IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i7p3815-d778202.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Caring for Worldviews in Early Childhood Education: Theoretical and Analytical Tool for Socially Sustainable Communities of Care

Author

Listed:
  • Magdalena Raivio

    (Department of Educational Studies, Karlstad University, 651 88 Karlstad, Sweden)

  • Ellinor Skaremyr

    (Department of Educational Work, University of Borås, 501 90 Borås, Sweden)

  • Arniika Kuusisto

    (Department of Child and Youth Studies, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
    Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland)

Abstract

Societies of today are becoming increasingly pluralistic. This applies also to the diversity of values and worldviews in Swedish early childhood education and care (ECEC). Still, in the increasingly secular contexts, societal hegemony often fails to include children’s home religions and worldviews in the actions and understandings aiming towards inclusiveness. We argue that it is of critical importance to also include the plurality of worldviews in the educational perception of “the whole child” in the care and education taking place in ECEC. The purpose of this article is to connect the discussions in the fields of intercultural and interreligious education, in particular those dealing with the diversity of religions and worldviews, to discussions on care and social sustainability in ECEC. The UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development promotes inclusive and equitable education, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child states children’s right to freedom of religion and a concern for the spiritual, moral, and social development. Our previous findings have illustrated the importance of religions and worldviews in the intercultural work within early childhood education, both empirically and conceptually, and as part of the moral core of teaching. This article employs feminist and postcolonial ethics of care as a theoretical lens in elaborating on the three key notions: social sustainability, care, and worldviews. Several discursive challenges that ECEC teachers in Sweden face in their work, to enhance social sustainability by supporting the child’s well-being and sense of belonging in the ECEC, have been outlined. To conclude, we bring forth a theoretical and analytical tool for the understanding, researching, and planning of socially sustainable communities of care.

Suggested Citation

  • Magdalena Raivio & Ellinor Skaremyr & Arniika Kuusisto, 2022. "Caring for Worldviews in Early Childhood Education: Theoretical and Analytical Tool for Socially Sustainable Communities of Care," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-16, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:7:p:3815-:d:778202
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/7/3815/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/7/3815/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lili-Ann Wolff & Peter Ehrström, 2020. "Social Sustainability and Transformation in Higher Educational Settings: A Utopia or Possibility?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, May.
    2. Eva Johansson & Yngve Rosell, 2021. "Social Sustainability through Children’s Expressions of Belonging in Peer Communities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Efrat Eizenberg & Yosef Jabareen, 2017. "Social Sustainability: A New Conceptual Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-16, January.
    4. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    5. Alicja R. Sadownik & Josephine Gabi, 2021. "(Re)imagining Entangled Sustainability: A Human and Nonhuman Theorisation of Belonging to Safeguard Sustainability’s Holism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-9, April.
    6. Farhana Borg & Niklas Gericke, 2021. "Local and Global Aspects: Teaching Social Sustainability in Swedish Preschools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-17, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jiawei Liu & Yong Jiang & Beibei Zhang & Xingjian Zhu & Tianyan Sha, 2022. "Paths to Promote the Sustainability of Kindergarten Teachers’ Caring: Teachers’ Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-18, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tasneem Alsaati & Samir El-Nakla & Darin El-Nakla, 2020. "Level of Sustainability Awareness among University Students in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-15, April.
    2. Pablo Bris & Félix Bendito, 2017. "Lessons Learned from the Failed Spanish Refugee System: For the Recovery of Sustainable Public Policies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-27, August.
    3. Kosa Golić & Vesna Kosorić & Slavica Stamatovic Vuckovic & Kosara Kujundzic, 2023. "Strategies for Realization of Socially Sustainable Residential Buildings: Experts’ Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-31, April.
    4. Stefano Pippa & Stefano Malatesta & Cristina De Michele & Elisabetta Biffi, 2021. "Education for Sustainable Development and Children’s Involvement in Public Spaces. From Universalism to Places, from Rights to Capabilities: Some Evidence from a Research Project on the Regeneration o," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-13, March.
    5. Barbieri, Elisa & Di Tommaso, Marco R. & Pollio, Chiara & Rubini, Lauretta, 2020. "Getting the specialization right. Industrialization in Southern China in a sustainable development perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    6. Judith Janker & Stefan Mann, 2020. "Understanding the social dimension of sustainability in agriculture: a critical review of sustainability assessment tools," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1671-1691, March.
    7. Robert Lecusay & Anna Pauliina Rainio & Beth Ferholt, 2022. "Caring about and with Imaginary Characters: Early Childhood Playworlds as Sites for Social Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-17, May.
    8. Gianluca Elia & Alessandro Margherita & Claudio Petti, 2020. "Building responses to sustainable development challenges: A multistakeholder collaboration framework and application to climate change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2465-2478, September.
    9. Ana María De la Calle & Alejandra Pacheco-Costa & Miguel Ángel Gómez-Ruiz & Fernando Guzmán-Simón, 2021. "Understanding Teacher Digital Competence in the Framework of Social Sustainability: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-17, November.
    10. Nataša Rebernik & Marek Szajczyk & Alfonso Bahillo & Barbara Goličnik Marušić, 2020. "Measuring Disability Inclusion Performance in Cities Using Disability Inclusion Evaluation Tool (DIETool)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-25, February.
    11. Marit Heldal & Trond Løge Hagen & Ingvild Olsen Olaussen & Gry Mette D. Haugen, 2021. "Social Sustainable Education in a Refugee Camp," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-18, April.
    12. Fredrik Hoppstadius & Ulrika Åkerlund, 2022. "A Sustainable Everyday Life for Counterurbanising Swedish Families," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-19, May.
    13. Nejc Brezovar & Tatjana Stanimirovic, 2022. "Sustainability aspects of participatory budgeting at the municipal level in Slovenia," Public Sector Economics, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 46(4), pages 569-589.
    14. Paulina Schiappacasse & Bernhard Müller & Le Thuy Linh, 2019. "Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    15. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    16. Schlör, Holger & Venghaus, Sandra & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2018. "The FEW-Nexus city index – Measuring urban resilience," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 382-392.
    17. Jean-Louis Combes & Alexandru Minea & Pegdéwendé Nestor Sawadogo, 2019. "Assessing the effects of combating illicit financial flows on domestic tax revenue mobilization in developing countries," Post-Print halshs-02315734, HAL.
    18. Nelson, Ewan & Warren, Peter, 2020. "UK transport decoupling: On track for clean growth in transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-51.
    19. Ibrahim Ari & Muammer Koc, 2018. "Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development: Understanding the Interrelations between Public Investment and Sovereign Debt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-25, October.
    20. R. Ebrahimi & S. Choobchian & H. Farhadian & I. Goli & E. Farmandeh & H. Azadi, 2022. "Investigating the effect of vocational education and training on rural women’s empowerment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:7:p:3815-:d:778202. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.