allow us to evaluate the longer-term impacts of support provided to families. 

What are longitudinal studies? 

A longitudinal study follows the same people repeatedly over time. 

One form of longitudinal study of particular importance for the early years is birth cohort studies , which follow a group of people born at the same point in time at the very beginning of life and follows them throughout their lives. 

Longitudinal studies can collect a broad range of information about participants’ lives, including information about physical and mental health, social and emotional development, cognitive development and academic achievement, behaviour and attitudes, and employment, income and poverty. 

By collecting information from the same people over time, longitudinal studies provide uniquely rich evidence bases for understanding how people develop and why differences (and inequalities) between people exist. They help us understand how different aspects of our lives interact with each other to affect outcomes. For example, the association between poverty and mental health. 

For further information on longitudinal studies, such as data collection methods and the strengths and weaknesses of longitudinal data, see: https://learning.closer.ac.uk/learning-modules/introduction/

The UK has the largest and longest-running collection of longitudinal studies in the world [2]. These include nationally representative birth cohort studies, including the Millennium Cohort Study, locality-focussed studies, such as Born in Bradford, and longitudinal studies that look at specific aspects of the early years, for example the effects of early childhood education and care (see Figure 1).

These studies have provided a unique window into the importance of the early years, identifying associations between early childhood experiences and development, and outcomes through adulthood. The Dunedin Study, which has followed over 1,000 people since birth for over 50 years, provides perhaps the clearest evidence of the lifelong opportunities presented by promoting healthy development in early childhood [3]. The study also highlights the long-run risks of adverse early experiences, such as socioeconomic disadvantage or maltreatment, which are associated with an elevated risk of mental and physical ill health during adulthood [4]. Evidence from UK birth cohort studies supports these findings, demonstrating the important influence early childhood development has on later outcomes, including educational attainment at the end of secondary school and economic and social outcomes in midlife, such as obesity [5]. 

This evidence of lifelong associations should not be cause for fatalism. We know that associations between early skills and later outcomes decrease in magnitude as people grow older. Most important is learning from the studies about what factors are associated with good outcomes and providing timely support that helps address the challenges families with young children face. 

Longitudinal studies have promoted an increasingly sophisticated understanding of what matters in supporting healthy development in the early years. For example, they have shown us:

Positive early social and emotional development is critical for life-chances: The Dunedin study found that children who had developed strong self-control at age three were more likely to have better health, to be financially secure and less likely to be convicted of a criminal offence—even with childhood IQ and family social class taken into account [6]. Recent analysis in the UK has found a clear correlation between cognitive and socio-emotional development, suggesting a ‘double disadvantage’ for children who have high emotional and behavioural problems [7]. 

Inequalities emerge early: The Millennium Cohort Study shows large gaps in cognitive and socio-emotional development among children at age 3 [8]. Inequalities in development are visible by sex, ethnicity, family socioeconomic circumstances, household structure and maternal mental health. A significant proportion of inequalities in development at age 3 can be traced back to inequalities in the educational, emotional and material environments young children are raised in, explaining over 45% of the inequalities in socio-emotional development [9]. Comparing the Millennium Cohort Study (2000–02) and Study or Early Education and Development (SEED, 2010–12) cohorts, socio-economic inequalities in early cognition and socio-emotional development have not changed significantly [10]. One of the strongest associations between early circumstances and inequalities in development remains family income. Children in the poorest 10% of families rank 31 percentiles lower in cognition and 24 percentiles higher in emotional and behavioural difficulties [11]. While the direct and indirect effects of family income on children’s outcomes are complex, the current context of increasing rates of poverty among families with young children is of concern [12]. 

‘What parents do is more important than who parents are’ [13]: The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) study found that, for all children, the quality of the home learning environment was more important for young children’s development than parental occupation, education or income. Analysis of the Millennium Cohort Study has found that the quality of relationships between parents and children are a significant source of variation explaining differences in emotional and behavioural difficulties in children at age 3 [14]. The most recent SEED wave found that higher scores for the home learning environment – which includes activities like reading and play – and warmth of the parent-child relationship were associated with better outcomes on all Early Years Foundation Stage Profile measures [15].   

