Title
Eco-literacy and the content-pedagogy relationship in early childhood education
Document Type
Presentation
Publication details
Edwards, S & Cutter-Mackenzie, A 2006, 'Eco-literacy and the content-pedagogy relationship in early childhood education', in S Wooltorton & D Marinova (eds), Sharing wisdom for our future: environmental education in action: proceedings of the 2006 Conference of the Australian Association of Environmental Education, Australian Association for Environmental Education, Sydney, NSW. ISBN: 9780957833517
Presentation available from:
Abstract
Using eco-literacy, this theoretical paper examines the highly contentious relationship between content and pedagogy in early childhood education. Early childhood education has a historical commitment to play-based pedagogy which emphasises pedagogy over content knowledge. This is problematic because research suggests that children do not automatically acquire content through play-based learning. Furthermore, whilst socio-cultural theory has recently challenged traditional practices, its potential to inform the content-pedagogy relationship has not been realised. This paper in interfacing eco-literacy and early years pedagogy creates a unique marriage between two research fields in order to develop a theoretical framework for interfacing content and pedagogy in early childhood education.