Climate change is an urgent global issue that requires concern and action among a climate literate citizenry. Early childhood climate change education (CCE) affords strong potential for developing this climate literate citizenry. Early childhood educators are critical for this endeavor, and their climate change perspectives, teaching practices,…

In our interconnected world, what does it mean to teach global environmental issues to young children? Using theoretical foundations from the social justice learning community and child-directed, inquiry-based learning best practices, this practitioner reflection details a seven-week, student-centered, interdisciplinary learning experience…

Increasing demands of accountability and academic readiness across U.S. preschools are often accompanied by decreased play and time outdoors during the school day. The nature preschool movement, grounded in a desire to foster connection to the natural world while also supporting important developmental processes and school readiness, counteracts…

Time spent outdoors benefits children's physical, social and psychological development, although children today spend far less time outdoors than children of previous generations. The nature-based school initiative has grown in popularity as a means of increasing children's connection with nature and harnessing its benefits for their educational…

This article is situated within ongoing efforts in early childhood education to unsettle extractive relations with the more-than-human world and efforts to situate children's learning within current conditions of environmental vulnerability. The authors discuss some pedagogical and curricular interruptions that emerged from foregrounding…

The challenges and successes of planning, implementing, and evaluating a nature-based four-year-old kindergarten program are shared as well as a description of the first years of the program that is designed to enhance the students' academic, physical, social, and emotional development. In addition, a description of how the partnership among a…

Coping with environmental crisis cannot but presuppose a change in the values adopted by modern man. Both ecocentric values associated with creating a caring relationship with nature, and the development of empathy, can become vehicles of transformation towards a society based on ecological principles. In connection with these issues, an…

Nature-based early childhood education. Nature-based preschool. Nature preschool. Forest kindergarten. Nature kindergarten. Waldkindergarten. Forest school. These are a few of the program terms currently being discussed among early childhood environmental education professionals in the United States. Why is there so much discussion about the names…

The collection of papers contained in this special issue was elicited by a worldwide call for papers to explore settings that provided nature experiences for young children, with attention given to the effects that these initiatives have on the holistic development and environmental awareness of the children, as well as impacts on the teachers and…