Diploma of Childrens Service

Questions: 1. What aspect of sustainable practices do you want to know more about: 2. Give a brief rationale for this research project: 3. Write a clear research statement or question to be answered that summarises the main aim of the research you are undertaking: 4. Who is the target group of your research project: 5. Identify the stakeholders in this research topic and explain why they would be interested in the findings of research in this sustainable work practice topic? 6. How many participants will take part in your research project? 7. Where will you get these participants from? 8. How will you encourage the children to participate in sustainable practice discussions and learning experiences? Identify the ethical considerations relating to your research and explain how you will ensure that your research project is conducted ethically: 9. List the resources you will need to conduct this research project: 10. Identify the research methods you will use to conduct your research, and give reasons why you chose these methods: 11. Identify a time line for your research project: Answers: Chapter 1: Introduction Background Sustainability or sustainable development can be defined as the development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the developmental needs of the future generations (Warburton, 2013). It is the ideal that we should use the resources available for development for the benefit of the present generation of people but also by conserving those resources for the future generations to come so that the needs of the people of future generations are also met without any difficulties (Warburton, 2013). Along with the need of sustainable development comes the need to spread the awareness of sustainability (Helming Wiggering, 2013). There are thousands of people who do not understand the concept of sustainable development. They do not have the idea that the resources we are using to better our life is slowly depleting, and for the futures generations to come we must save it. Hence, to practice sustainability, awareness among people is pivotal (Warburton, 2013). And the best way to teach people about the importance of sustainable development is to start the environmental education early (Warburton, 2013). Various sustainability practices can be introduced at child care centers which can teach the new generations the significance of conserving the life support of the world (Warburton, 2013). Implementing various methods of sustainability practices at child care centers can teach young children the importance of conservation and sustainable development. It will teach them methods that will help them to practice sustainability (Helming Wiggering, 2013). Aim of the research The aim of this research is to describe the sustainability work practices at that are being implemented at child care centers. The goal is to discover sustainability practices that are at work at child care centers which teach children about the significance of sustainable development and its benefits towards the environment and people. Aspects of sustainability to know in this study (answer to question 1) To evaluate the recycling practices that are implemented at child care centers. To explore the attitudes of parents, families, children and staff towards the recycling practices. To evaluate the outcomes of recycling practices, those are being taught to the children. To find out whether the recycling practices that are being taught to the children are teaching them about the significance of sustainability. Rationale of the study (answer to question 2) This research is conducted to understand the sustainability work practices at child care centers that can help the children to learn about the concepts of sustainable development and environment-friendly practices at a very young age. It is important to learn sustainability practices at an early age because children will use this knowledge to implement various sustainability practices in their life when they grow up. Not only the children will grow into people who are aware of the environmental issues but also practitioners of various methods that can help the saving the environment and bring the natural balance of world again into existence. Teaching children about the need for sustainable development can result in the creation of a generation that implements sustainability practices in their life rather than just being aware of it like today's generation. The present generation is aware of the problems associated with the environment but very little fraction of these aware people d o something productive to help bring change in the practices which can improve the environmental issues. Research questions or statements (answer to question 3) What are the outcomes of teaching sustainability practices such as recycling to very young children? What are the children learning from the recycling practices? Is there any need of improvement or change in the recycling practices that are implemented at child care centers and if required what changes should be brought to action? How do the children, their parents and families, and the staff feel about recycling practices? Target group (answer to question 4, 6 and 7) The participants of this research are the children and their parents of child care centers and the staff of these centers such as teachers, caretakers, and helpers. The young children will be interviewed in a playful interactive way to discover what they have learned from sustainable practices such as recycling and how they practice recycling. The parents will be interviewed to analyze their views on the subject of sustainable practices and what they think about their children learning these practices. The teachers will be asked about their plans and methods of how they will teach such young children to practice sustainability. What is their plan of work to teach the children about recycling and through what kind of activities they will teach children recycling. 