Pedagogical leadership in Nature: Early Childhood Education in the Outdoors

Our Objectives: - Develop professional knowledge and practical experience relating to early childhood education and care in the outdoor environment. - Learn about possibilities for activities a...

Our Objectives: - Develop professional knowledge and practical experience relating to early childhood education and care in the outdoor environment. - Learn about possibilities for activities and learning environments to support children's holistic development - Particular interest in learning about outdoor learning with babies and toddlers as there is a recognised bereft of research and knowledge pertaining to curriculum planning for this younger age group. -Motivating and inspiring the staff team to take leadership in their roles and to provide them with the resources needed to follow through on their learning. -Recognising the challenges often associated with ECEC in the Irish, and international context, this project was an important factor in highlighting the importance of the early years setting in supporting the learning and devleopment of babies, toddlers and young children, and bringing the knowledge and skills of the educator to lights. -We wanted to learn more about possibilities in the outdoors and take example from each other so we could be confident of our pedagogical practice and use new learning to communicate the importance of nature pedagogy and sustainability -Developing team-based reflection

We implemented the following activities: Job shadowing with partners in Sweden where six educators spent time in Stockhom visiting kindergartens and engaging in professional learning there. In turn, 8 participants from Sweden visited Ireland and did the same. Job shadowing with partners in Denmark whereby 5 educators visited kindergartens there and in turn, educators and mentors from their munipalitity visited us in Ireland. Subsequent visit to Denmark involved presentation at a regional Erasmus event to share learning about the project. The job shadowing experience with Denmark was part of a collaborative action research project whereby an article is currently being finalised to publicise the role of reflection and collaboration in Erasmus projects. Semi-strucutred questionnaires and dialogue to promote reflection Dr Sharon Skehill and Lisa Flaherty wrote and published an article with OMEP about sustainability and have presented this paper at both national and international conferences. Sharon and other educators from the setting have delivered keynote presentations and workshops at several events re outdoor pedagogy. We have also showcased practice at colleges and hosted students and lecturers at communities of practice here.

Blogs and journal articles have been developed and published to share learning about nature pedagogy and sustainability. Important themes have been developed from the project such as professional identity, ESD and daily routines and provocations. Conference papers and keynote presentations have been given at national and international events to communicate about ECEC in the outdoors, ESD in early childhood, as well as Leadership in ECEC - all of which are underpinned by our learning from the Erasmus project and communicated as such. Information sharing at these sessions to promote Erasmus and Leargas TCA events Showcasing practice involved jobshadowing but also inviting educators, students and lecturers to the setting in ireland to talk about our project and pedagogical practice.Having developed these communities of practice with different colleges, schools and organisations, we were abole to systematiclaly integrate reflection on practice into daily routines which exceeded our initial expectations.