Education for sustainability in Early Childhood Teacher Education (ECTE)

Early Childhood teacher education (ECTE) in Sweden is a 3½ year long education on an academic level. In Sweden the Parliament and government have overall responsibility for higher education. They decide on which rules are to apply to higher education and they also set out goals and guidelines. However universities have a great freedom of movement within the regulatory framework set out. They are e.g. free to decide how to organise their studies. The aim of the study presented here is to discuss how students answer on a survey concerning education for sustainability. In the first and fourth semester the ECTE students at Kristianstad University are particularly directed to learning about sustainability and education for sustainability. Critical aspects of sustainability and education for sustainability are pointed out by the teachers and by the textbooks. The survey will give answer to questions about what aspects of sustainability the students had discerned in the fifth semester. The first results of the survey indicates that the students’ experience is that the ECTE had developed their knowledge about sustainability although we can see there still are aspects that are not yet discerned. This indicates the importance of problematizing sustainability from a didactic perspective in relation to ECTE.