Young children’s understanding of environmental issues

Abstract

Environmental issues are a major threat the world is currently facing. To cope with this situation, urgent action is necessary; otherwise, young children will have to pay the consequences of the current unsustainable lifestyles. This chapter focuses on how young children, up to age eight, make sense of environmental issues around them and explores how their values and attitudes help them develop their pro-environmental behaviors in the longer term. By drawing on research conducted in diverse contexts and cultures, this chapter highlights that young children have already experienced some impacts of environmental issues around them, and consequently, they are able to understand and talk about issues they are familiar with, even if at a very basic level. Children tend to oscillate between anthropocentric and biocentric worldviews when discussing environmental issues with adults. Such understandings are essential with respect to supporting young children in developing their environmental worldviews. These debates are contextualized within the fields of environmental education, education for sustainable development, and early childhood education. Implications for further research and education are highlighted at the end of the chapter.