ERIC Number: EJ1365544
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-May
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0313-5373
EISSN: EISSN-1835-517X
Available Date: N/A
Broadening Ontological and Epistemological Possibilities within Early Childhood Teacher Education for Sustainability
Weldemariam, Kassahun
Australian Journal of Teacher Education, v47 n5 Article 3 p33-49 May 2022
The dominant sustainability ethos and discourse within early childhood education pursue a normative ontological and epistemological direction aimed at empowering children's agency and thus, building certain predefined moral values, knowledge, and skills. Likewise, mainstream early childhood teacher education programmes strive to build early childhood pre-service teachers' sustainability knowledge and skills, especially to enhance their capacity to be transformative agents and motivators for change to engage children with sustainability challenges. In this conceptual article, drawing on posthuman concepts, I highlight the limits of such orthodox assumptions in early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) teacher education and invite broader ontological and epistemic possibilities. I interrogate the human-centric assumptions that unintentionally perpetuate the deep-rooted binary thinking that separates humans from non-humans and other species. In doing so, I offer an expanded understanding of the underlying ontological and epistemic assumptions within teacher education for ECEfS. I conclude by indicating how posthuman theories serve as an impetus for epistemological and ontological multiplicities in early childhood teacher education for sustainability.
Descriptors: Epistemology, Early Childhood Education, Early Childhood Teachers, Teacher Education, Sustainability, Systems Approach, Humanism
Edith Cowan University. Bradford Street, Mount Lawley, West Australia 6050, Australia. Web site: http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A