Factors Militating Against the Implementation of Early...

Introduction The early childhood education is a field that has been rather slow to take up the challenge of sustainability; it has a potentially significant role to play not because of underlying concerns for children’s welfare, but because of interest in children’s environments and its attention to social justice. Recently, a new dimension has been added to early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) as an emerging national and international field, given a fillip with the launch of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) (UNESCO, 2005). Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) recognizes that young children have capacities to be active agents of change now, as well as in†¦show more content†¦In his book The Great Didactic (1657) he introduced what is now considered one of the first descriptions of an educational system tailored for young children. In Comenius view learning through the senses was the best way to teach during early childhood. He believed that before reading about the object of study a child should first touch, see, taste or hear it. According to Comenius, there should not be any gender or social class discrimination in education. He paid specific attention to individual differences among children; he believed that a childs development depended on his or her natural inclinations and that one and the same method would not work with each child. Comenius system of education included four levels spanning from infancy to adulthood. Each level outlined the educational experience needed by a person at each stage of development. This idea was new and became the foundation of other scholars works on the concept of early childhood education. Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed in education according to the ways of nature. He felt that education should be focused more on sensory and rational experiences than on literary and linguistic ones. One of Rousseaus most famous quotes pro claims that Our first teachers are our feet, our hands and our eyes. To substitute books for all these†¦is but to teach us to use the reasons of others. In his view education for young children