Parental mental health is closely linked to early childhood inequalities: Analysis of Millennium Cohort Study data shows that children whose mothers have high levels of psychological distress score significantly lower on cognitive tests at age three and are more likely to report socio-emotional and behavioural difficulties [16]. In analysis to understand inequalities in the parent-child relationship, the largest differences are observed in relation to maternal psychological distress, with ‘far lower’ levels of closeness and higher levels of conflict among mothers with high levels of psychological distress. The Born in Bradford study found that while up to 40% of pregnant mums report low mood, very few cases are reported in health data systems. The study also found significant inequalities among ethnic groups, with Pakistani women at greater risk of mental ill health, but half as likely to have a diagnosis recorded with their GP than White British women [17].  

The transformative potential of early childhood education and care: The Perry Preschool Study in the US, which began in the 1960s, identified short- and long-term effects of high-quality preschool education for young children living in poverty, with better high school education outcomes and better rates of employment at age 40 [18]. In the UK, the EPPE study found that pre-school experience enhanced children’s all-round development, with high-quality provision combined with longer duration having the strongest effect on development [19]. Subsequent research of the EPPE cohort found sustained effects on educational outcomes, with those who attended early years education having a greater likelihood of achieving more than 5 GCSEs at grade A-C – with this effect twice as large for children whose mothers had low educational qualifications compared with the whole sample [20]. Recent evidence from SEED has painted a more mixed picture, with some poorer social and emotional outcomes associated with formal early education, especially for young children in group provision for a high number of hours from the age of two [21], providing evidence that the quality and quantity of formal early education are important considerations [22].

The insights provided by longitudinal studies have led to tangible changes in policy and practice to support families with young children. For example, Born In Bradford data found that less than 10% of eligible pregnant women were taking a Vitamin D supplement, with many unaware of the supplement’s importance. Born in Bradford worked with clinicians to promote awareness of and access to Vitamin D supplements during ultrasound appointments, resulting in 97% of women remembering being offered supplements and 87% taking up the offer [23]. Data from the Millennium Cohort Study demonstrated the substantial educational disadvantage of being born at the end of the academic year. This insight led to changes in admissions policy so that parents of children born in late summer could decide which year their child should enter school, depending on the child’s needs.

Challenges of longitudinal studies

While longitudinal studies provide rich insights into the early years, they do face particular challenges and limitations [24]. Longitudinal studies — particularly nationally representative birth cohort studies — are complex and costly. Available administrative data places limitations on sampling of families with young children: identification of nationally representative samples is not currently practicable before children reach nine months of age, limiting our understanding of pregnancy and the earliest months of a baby’s life. Likewise, available data and approaches to sampling and data collection have resulted in “less often heard” populations being under-represented, including babies born into disadvantaged and ethnic minority families — limiting our understanding of these groups’ experiences. 

One specific limitation of existing studies has been a comparatively high focus on mothers rather than fathers, with particular challenges in including non-resident parents. Ensuring longitudinal studies reflect the diversity and complexity of early childhood experiences and development is an ongoing project. The Early Life Cohort Feasibility Study is testing the feasibility of a new nationally representative UK-wide study of babies, with a specific focus on maximising participation of traditionally ‘less often heard’ populations [25].    

Understanding early childhood today:

The children of the 2020s study.

2022 marks an important milestone in longitudinal studies and the early years, with the launch of the first new nationally representative birth cohort study in England for more than two decades: the Children of the 2020s study [26].

What is the Children of the 2020s study?

The study is a nationally representative birth cohort study of babies born in England. Drawing from HMRC Child Benefit records, approximately 8,500 families have been invited to take part, comprising babies born in September, October and November 2021. The sample will include boosted representation of babies from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. 

The study will include five waves of data collection starting when the cohort of children are 9 months and completing when they are age 5, with the potential for the survey to be extended beyond the age of five, subject to funding. Face-to-face interviews will be part of this, taking place when the cohort children are nine months old and three years old. 

Data collected will look at child development, neighbourhood and family context, family structure, health and mental health, the home learning environment, and formal and informal childcare provision and preschool education. The study also links to both parent and baby Department for Education and NHS digital health records enabling researchers to draw on official information, with parents’ consent.

