Who Destroyed the Forest; the Forest Witch?

Author(s):

Seçil Cengizoğlu(presenting / submitting)Refika Olgan Gaye Teksöz

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

30 SES 06 B, ESD and Young Learners

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

15:30-17:00

Room:

K6.18

Chair:

Elsa Lee

Contribution

The final years of the twentieth century were considered as the times of uncertainty, instability and rapid change dominated the alteration in environmental damage, social injustice and emotional poverty (Elliott & Davis, 2009; Davis, 2010; Marsiglio, 2011). Davis (2010) defined this situation as “critical times of life on Earth” emphasizing population increase, higher demand for wealth and increasing rate of resource depletion. Deforestation is one of the global problems that cause critical time of life on Earth. It is defined as the conversion of the forests to another land use (UNDP, 2012) that threats wildlife, cause an increase in the level of carbon dioxide emission as well as soil erosion. Implementation of the Rio Conventions related to forest action promote countries combating unfavorable impacts of deforestation for sustainable use of forests by means of increasing public awareness and education for sustainable development (UNEP, 2013).

Herein, the point that should be emphasized is the role of education to overcome the global threats. In order to achieve more sustainable world, “learning” is seen as a key (Sterling, 2010). This was also stressed in The Decade of Education for Sustainable Education (2004-2015): learning through an effective education is a powerful tool to help us overcome unsustainability (UNESCO, 2005). Sustainability is urgently needed to establish a balance between the resources of earth and the utilization of such resources by human beings by means of bringing in a radical shift in human beings’ attitudes, values and the notions (Davis, 2009). Early childhood education is particularly important for bringing in a radical shift in human beings’ attitudes, values and notions, because young children are considered vulnerable due to the fact that global threats like climate change, deforestation and biological diversity loss create a change in the life style of today’s children (Fien & Tillbury, 2002; Elliott & Davis, 2009; Hagglund & Pramling-Samuelsson, 2009; Davis, 2010; Marsiglio, 2010; Burgess & Mayer-Smith, 2011; Duhn, 2011; Hedefalk, Almqvist & Östman, 2014). Moreover, participation of young children in sustainability issues is also strongly supported by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Children as they have the right of active participation and contribution to present and the future by means of fostering basic skills, attitudes, behaviors and habits (Elliot & Davis, 2009; MacNaughton, 2009).

Early childhood education for sustainable development (ECEfS) supports children’s contribution to present and future through respecting differences, concrete actions in environment, critical assessment of the behaviors and incorporating to learn equality and fairness (UNESCO, 2008). It is the most stressed issue in education for sustainable development that it fosters the skills to think critically, find creative solutions and options to unsustainable practices. What is more, early childhood education for sustainability is a composition of actions of transformative, empowering and participative education with topics and experiences related to sustainability within the early childhood context. Through the transformative endeavor, it creates encouragement in individuals to seek solution through critical thinking and decision making (Davis, 2006; Davis, 2010).

In light of the above mentioned framework, the purpose of the current study is to explore the responses of 60-66 month-old preschool children to an early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) program related to deforestation.

Method

The study –as a part of more comprehensive study- was conducted as a case study considering Merriam‘s (2009) definition that, a case study as an in-depth description and analysis of the bounded system. The study site is a public Eco preschool in Ankara, Turkey. The participants consisted of 60-66 month-old preschool children (N=18). The case was defined as a class of Eco-preschool children and purposive sampling method was used, since the specific criteria were set as studying with children attending Eco-preschool. Data is collected through semi structured interviews before and after the implementing the ECEfS program. The interview process aimed to figure out the perception of children about deforestation through three questions i) What is the image come to your mind when I say “forest”? ii) Do you think forests are important or not? If they are, for whom/what they are important? iii) Let’s image a forest environment with super high trees, a blue river and sweet smelling plants. If one day, this forest is destroyed, what may be the reason? How do you feel when a forest is destroyed? Accordingly, the program consists of 4 activities (storytelling, play, drama and art) related to deforestation, which are based on the principles of sustainable development and the Turkish Early Childhood Curriculum. The purpose of the storytelling activity is to demonstrate environmental, economic and social components of a forest ecosystem. The story told by researcher enhanced children to create forest ecosystem by using various materials, to identify the components. Second was a play activity established to provide better understanding of the interactions between the components determined in Activity 1. In drama activity, children pretended as one of the elements of the forest ecosystem in order to demonstrate how fragile the equilibrium. And lastly, the art activity was based on working as a group to suggest solutions for not disturbing the fragile equilibrium in the forest, as well as to show perceptions related to result of deforestation. Before interviewing procedure, required ethical measures were taken as well as taking the consents of Turkish Ministry of National Education, the preschool and the parents. Revisions of interview questions were completed by two experts in the field of early childhood education and education for sustainable development. Data from the pre-and post-interviews however, were analyzed through multiple coders in order to reach an agreement on codes and themes to ensure reliability.

