What about the Migrant Children? The State-Of-The-Art in Research Claiming Social Sustainability

In this literature study, the authors have reviewed research articles related to Education for Sustainability in kindergartens. The purpose was to describe the extent to which Education for Sustainability is related to a holistic and social perspective that takes into account ethnic diversity and experiences of belonging. 

Research questions:

1. To what extent is a holistic and social perspective on sustainability applied/reflected in research articles on Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) in kindergarten?
2. How is the social aspect of Education for Sustainability conceptualised by kindergarten researchers?
3. What does the research say about diversity/multicultural perspectives and migrant children related to the social aspect of Education for Sustainability?
4. What does the research say about belonging (and related concepts) in an ECEfS context?

The results of the study showed that researchers in the field of sustainable development largely recognised the environmental, economic and social aspects of Education for Sustainability and thus applied a holistic perspective to the phenomenon. Although the social dimensions were seen as being strongly linked to topics such as social justice, citizenship and building stable societies, few articles investigated diversity, multicultural perspectives or the situation of immigrant children in relation to the work on Education for Sustainability in kindergartens. Furthermore, the concept of belonging is rarely used in connection to migrants and refugees. The authors argue that these aspects should be included in further research. 

The researchers searched for scientific articles in 20 journals (nine Nordic and eleven international) on education, kindergarten and/or Education for Sustainability. The literature searches were conducted on title, keywords and summaries using English, Norwegian and Swedish variants of the keywords ‘sustainability’, ‘sustainable/environmental development’, ‘social sustainability’, ‘social dimension’, ‘belonging’, ‘citizenship’, ‘democracy’ and ‘agency’. 

The literature review was conducted in four stages. In the first stage, the researchers identified 59 articles in the 20 journals. In the second stage, the researchers read through the articles and assessed their relevance. 41 articles qualified for the third stage and were read thoroughly and organised according to purpose, research questions, theory, methodology, sample size and conclusions. In the fourth stage, the researchers organised the articles according to relevance determined by the four research questions.

Boldermo, S. & Ødegaard, E. E. (2019). “What about the Migrant Children? The State-Of-The-Art in Research Claiming Social Sustainability”. Sustainability, 11(2).