Water, Waste Material, and Energy as Key Dimensions of Sustainable Management of Early Childhood Eco-Schools: An Environmental Literacy Model Based on Teachers Action-Competencies (ELTAC)

Abstract

The main argument defended in this article is that the involvement of teachers in decision-making about environmental aspects related to the management of educational institutions constitutes a powerful tool for training, teacher professional development, and environmental literacies. A group of early childhood education teachers across various institutions work under a collaborative action-research model for an entire year that is focussed on the following: (1) the institution’s water, solid waste, and energy management; (2) the planning of innovative activities related to water, solid waste, and energy, and; (3) participation in transformative actions that involve families and impact their neighbourhoods. The experience enables the building of a theoretical model of teacher training aimed at acquiring action skills from a comprehensive perspective of triple helix environmental literacy (management, research/innovation, and teaching) that affects their commitments to the management of environmental resources, the eco-auditing of their eco-school, the curricular greening of activities, the renewal of educational programs, and the implementation of an action-research focussed on aspects related to sustainability.

Keywords

• education for sustainability
• curricular innovation
• sustainable management
• teacher training
• action research
• water