Economic (in)equality and sustainability: preschool children’s views of the economic situation of other children in the world

ABSTRACT

This study explored preschool children’s knowledge and views of other children’s economic situation worldwide, and their self-reported sources of such knowledge. A total of 53 final-year preschool children, aged 5–6, from 12 preschools in Sweden were interviewed. Children’s responses were analysed using content analysis and the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcomes Taxonomy. Most of them seemed to have knowledge about the lives and the economic situation of other children in the world. Many of the preschool children could justify their views with one or more relevant ideas or thoughts, and a few of them were also able to logically connect their arguments. Parents, media and observations of real-life situations were reported as major sources of knowledge, while preschool was mentioned by a few. Further research is needed to enhance our knowledge about how to integrate social and economic sustainability in preschool’s pedagogical activities and to engage children meaningfully in such learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumption
• early childhood education
• preschool
• social sustainability
• SOLO Taxonomy
• sustainable development

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank all children, their guardians and preschools that participated in this study. The author wishes to acknowledge the support of Dr. Johan Borg, Lund University, Prof. Monika Vinterek, Dalarna University, and Asst. Prof. Mikael Winberg, Umeå University, with this paper. The author is grateful to the editor and reviewers for their constructive comments on this paper. The illustration for this study was made by Pauline Borg.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Farhana Borg is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Applied Educational Science at Umeå University, and she is a lecturer at the early childhood teacher education programme at Dalarna University, Sweden. She has worked with child rights and early childhood education programmes internationally, including at UNICEF.

ORCID

Farhana Borg http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4937-8413

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Högskolan Dalarna.