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Complexities of Social Sustainability in International Green Schools: Questions from an Early Childhood Case Study in Indonesia

Wed, April 17, 8:00 to 9:30am, Hyatt Regency, Floor: Bay (Level 1), Bayview B

Proposal

Researchers, practitioners and the youngest of learners explore their environments in educational landscapes worldwide. Within the under-researched yet rapidly developing intersection of Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) we emerge in an opportune time to explore diverse communities working towards fostering relationships between children and their environments across cultures (Ardoin, Clark & Kelsey, 2013; Davis & Elliott, 2014). Guided by the United Nations three pillars of sustainability (environmental, economic, and social), the majority of literature in the field of ECEfS explores the relationships within the perceived binary between ‘children’ and the ‘natural environment’ (Sommerville & Williams, 2015). Even less research critically examines children’s interconnected relationships to their social environments within sustainability-oriented educational initiatives, including the complexities of topics such as multicultural education and reconciliation work in ECEfS settings. As schools aim to promote holistic sustainable agendas worldwide, it is imperative to understand how social sustainability is conceptualized and enacted within educational initiatives with young children and the implications thereof.

The researcher’s roundtable discussion is supported by experiences and findings from an ethnographically-oriented exemplary case study of an international Early Childhood Education program in Bali, Indonesia. The Early Years Program resides within the Green School Bali, acknowledged as one of the leading examples of how sustainability can be integrally woven into the infrastructure, culture and curriculum of a school. Having gained global accolades over a relatively short period of time, it is important ask: “How, if at all, is Green School shaping children’s relationships with the many complex components of sustainability education?”

This research was conducted through a grounded theoretical framework, and clarified through thematic analysis (Saldaña, 2016) and writing as inquiry (Richardson & St. Pierre, 2005). The qualitative data, collected over six months, combines participant observation of and with children ages three to six years old; formal and informal teacher and administrator interviews; document analysis; and personal reflection.

This research addresses strengths and challenges within the Early Years Program’s conceptions and enactment of social sustainability regarding the integration of local Balinese and Indonesian culture, curriculum, and faculty within a predominantly western, international school program. I explore this social sustainability narrative through the critical lens of the “hidden curriculum,” and “the unstated norms, values and beliefs that are transmitted to students through the underlying structure of meaning in both the formal content as well as the social relations of school and classroom life” (Giroux, 1983, p. 22). This individual story is contextualized by situating the “case” of the Early Years Program within multiple social communities (Early Years Program, Green School, Balinese, International). The findings from this narrative exemplify the inseparable complexities that school programs, teachers, and children are all intertwined within their social landscapes. The discussion will speak to both the academic community’s lack of research in the area of social sustainability in ECEfS, as well as offer insights into practice for program developers and practitioners seeking to better understand the implications of the social pillar of sustainability in their own educational contexts worldwide.

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