Basic Concepts in Environmental Education

- For Research of Early Childhood Environmental Education -

Abstract

  This article first summarized the basic research concepts of early childhood environmental education. International trends in early childhood environmental education research since 2009 were subsequently reviewed, explaining that in Western cultures — under the influence of the new view of early childhood after the Convention on the Rights of the Child — environmental education has been included in national guidelines for early childhood education, and that in terms of the research field concerning early childhood education, environmental education and education for sustainable development (ESD) have become research subjects, with research progressing rapidly. There is also an increasing number of studies on the benefits of relations with nature. In Japan, on the other hand, there has been no such movement, and environmental education and ESD are still not described in the national guidelines for early childhood education, leaving research attempts and output stagnant. When researching environmental education in early childhood in Japan, it is necessary to define the meaning of the basic concepts and to closely examine foreign developing trends and previous research in Japan.