People who may identify as LGBTQ+ and other sexual, affectional, intersex, and gender-expansive (SAIGE) identities around the world face political oppression and social discrimination, including arrest, violence, and murder. In countries that have made strides toward affirming and including SAIGE rights, discrimination and social exclusion still exist. This chapter discusses colonialism, postcolonial theory, and increased awareness of counseling theory related to SAIGE individuals globally.

Chapter 31 scrutinises the term Weltliteratur (world literature), often invoked but little understood. Weltliteratur is a motif in Goethe’s oeuvre, rather than a unified theory, and it either describes the increased international literary exchanges which are the result of modernisation, or it has a normative charge, suggesting that Weltliteratur enables intercultural understanding. The chapter considers the origins of and various sources for the concept, together with its key resonances and concerns; it also reflects on the role played by the term in the establishment of the modern academic discipline of comparative literature.

For many visitors to China, airports may be where Chinese signs are first seen. This chapter will sample some signs that are commonly seen at airports, including those for customs, terminals, departure lounges, boarding gates, baggage claims, and transportation options. Most of the airport signs are bilingual with English translations. Most of the signs in this chapter are seen at the Pudong International Airport in Shanghai.

This chapter discusses Keynes’s Economic Consequences of the Peace as a matrix for understanding the changing institutional landscape of international trade. In 1919, Keynes highlighted the perils of German participation and US non-participation in international politics, twin problems that continued to frame trade debates in the League of Nations for the remainder of the 1920s. Generally, German leaders supported the construction of an open and regulated world economy. Many internationalists were eager to lock Germany into a system of multilateral norms but also feared that integrating Germany into global markets would reinforce its dominance in key strategic sectors. In contrast, the United States remained aloof from League trade negotiations in the 1920s. Europeans were divided over whether to respond with universal trade rules that the United States might eventually be persuaded to follow or with a regionalist approach that would enable Europeans to negotiate directly with their Atlantic neighbour on a more equal footing. As Keynes saw clearly, both sets of concerns were exacerbated by the financial imbalances stemming from war debts and reparations.

This chapter considers a range of internal and external restrictions (individual, institutional, national, and international) on the production of knowledge, which is situated in the dominant framing discourse of global neoliberalism. Recognising forms of restrictions on knowledge relates to how academic freedom itself is constructed, invoking the proposition that certain prerequisites are necessary for the practice of academic freedom. The chapter examines how university governance and funding mechanisms can constrain academic freedom. Within the university context, it extends its consideration to the role of ethics committees, bureaucratisation of university procedures, role of students, and university environment. The role of self-censorship at the individual level and the notion of scholars’ responsibility as well as freedom are critically examined. State-level restrictions are also considered. The chapter also situates these university-level and state-level restrictions within transnational restrictions, including international law and movement across borders.

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.

In this revised chapter, the authors reiterate the fundamental importance of children’s learning experiences in natural environments. However, they challenge educators to re-examine their worldviews and pedagogies around such experiences. Relationships between humans and nature are problematic – especially at this critical juncture in Earth’s history. The authors make a compelling case for Australian immersive nature play programs (INPPs) as offering opportunities to explore a nature–sustainability nexus. They discuss three stories from the field to illustrate their arguments. Further, they propose that authentically embedding First Nations peoples’ worldviews into INPPs presents additional richness for teaching and learning in nature programs.

On one level, this chapter invites readers on an engaging cultural and geographic journey across the Americas, but more deeply it challenges our ways of facilitating early childhood teacher education for sustainability. There is no one right way to motivate teachers – both pre-service and in-service – to take on the challenges of sustainability; however, this chapter offers a range of possibilities. Harwood examines a Canadian pre-service ECEfS course of study with Indigenous and colonial perspectives interwoven; Carr focuses on the in-service experiences of educators participating in a centre transformation towards ECEfS at Arlitt Child Development Center; while Bascopé documents an in-service exploration of the role of Indigenous Chilean culture in ECEfS with teachers. Diversity and richness characterise this chapter.

In this chapter, the authors reiterate matters they consider essential for the future development of ECEfS. There are three key essentials proposed in this final chapter – communities of practice; teacher education; and curriculum policy review – to further progress and deepen systems thinking across the early childhood education field for sustainable futures.

In this chapter, these four co-authors emphasise the importance of sustainability for the future of people and planet, given that the case for all human and non-human inhabitants has never been clearer. Through an account of Mia’s doctoral study, they challenge readers to provide young children with meaningful opportunities to participate in conversations about the Earth’s future. More importantly, they argue for children’s concerns to be heard and their ideas acted upon. To this end, the chapter offers research-based strategies for early years educators, especially in the first years of schooling, given that the research was conducted with children aged from 6 to 8 years. They developed the 4C Pedagogical Framework for transformational early childhood education for sustainability as a valuable tool for this purpose.