The study is housed in the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at University College London (UCL) and will be led by UCL researchers in partnership with Ipsos and the universities of Cambridge and Oxford and Birkbeck, University of London. The study has been commissioned and funded by the Department for Education (DfE).

Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Cambridge meets with Professor Alissa Goodman, CLS director, Professor Pasco Fearon, director of the Children of the 2020s study, on a visit to the CLS, 5 October 2021.

What makes the study so exciting?

Part of what makes the Children of the 2020s study so exciting is its timing: coming over 20 years since the last nationally representative study in England, it will provide evidence about early childhood following a period of extraordinary societal and technological change. Since the Millennium Cohort Study, digital technology has become a ubiquitous part of life, with most young children today having access to internet-connected devices [27]. 

The study also comes following what has been an incredibly difficult time for many families with young children, with the study providing invaluable evidence following the COVID-19 pandemic and through the cost of living crisis. As such, the study will provide insights into what may become the “new normal” following the pandemic, such as increased parental working from home, reduced attendance in formal pre-school education, and greater reliance on digital service delivery [28]. The critical need to better understand the experiences of today’s young children is underscored by emerging evidence that the proportion of children achieving a ‘good level of development’ in 2020/21 has fallen 13 percentage points since 2018/19 [29].

“The landmark Children of the 2020s study will illustrate the importance of the first five years and provide insights into the most critical aspects of early childhood, as well as the factors which support or hinder positive lifelong outcomes.”

What new questions will the study seek to answer?

Critical to the study’s usefulness is its comparability with previous birth cohort studies. Questions have been aligned with past and existing studies, enabling researchers to understand, for example, how inequalities in young children’s development are changing over time.

“This will be an in-depth study of the wide range of factors that affect children’s development and education in the early years, including the home environment, nurseries and preschool, the neighbourhood, early years services and the broader social and economic circumstances of the family. We want to understand how these factors impact children’s social, cognitive, and early language development, their mental health and readiness for school.”

But the Children of the 2020s will also explore new topics for research. The study will collect information on how parents and young children use technology, with the potential to strengthen the evidence base on how technology affects children’s development and experiences, including parent-child relationships. It will collect more information about fathers and different family forms than previous studies. And it will also collect more information from families about their use of services, with the potential to better inform policymakers about the accessibility and effectiveness of services in meeting the needs of families with young children.

What new methods will the study employ?

One novel aspect of the Children of the 2020s study is its use of an innovative smartphone app called BabySteps. Whereas many previous birth cohort studies have only been able to collect data on an annual basis, BabySteps will allow, at low cost, the research team to collect data more frequently. Participating families will be asked to complete a monthly questionnaire using the app, and have the option to record a range of information — including photos and videos — about their child’s day-to-day experiences. It is hoped that this approach will allow for a more detailed and nuanced understanding of early childhood development, such as language acquisition, and the impacts of aspects of their home environments.

The study also plans to include early years professionals who work with children in the cohort to record their experiences through an app called Teacher Tapp. This has the potential to provide new insights into what quality early education and care looks like.

You can learn more about the Children of the 2020s study at the study’s webpage: https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/cls-studies/children-of-the-2020s-study/

[1] Putting data to work for the early years is one of the six areas of opportunity in the early years identified in our Big Change Starts Small report.

[2] Park, A. and Rainsberry, M. (2020). Introduction to longitudinal Studies. CLOSER.

[3] Belsky, J., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., and Poulton, R. (2020). The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life. Harvard University Press.

[4] Centre for Early Childhood. (2021). Big Change Starts Small. Royal Foundation.

[5] Drawing on the Millennium Cohort Study and 1970 British Cohort Survey: Cattan, S., Fitzsimons, E., Goodman, A., Phimister, A., Ploubidis, G. B., and Wertz, J. (2022). Early childhood inequalities. IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities. IFS.

[6] Belsky, J., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., and Poulton, R. (2020). The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life. Harvard University Press.

