Sustainability and the Early Years Learning Framework

The early childhood sector in Australia is experiencing unprecedented federal government focus and many initiatives to improve quality in early childhood education are underway. A key initiative has been publication of the first national 'Early Years Learning Framework for Australia: Belonging Being Becoming' (DEEWR, 2009). Many early childhood educators have welcomed the framework and are now actively interpreting and implementing the principles, practices and outcomes. At many levels the framework also invites educators to reflect on sustainability and what it means in early childhood settings. This opportunity to reflect is timely given the increasing media attention and government reporting directed to the urgency of global environmental challenges. The Australian Climate Commission Report entitled 'The Critical Decade' (DCCEE, 2011) clearly conveyed the importance of acting now for change towards sustainability to address global warming. Humans are living beyond the Earth's biocapacity and we are poised at a point of no return in terms of the ecosystems that support all life on Earth (Flannery, 2008). As early childhood educators we readily understand that young children are 'most at risk from the impact of environmental challenges' (Siraj-Blatchford and Pramling Samuellson, 2009, p 10), yet the impacts for children appear to be largely overlooked (Strazdinis and Skeat, 2011).