Expected Outcomes

Pre-interview findings demonstrated that trees (n=14), wolf (n=6) and bears (n=6) are the most common figures that children reported to define a forest. According to the children (n=6) forests are important because they are the places for fun and especially for trees. On the other hand, two of the children indicated that forests are not nice because they host horrible witches and wizards. Children’s answers for the 3rd question in pre-interview however, were categorized into two as; human beings (n=5) and horrible witches and magic powder (n=10) destroy forests. Post-interview findings displayed similar figures for defining forests. Accordingly, all participants agreed that trees are the major figure when they think about forests. Additionally, animals (such as lions, snakes, elephants, dogs) and plants were mentioned as the common figures to describe a forest. Unlike pre interview findings, it was found in the post interview that the most of the children (n=10) define forests as not only the home of animals but also a source of fresh and clean air for all living things. Similarly, when they were asked about forest destruction, they were able to construct a link between destruction and human activities. Therefore, during the post-interviews the basic point mentioned by the children was the role of forests in the ecosystem as cleaning air or providing habitat for animals. The major finding of the current study is that it is possible to develop children’s perceptions on a global environmental issue through an ESD program. Within the context of this study, children had the chance to explore and learn components of the forest ecosystem, importance of trees, the role of human and the possible reasons of deforestation.

References

REFERENCES Burgess, D. J., & Mayer-Smith, J. (2011). Listening to children: Perceptions of nature. The Journal of Natural History Education and Experience, 5, 27-43. Davis, J. (2009). Revealing the research ‘hole’ of early childhood education for sustainability: a preliminary survey of the literature, Environmental Education Research, 15(2), 227- 241 Davis, J. M. (2010). Early childhood education for sustainability: why it matters, what it is, and how whole center action research and systems thinking can help. Journal of Action Research Today in Early Childhood (Education for Sustainability in Asia and the Pasific), 35-44. Duhn, I. (2011). Making ‘place’ for ecological sustainability in early childhood education. Environmental Education Research, 18(1), 19-29. Elliott, S. & Davis, J. (2009). Exploring the resistence: an Australian perspective on educating for sustainability in early childhood. International Journal of Early Childhood, 41(2), 65-77. Fien, J. & Tilbury, D. (2002). The global challanges of sustainability. In Tilbury, D., Stevenson, R. S., Fien, J. & Schreuder, D. (eds.) (2002). Education and Sustainability: Responding to the Global Challenge. Cambridge: Commission on Education and Communication, IUCN. Hägglund, S., & Pramling-Samuelsson, I. (2009). Early childhood education and learning for sustainable development and citizenship. International Journal of Early Childhood, 41(2), 49- 64. Hedefalk, M., Almqvist, J., & Östman, L. (2014). Education for sustainable development in early childhood education: a review of the research literature. Environmental Education Research, 21(7), 975-990. Mac Naughton, G. (2003). Shaping Early Childhood. Maidenhead England: Open University Press. Marsiglio, S. (2011). On the relationship between population change and sustainable development. Research in Economics, 65(4), 353-364. Merriam, S. B. (2009).Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. (Rev. ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc. Prince, C. (2010). Sowing the seeds: education for sustainability within the early years curriculum. European early Childhood Education Research Journal, 18(3), 273-284. Sterling, S. (2010). Transformative learning and sustainability: Sketching the conceptual ground. Learning and teaching in Higher Education, 5, 17-33. UNDP. (2012). A World of Development Experience. Retrieved March 12, 2013, from http://hdr.undp.org/content/undp/en/home UNESCO. (2005). Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014 Draft International Implementation Scheme. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO. (2008). “The contribution of early childhood education to a sustainable society”. Samuelsson, I.P. & Kaga, Y.(Eds.). Paris: Author United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) (1992). The Global Partnership for Environment and Development: A Guide to Agenda 21. Geneva: Switzerland.

Author Information

Seçil Cengizoğlu (presenting / submitting)

METU

Ankara

Refika Olgan

METU, Turkey

Gaye Teksöz