20 children and their parents will be interviewed. All teachers and caretakers present in the chosen child care center will be interviewed. These participants will be chosen from a suitable child care center. Encouraging children for sustainability practices (Answer to question 8) Children can be encouraged to participate in sustainable practices by indulging them into group activities which involve sustainable practices. For example, children can reuse various items contributed by the families for creative art, stage shows, fun activities etc. Items such as old magazines bottle tops, greeting cards, cardboard boxes etc can be donated by parents so that the children can create something creative in art sessions. Cardboard boxes can be used to make playhouses. Bottle caps can be used to create decoration for the class by painting them or covering them with glitters. Greeting cards can be cut and pasted into chart papers to create collages for decorating the class walls. Children can also do outdoor activities such as learn to plant small herbs in old plastic bottles. This will help recycle the plastic bottles as well as teach the children about plants and what they require to grow. All these kind of activities will teach the children about the recycling old things to create new things with their highly imaginative minds. It will not only teach the children to recycle old things but also boost their imaginations for creating small wonders. This type of multifaceted learning experience will help them learn about various things in a more creative and productive way and teach them the significance of our environment and sustainable practices. Stakeholders of this research (answer to question 5) The stakeholders of this research are parents and families of young children, teachers and other staff members working at child care centers, researchers and students of humanities who study various aspects of child care centers and various methods of child care for well being of children. From this study, the stakeholders can understand the present situations that are ongoing in the child care centers. Scholars who study these child care systems will get insight into the sustainable practices that are taught to young children and how the children and their parents are benefited from sustainability practices. Ethical considerations: (answer to question 9) As this research involves interviewing young children, care must be taken in formulating a questionnaire so that it can be compatible with children. Questionnaires should be formed according to the type of participants. Different questions should be asked to different participant groups such as parents, teachers, children, other staff, and families. Consent of parents should be taken before interviewing the children. Informed consents of other participants also should be taken before conducting the research. Privacy of the participants should be maintained. Resources used for the research (answer to question 10) Resources used in this research are online literature review, assistance from child care centre to conduct the research for a long duration of time at their campus. The participants also helped to analyse the research questions and derive appropriate conclusion. Chapter 2: Literature review What is Sustainability? In the context of ecology, the capability to endure is called sustainability (Elliott, 2012). Through sustainability, networks of biological entities remain productive and diverse indefinitely. In a more general context, sustainability is the endurance of processes and systems (Elliott, 2012). Sustainable development is the primary principle of sustainability. The pursuit of a common goal is the defining character of sustainability (Reid, 2013). Sustainable development is the process by which human developmental goals are met by without compromising the ability of natural systems to provide ecosystem services and natural resources on which the society and economy are depended (Griggs et al., 2013). The concept of sustainable development is rooted in the Brundtland Report of 1987 from which the modern concept is derived (Griggs et al., 2013). The modern concept of sustainable development is rooted in the concerns associated with environmental issues of the 20th century and early ideas of sustainable management of forests (Griggs et al., 2013). Sustainable development is the central principle that organized the idea of maintaining resources that are necessary for meeting the needs of future generations of people and other life forms on the planet (Griggs et al., 2013). Aspects of sustainability Sustainability has three pillars that define sustainability in a complete sense. The pillars of sustainability are environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability. These three subsets of sustainability define it in a more comprehensible way (Reid, 2013). Environmental: The capacity to maintain the harvesting rate of renewable resources, the rate of pollution generation and the rate of depletion of non-renewable resources indefinitely is called the environmental sustainability (Reid, 2013). Economic: The capacity to indefinitely support economical production is called economic sustainability (Reid, 2013). Social: The capability of a social system like a country to function indefinitely at a certain state of social well-being is called social sustainability (Reid, 2013). Sustainable practices at child care centers: Sustainable practices are necessary for achieving sustainable development. To preserve our environment in its natural state and to prevent the harms to it can be attained only through sustainable practices (Davis, 2014). However, implementing these sustainable practices is not very easy. Common mass must be aware of it. Awareness of a problem does not bring any change to the