This introduction sets the scene by exploring the richness of the diversity of learners and critically examines the imperative for educators within the current educational climate to employ pedagogies that transform learning experiences, particularly for those who continue to be marginalised and are increasingly disengaged from education. The aim of the introduction is to lay the foundation for the significance of supporting educators in pedagogical decisions that prioritise and are socially just and responsive to the inclusion of all learners, thereby engaging and empowering learners as active co-designers and self-regulators of respectful, meaningful and impactful learning. In scaffolding educator efficacy, the introduction encourages self-reflective strategies for sustained critique of applying inclusive, responsive, enabling and socially just pedagogical approaches within their educational practice.

Early childhood is a time of profound growth and development and early experiences during this period have important implications for life-long health and development. Evidence for the benefit of investing in early childhood is so strong that it is considered a public health issue by many researchers and policymakers. This chapter explores efforts within Cooperative Extension in fostering health and well-being among young children, suggesting a holistic approach that involves supporting children’s parents and caregivers, early childhood educators, and fostering a positive context in which children can thrive. Extension continues to play important roles in providing culturally responsive education to families, working with families to cocreate knowledge, and assisting communities in supporting the well-being of young children for lifelong success. Specific examples of promising programs are provided to highlight the impactful work conducted by Extension to support young children around the country.

This chapter extends beyond the single Australian early childhood centre focus offered by Robert Pratt in Chapter 4 of both previous editions. As co-editor, it has been a pleasure to collate five stories from the field with educators from early childhood education services across Australia. These stories highlight a deepening of pedagogical approaches and consolidation of what it means to be a sustainable early childhood service. The story authors well demonstrate how, over time, the multidimensionality of sustainability can readily be embraced in both meaningful and unique ways in early childhood education settings.

It is close to 15 years since the first edition of this text was published in 2010, and then translated into Korean in 2014. The second edition was published in 2015 and translated into Chinese in 2018. Much has happened in early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) since then. Hence, the case for a third edition was persuasive. When the first edition was written, the text demonstrated mainly an Australian orientation, while the second edition expanded authorship to include more international chapters. This third edition builds on the work of all previous authors and, as editors, we argue that the content of the two previous editions continues to be highly relevant! This third edition offers a much wider range of chapters from around the globe and almost double the number of authors, though it continues to maintain its Australian applicability. We reflect that Australian ECEfS benefits from the ideas and experiences of authors beyond Australia, just as we believe Australian perspectives have much to offer readers internationally.

In this chapter, the intersection between digital technologies and sustainability is explored, supported by many practice examples and comprehensive linking to relevant resources. Central to this chapter is a digital technology for sustainability education (DTfSE) framework proposed by the authors to guide educators in navigating this intersection. In a field of rapidly changing digital technologies, the possibilities for ECEfS are expanding.

In this chapter by three Swedish authors, the core positioning of children’s rights and equity in ECEfS is explored. The Swedish early childhood curriculum is strong on these points and sustainability, thus offering a unique platform for implementing a revised Swedish version of the OMEP ESD Rating Scale. The authors’ research study focused on the implementation of the scale as a self-assessment tool for teachers in their preschool contexts. The outcomes highlighted preschool teacher commitment to ESD, as well as the need for professional learning and systemic approaches to facilitate transformative change.

In this chapter, the authors write about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and its relationship with ECEfS. They argue that these fields are connected through their common, underpinning inquiry-based approaches to learning and teaching. They illustrate these connections through two stories from the field. They take these connections even further, however, and show how STEM and ECEfS can be enriched by adding an ‘A’ into STEM, to become STEAM. The ‘A’ stands for the ‘arts’, which can broadly include the humanities and social sciences. By expanding STEM into STEAM, richer, fuller learning experiences can be generated that offer stronger interdisciplinary connections to the ways in which the world really works, where empathy, creativity and curiosity are fostered and given multiple opportunities to be expressed. They show how a STEAM approach focusing on the creative arts can be used to reflect on artworks, for example, and how it can enrich a study of frogs and frog habitats. The authors also introduce a practical guide to assist early childhood educators to choose appropriate pedagogies when using inquiry-based learning. This is the IKOPE planning model – interest, knowledge, organisation, practice, empower – a series of iterative steps that build on children’s interests, supporting the creativity, problem-solving and communication of their STEAM learning.

Dr Jodi Edwards, an Aboriginal woman of Yuin and Dharawal kinship, wrote this chapter through her lens as an Elder connected to Country and the waters of the Illawarra coast of New South Wales. She explains how cultural knowledge-holders have seen, and continue to see and interpret, the natural environment through rich environmental play experiences that help shape cultural identity and strengthen Aboriginal Lore/Law. In a contemporary context, Jodi extends on these ways of understanding by sharing the rationale behind a children’s playscape and public art space being developed by the Shellharbour City Council in collaboration with the local Aboriginal community. The playscape is a play-based site for physical activity, and a place for storytelling and language learning, and for learning about bush tucker and bush medicines. It is intended to inform local young people and visitors alike about the multiple sustainable practices engaged in by the Aboriginal community of the area. At a broader level, the playscape also offers considerable potential for enhancing cultural and language reclamation, decolonisation and reconciliation.

The key principles of this text have not changed in this third edition, especially its child agency and rights focus. We continue to argue that children’s voices are integral to implementing ECEfS. The editors and authors remain fundamentally committed to advocating for and profiling the capabilities and rights of young children as active thinkers and doers, who can enact so much in their own contexts to shift ideas and practices towards sustainable solutions. This text is not a response that seeks to shift responsibilities from adults to children, asking next generations to fix what todays adults leave behind. It remains a book of positive thinking and actions showing what early education communities can do when children, educators and parents work together towards living sustainably. The book continues to be about learning and taking action to ‘make a difference’ within the scope of children’s own lives and contexts, and identifying the power of ECEfS as a catalyst for transformative change.

In this chapter, the authors focus on ways to integrate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into ECEfS. They do this by showcasing a range of pedagogies and practices, paying particular attention to the social-political dimensions of sustainability, illustrating that sustainability is so much more than attention to environmental topics. In this discussion, the authors discuss the power of listening to children, the pivotal role of child participation in EfS and the strength of critical reflection in creating change. They then utilise two stories from the field. The first comes from a kindergarten context in Queensland, Australia, and unpacks pedagogies of intentional listening and ‘yarning’ with children to support their sense of belonging in their kindergarten community. The second story comes from a 3- and 4-year-old kindergarten, bush kinder and integrated childcare centre in Victoria, Australia. It describes strategies for building fairness and inclusion through the centre’s ‘everyone can play’ philosophy.

In this chapter, co-authors Eva Ärlemalm-Hagsér (Sweden), Diane Boyd and Naomi McLeod (England), Maria Assunção Folque (Portugal) and Deniz Kahriman (Türkiye) capture diverse case studies. These include children in Portuguese public spaces engaging with community, a Turkish preschool’s transformation through the 7 Rs (plus one more R), a study of intergenerational sustainability learning in England and a narrative of a Swedish preschool teacher’s pedagogical adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Central themes are children’s empowerment, and community learning and sharing for sustainability. Grounded in real-life contexts, each case study relates directly to societal concerns of the twenty-first century and highlights the multiple dimensions of sustainability – social, political, economic and environmental. Collectively, the case studies demonstrate empathy and respect and draw on shared knowledge and skills in authentic partnerships, while illuminating deep understandings of and valuing the broader environment.