OMEP Seminar Series 2021-2022

Early childhood care and education (ECCE) in debate

Seminar III:

Education for Sustainable Development in early childhood education

The Seminar will include presentations from the 2021 OMEP ESD award winning projects from the following countries: Sweden, Croatia, Japan and Turkey. Opening remarks will be delivered by Ingrid Engdahl, OMEP Vice President for the European region and leader of the ESD working group. The event will be coordinated by Adrijana Visnjic Jevtic and Glynne Mackey, from the ESD team and OMEP Croatia and OMEP New Zealand, respectively. The closing words will be made by Mercedes Mayol Lassalle, the OMEP World President.

The Swedish project is called “EdChild app”. It explores through technology how to help teachers in education for sustainable development. The app was developed in collaboration with Swedish preschool teachers and is free to use.

Two student projects from Croatia will also be presented. The first one called “Finaktivci” will be presented by Anja Kočiš, 22, a graduate of the Faculty of Teacher Training and a Bachelor of Early Childhood and Preschool Education. She is a member of the non-profit organization Prospirit and works in a children’s playroom. The second project is called “Recycle a toy, promote sustainability” and will be presented by 6 third-year preschool and kindergarten students from the University of Zagreb.

The Japanese project is an online cross-cultural exchange program for preschools. The project aims to raise awareness about diversity by interacting with peers in different countries at an early age.

The awarded project from Turkey is “Children as Systemic Thinkers: Exploring Water with Education for Sustainable Development”. This project aims to link systems thinking and Education for Sustainable Development by presenting an example of systems education for young children by developing and implementing a learning framework created specifically on water for children aged 5 to 6 years, as well as measuring its impact.