problem rather acting upon those problems does (Hart, 2013). Hence, to fight environmental issues and their severe effects, one must not just be aware of the issue but also take appropriate action to bring some change to prevent the degradation. There is a philosophy that to become an environmentally sensitive and responsible adult, positive attitude towards the environment must occur at a young age for a person to learn the significance of conserving the environment ("Environmental Education in Early Childhood - Victoria - Home Page", 2016). A person can practice sustainability only through appreciating the need of sustainable development. This can be achieved if people from very young age learn about these environmental problems and learn to implement sustainable practices in their daily life (Hart, 2013). To do so, teaching sustainable practices to young children at child care centers can be very useful to create a generation who are not only aware of the environmental problems but also acts on those problems to prevent degradation of environment and practice sustainable development (Davis, 2014). There is a non-profit organization called EEEC (environmental education in early childhood) that provides resources, professional development and support to educate young children to practice sustainable activities. EEEC provides play and learning strategies for working with children, parents and staff to implement environmental education at an early age ("Environmental Education in Early Childhood - Victoria - Home Page", 20 16). Chapter 3: Methodology (answer to question 11) Approach Considerable literature review suggests that implementing sustainable practices such as reduce-reuse-recycle at child care centers can result in teaching the children the importance of going green and saving the planet from the problems that are degrading the environment (Bryman, 2015). Hence, the urge to conduct research on how children are taught sustainable practices at child care centers and what these children understand of it has emerged. Design The design of this research is exploratory. Exploratory studies focus on the discovery of insights and concepts on a particular topic (Bryman, 2015). The primary purpose of exploratory research is to increase the familiarity of the subject and to clarify the concepts which are not clearly understood (Bryman, 2015). Type of data Data which is established from research can be primary or secondary (Fowler 2013). Primary data is the one which is collected by the researcher after conducting the research and the data which the researcher constructed by the study. Secondary data is the already established data collected by the previous researchers (Fowler 2013). Primary data can be collected through two different research approaches- qualitative and quantitative (Fowler 2013). It is vital for the researcher to choose the appropriate research approach according to the need of the study. The approach which provides better answers to the research questions is chosen for conducting the study (Bryman, 2015). The quantitative approach is based on statistical data. It is more involved with numbers. However, the qualitative research depends more on words. The data relies on the understanding of a social phenomenon based on the meaning people give to it (Fowler 2013). This research study will be conducted in a qualitative approach to finding the answers to the research questions. Data Collection and Data Analysis: The primary data for a qualitative research can be collected through in-depth interviews or focus groups (Taylor et al., 2015). Focus groups are groups of some participants who conduct a discussion among each other on a particular topic. The discussions are lead by moderators. The in-depth interviews are conducted through face to face conversation with a participant. The participants are interviewed on the topic of concern, and their views are recorded for further analysis (Taylor et al., 2015). Data analysis is a process of investigating, transforming, arranging and modeling of data which is acquired after conducting a research study (Bryman, 2015).. This is done to extract important information that is comprehensible and can be used to draw conclusions regarding the topic of research. The data analysis also facilitates the researchers to create gain new insights and find information from the raw data which they have collected during the research process (Bryman, 2015). Timeline of the research: (answer to question 12) The time required for conducting this research will be approximately three months. First, one month is required to plan the research and formulate a protocol to carry on the study. During this time, the prerequisites of the research are arranged such as questionnaires for various participant groups, finding of child care centers who will agree to accommodate research study on their campus. The informed consent of the participants to carry on the research study should be acquired. Next month will be used to conduct the interviews at different child care centers and gathering the data for further analysis. The third month is required for analysis of the data and formulating a proper research dissertation which is presentable. Conclusion: This research will be conducted to understand practices that are implemented in child care centers to teach young children about the environment, its importance, and the problems that are associated with the environment and how those problems can be dealt with by implementing sustainable practices in our daily life. References: Bryman, A., 2015.Social research methods. Oxford university press. Davis, J. (Ed.). (2014).Young children and the environment. Cambridge University Press. Davis, J., Elliott, S. (2014).Research in early childhood education for sustainability: International perspectives and provocations. Routledge. 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