[7] Cattan, S., Fitzsimons, E., Goodman, A., Phimister, A., Ploubidis, G. B., and Wertz, J. (2022). Early childhood inequalities. IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities. IFS.

[8] Drawing on the Millennium Cohort Study: Cattan, S., Fitzsimons, E., Goodman, A., Phimister, A., Ploubidis, G. B., and Wertz, J. (2022). Early childhood inequalities. IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities. IFS.

[11] Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammon, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I. and Taggart, B. (2004). Technical Paper 12. The Final Report: Effective Pre-School Education. London: UCL Institute of Education, p14.

[12] Cattan, S., Fitzsimons, E., Goodman, A., Phimister, A., Ploubidis, G. B., and Wertz, J. (2022). Early childhood inequalities. IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities. IFS.

[13] Melhuish, E. C. and Gardiner, J. (2020). Study of early education and development (SEED): Impact study on early education use and child outcomes up to age five years. Department for Education.

[14] Cattan, S., Fitzsimons, E., Goodman, A., Phimister, A., Ploubidis, G. B., and Wertz, J. (2022). Early childhood inequalities. IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities. IFS.

[15] https://borninbradford.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/Key-Findings_FINAL_Designed.pdf

[16] https://image.highscope.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/16053615/perry-preschool-summary-40.pdf

[17] Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammon, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I. and Taggart, B. (2004). Technical Paper 12. The Final Report: Effective Pre-School Education. London: UCL Institute of Education.

[18] Cattan, S., Crawford, C., Dearden, L. (2014). The economic effects of pre-school education and quality. London: IFS.

[19] Melhuish, E. C. and Gardiner, J. (2020). Study of early education and development (SEED): Impact study on early education use and child outcomes up to age five years. Department for Education.

[20] Archer, N. and Oppenheim, C. (2021). The role of early childhood education and care in shaping life chances. Nuffield Foundation.

[21] See https://learning.closer.ac.uk/learning-modules/introduction/what-can-longitudinal-studies-show-us/weaknesses-of-longitudinal-studies/

[22] See https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/cls-studies/early-life-cohort-feasibility-study/

[23] The author would like to thank Pasco Fearon for his time in speaking about the study, which forms the basis of this section.

[24] Batcheler, R., Ireland, E., Oppenheim, C., Rehill, J. (2022). Time for parents. Nuffield Foundation.

[25] Oppenheim, C. (Forthcoming). Bringing up the next generation: from research to policy. Nuffield Foundation.

[26] Tracey, L., Bowyer-Crane, C., Bonetti, S., Nielsen, D., D’Apice, K. and Compton, S. (2022). The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children’s socio-emotional wellbeing and attainment during the reception year. Education Endowment Foundation.

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Understanding Sustainability in Early Childhood Education

DOI link for Understanding Sustainability in Early Childhood Education

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This unique book explores research related to education for sustainability within early childhood education in the United Kingdom. Divided into the four home nations, it examines what education for sustainability looks like in practice, discusses the different application and positions of each region, and considers the contribution of early childhood education to support the Sustainable Development Goals.

Each chapter considers the relevant early years framework and includes associated case studies which highlight connections between statutory guidance, policy and positive early years pedagogical practice. The authors use an education for sustainability lens to explore the critical issues and explicit and implicit links embedded in each of the curricula frameworks. Each chapter acknowledges the context of outdoor learning with discussion related to different interpretations of ecological sustainability. This exploration should help readers to consider the idea of sustainability within early childhood education.

The book considers early childhood education as a distinct and valuable phase beyond the readiness for school discourse and recognises the importance of having skilful and knowledgeable adults to work with young children from birth. It offers a unique resource for students, practitioners, leaders and researchers engaged in the study of education for sustainability in early childhood and the importance of the early years for the development of life-long pro-environmental attitudes.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 | 34  pages, early childhood education for sustainability within england, chapter 2 | 35  pages, early childhood education for sustainability within northern ireland, chapter 3 | 34  pages, early childhood education for sustainability within scotland, chapter 4 | 35  pages, early childhood education for sustainability within wales, chapter 5 | 20  pages, the legacy of maria montessori, chapter 6 | 34  pages, the legacy of rudolf steiner.

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