Supervisors info:
Κώστας Γαβριλάκης, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Παιδαγωγικό Τμήμα Δημοτικής Εκπαίδευσης, Πανεπιστημίο Ιωαννίνων
Μαρία Δασκολιά
Γεωργία Λιαράκου
Summary:
For many educators, especially in kindergarten, the content of Environmental Education (EE), having its origins in the nature conservation movement, is closely or exclusively linked to elements of the natural environment, such as water, forests, species of flora and fauna. The socio-economic dimensions of environmental issues, which are highlighted today by Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), are often not perceived as the content of EE/ESD activities.
This study addresses the concept of ''environmental fairy tale'' and seeks to re-examine it, under the light of sustainability. The first part develops the theoretical framework. Through the analysis of the relevant international literature, is attempted a basic conceptual clarification of the terms ''environmental children's literature'' and ''environmental fairy tale''. The framework for integrating EE/ESD and environmental literature in the Greek kindergarten is then outlined and the role of environmental literature in EE/ESD is examined in detail. Subsequently, international and Greek studies/researches are analyzed and placed into the broader field of children's environmental literature and especially the fairytale. The theoretical framework concludes with the discussion of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
In the second part is presented the empirical research, which is developed in two axes. In the first part, the summaries are analyzed through a long list of children's fairy tales, suitable for children aged of 3 to 6 years, and is investigated the extent to which these tales are linked to the SDGs. The basic finding is that in the vast majority of them, fairy tales are directly or indirectly linked to a particular SDG. This means that kindergarten teachers, by working with fairy tales, can find many opportunities to deal with the contents of the SDGs in the context of the EE/ ESD.
The second pillar of empirical research deals with the views of kindergarten teachers, who work in Attica schools during the current school year (2018-2019), on how they perceive the term "environmental fairy tale", and to what extent and how they utilize such tales. At the same time it is studied which fairy tales, from those in the school libraries, could in their view be classified as "environmental". Teachers, through interviews, have shown that they make extensive use of fairy tales, from kindergarten libraries and that the concept of "environmental fairy tale" is closely linked to the educational goal of a fairy tale.
The survey concludes that it is difficult to give a narrow definition of the concept of ''environmental fairy tale'' as almost all fairy tales could be characterized as such, in the light of sustainability.
Keywords:
Key words: environmental education, sustainability, environmental fairy tale, sustainable development goals
