The world of our tamariki 

While we can only speculate about the future, early childhood teachers are naturally inclined to crystal gaze about the world their children will inherit so they can teach the skills, knowledge, and learning dispositions to hold them in good stead. In this issue we'll be looking at how we can prepare our tamariki for the world they will inhabit. Our first story takes a look at how the curriculum is helping teach about sustainability.

Current trends indicate that New Zealand's future Jacksons, Mansfields and Blakes will have to wear many different hats to meet the changes and challenges ahead. We know they will need to balance environmental sustainability whilst keeping pace with technology and the ideals of growth and development. In the face of changing demographics and an ageing population, tomorrow's young adults will have to be empathetic and tolerant, whilst the competition for resources will demand resilience.

The early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki, provides stability for the early childhood sector in this rapidly changing world by providing an educational foundation that supports the full range of skills children need as life-long learners.

At the heart of the curriculum are the learning dispositions - attributes such as respect, curiosity, trust, reflection, a sense of belonging, confidence, independence and responsibility designed to support the development of morally fit citizens.

Roskill South Kindergarten head teacher, Karen Ramsey, highlights the importance of the steadfast learning dispositions.

"It is difficult to speculate what the world will be like for these children as young adults so rather than focus on skills and knowledge, we focus on dispositions. We want children to be highly motivated and directed learners and if we foster their dispositions to be thinking for themselves, setting their own goals, and a passion for learning, they should be that way in 20 years."

Karen says it is essential that learning dispositions are taught alongside knowledge and skills.

"Any child can learn to write their name but unless they have the disposition to be a reader and writer, and therefore the enthusiasm, they may not use this skill, so the focus becomes developing a passion for learning."

Karen believes it's imperative that centres set themselves up to provide opportunities for these learning dispositions to thrive.

"Get the children to take an interest in things, set their own goals and persist with difficulties and challenges, communicate their own ideas and take responsibility for them because these habits of mind will give them the skills to face whatever challenges lie ahead."

She says her centre has children who arrive without any experience of play and an inability to make decisions. To support these children's learning and empower them, a whiteboard containing ideas for play, is set up for children to plot a list of the day's activities. Karen says self directed play quickly becomes intuitive and then the plotting exercise becomes redundant.

 "Listening to each other is a strong value we advocate for and we develop the idea of empathy when we talk about: ‘how you would feel if it happened to you.' We teach children to articulate when there is a problem and provide strategies to deal with conflict."

Across New Zealand's centres are making a concerted effort to provide outdoor settings that encourage children to enjoy, explore, respect and care for their natural world.

In Napier's Wycliffe Nga Tamariki Kindergarten, a child stands under a high sunflower and announces with awe: "the sun is shining on me!" Nearby, a child, with a magnifying glass gleefully examines wriggling worms. Other children eat vegetables from their garden, and feed scraps to a wormery. In Wellington, a kindergarten's head teacher takes time to discuss caring for spiders and small creatures which invites a mixed response of fear and excitement.

These precious anecdotes illustrate that environmental and sustainable education is alive and well in our sector and through role modelling of good practice, teachers are helping children become caretakers of our planet. Te Whāriki supports this through direct references to sustainability and environmental education.

Explicit examples can be found in the Belonging strand which identifies the need for children to develop skills in caring for the environment. The Exploration strand states that children need to respect and develop a sense of responsibility for the wellbeing of the environment; acquire working theories about the living world and knowledge of how to care for it; and have a relationship with the environment and knowledge of their own place within it.

Karori Kindergarten's head teacher, Janice Tossman, is a passionate advocate of education for sustainability.

"Nature and young children are natural companions. Children experience the environment immediately because they operate at the here and now level-the grass level-it [nature] is meaningful for them."

For centres that are ready to take sustainability more seriously, Janice recommends small green steps.

"Look at what your centre is doing in the areas of recycling, waste, and energy. Think about what type of outdoor setting you have. What message do you send to your children about the natural world and its creatures?"

She stresses the importance of each centre having someone taking leadership on the centre's approach to the natural environment.

"It is up to centres how much time they spend on sustainable education but if teachers do not see it as important, it won't get the attention it deserves."

Janice says the key is to empower children and to adults encourage green ethics among children to counter the messages of a consumer society that places ‘wants' ahead of ‘needs.'

Wycliffe's head teacher, Heather Simmons, says her teachers are focused on developing children's respect and empathy for the environment. To encourage children to be inquiring learners and problem solvers, the kindergarten provides ‘garden explorer' backpacks which contain a magnifying glass, clipboard, pens and paper, and a small spade. Children refer to the centre's bug identification chart when identifying creatures and draw what they see.

Because Napier is prone to long sunshine hours and drought, the teachers speak to the children about water conservation and how to take responsibility for protecting themselves from the sun through hats sunscreen and good hydration.

"It's important to teach children about Earth so that they respect and conserve its resources and learn to live sustainable lives. Like everyone else, we can only guess what changes these children's lives may see and hope we can teach them to be problem solvers and inquiring learners so they make the best of what they inherit."

Early childhood teachers acknowledge information communications technology [ICT] is a valuable tool to facilitate learning and most have built it into their teaching programme to enhance children's understanding of the world.

 "The internet is a wonderful way to answer to children's questions. You should see the wonderful YouTube videos on the caterpillar‘s life cycle. Our children ask for these everyday while the caterpillars are undergoing metamorphosis," says Heather.

Karen says children who use ICT to document their learning have found it a particularly valuable method for presenting and reinforcing messages on sustainability.

"The kindergarten uses ICT to present photographic displays and the presentation of children's learning stories. There is a poster on the cycle of compost, near where the children sit to eat, and this often becomes a point of conversation during meal times."

Janice says technology is excellent for learning but cautions that it should be moderated to avoid children spending too much of their day in front of a screen.

"Children are kinaesthetic, they don't want to be sitting down too much."