"Sustainability in Early Childhood Development and Education" seminar was held.

She stated that the most important objectives of this project are to determine how much the preschool education teachers can include, what they can do and how they have been included in their educational practices.

 

GÜLER YILDIZ in her speech; “We, as a team, have transformed our work, which started with Environmental Education for many years, into a project by developing towards sustainability. Sustainable development is actually a concept that has been used in many fields for many years, and the starting point of sustainability on the basis of this has actually started with environmental awareness movements. Especially in the 1950s, there was a rapid development with problems such as the increasing population, the destruction of green areas, the destruction of natural areas to meet their nutrition, and the drying of wetlands. In the book of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" in 1962, especially the negative effects of pesticides on human health were mentioned; This book, which explains its effects on animals and plant systems, is actually an important step in the formation of environmental awareness, and it is stated to be a revolution. The concept of sustainable development was first described in our common future report published by the World Environment and Development Commission in 1987, where sustainable development is defined as meeting the needs of today's generation without compromising the needs of future generations. Many meetings such as the United Nations Development meetings were held and many reports drew attention to the increasing population, environmental pollution and natural resources, especially non-renewable energy resources, and the speed of this development exceeded the capacity of the world to bear this development. The last meeting was held in 2015; At this meeting attended by 193 countries, 17 goals that will determine the world's agenda and guide the world agenda until 2030 were determined. These goals have 169 sub-goals. On the basis of global goals, all these goals should be evaluated and fulfilled in order for children to fulfill their developmental potential at the highest level, and here too, child entrepreneurs have very important roles.
 

Ending poverty is among the goals of our country by 2030 to ensure a healthy and quality life at all ages. There are targets such as lowering maternal and infant mortality rates and ending preventable deaths of children under the age of 5, which concerns us, and we know that in the continuation of this process, we know that services such as sexual health and reproductive health should be accessible to everyone and modern methods There are also sub-targets for its use. Within the scope of this purpose, it is expected that 1 year before starting primary school will be included in the scope of compulsory education and one goal of these countries by 2030 is to evaluate the schooling rates here. Sustainable development; Considering that it has economic, social, cultural and environmental dimensions, if we look briefly at its content, issues such as ensuring the continuity of natural resources on a global scale, protection of biological diversity, climate change; Preventing disasters, sustainable urbanization, social sustainability, human rights, social justice, peace and human security, gender equality, poverty reduction, the balance between production and consumption, each of our consumption habits is important. "If sustainability is dealt with properly in the program or finds a place through applications, it has been shown that it is important for them to learn to be conscious consumers in recognizing environmental problems in the recognition and protection of natural resources."

Prof. Dr. Tülin GÜLER YILDIZ continued her speech on what can be done for sustainability in early childhood, how we should address these abstract concepts in a way that children can understand and include them in their lives.

 

GÜLER YILDIZ said "Sustainability-related elements should be included in the Ministry of National Education Preschool Education Program prepared with a developmental philosophy. For this, pre-school teachers should be informed about the dimensions of sustainability and the themes discussed in these dimensions, and then they should be included in their daily practices in their activities and address these issues with children. "

 

GÜLER YILDIZ said "Many studies, projects and implementations regarding Sustainability in Early Childhood Education in our country and in the World are carried out. Studies have shown that decision-making, critical thinking, and positive feelings and attitudes towards living and inanimate objects are supported in children. It has been demonstrated that if sustainability is handled appropriately in the program, it is effective for children to recognize and protect natural resources, to recognize environmental problems, and to learn to be a conscious user. ''

 

 

GÜLER YILDIZ mentioned that what can be done in the school community with children and their families are discussed in different dimensions. "At the environmental level, the themes of Reduction and Reuse are the most materialized themes with children, and teachers and adults should be role models for children in these sustainability themes." The themes of Respect, Questioning and Reflection in the themes dealt with in the social cultural dimension; Learning the behavior of respecting ourselves first and then others and learning to respect differences is an important situation in the theme of respect. In the theme of inquiry, to question our connection with nature and our consumption habits, the amount of waste and garbage, gender roles, to discuss the environmental, social, cultural and economic damages of over-purchasing (such as toys); daily habits, lifestyles of children living in different countries in the projection theme gaining awareness of the issues are discussed. "Recycling and sharing resources equally gain importance in the themes dealt with economically."

 

Prof. Dr. Tülin GÜLER YILDIZ; Child development is a very important field for a sustainable life, and Child Developers have very important responsibilities, children need to gain individual responsibilities regarding sustainability, and at the same time, Child Developers have responsibilities to raise awareness both in the environment they work with and their families. " While ending his words, she answered the questions of the participants on the subject.