A team of researchers and early childhood advocates spent two and a half years creating something that hardly anyone was requesting somewhere inside Kristianstad University, a tiny Swedish city that most people outside of Scandinavia would find difficult to locate on a map. Preschool teachers can learn how to discuss sustainability with young children by taking this free, research-based online course. not adolescents. not students at universities. young children. One of the more significant initiatives in early childhood education that the Erasmus+ program has funded is Sustainability from the Start, which is currently sitting quietly inside a mobile app that is free and available in six languages.
Kristianstad University, Swedish OMEP, the national branch of the global early childhood organization that operates in seventy countries, and edChild, an EdTech company based in Stockholm that won OMEP’s own sustainability award back in 2021, collaborated to create the project. France, Ireland, Croatia, Sweden, and the Czech Republic were the five European OMEP committees that took part. The project was funded by the EU through Erasmus+, and it ran from January 2022 to June 2024. And then they just gave it away instead of locking the final product behind conference registrations or institutional paywalls. Get the ECE Academy app, register, and begin studying. No fees. Institutional affiliation is not necessary.
Particularly in the context of professional development, where a single weekend workshop can cost hundreds of euros and leave participants with little more than a printed certificate and a tote bag, there’s something almost disarming about that generosity. Eight comprehensive modules covering the environmental, social, and economic aspects of sustainable development are included here. Each module consists of three to five classroom activities that are intended to be used with kids. In order to help very young minds understand abstract concepts, the course even incorporates a group of characters known as the 8 Friends into the teaching materials. A minor detail that implies the designers were considering actual classrooms rather than theoretical frameworks is that instructors who complete the course receive certificates, and their students receive diplomas.
During the project’s launch, Jessica, a Swedish preschool teacher, described the course with a straightforward enthusiasm that felt earned rather than practiced. She described it as “an easy way to start helping the planet feel better.” Diane, an Irish coworker, had a different perspective, focusing more on addressing real gaps in her knowledge of biodiversity and ecological literacy than on feelings. Both answers most likely accurately describe the current state of the profession. According to UNESCO’s own data, only about 20% of teachers think they can help students take meaningful action, despite the fact that about 40% of them feel comfortable explaining the cognitive aspects of climate change. This course appears to be intended to bridge that gap between knowing and doing.
The multilingual goal here is noteworthy. Not only is it a kind gesture to offer the course in English, French, Spanish, Swedish, Croatian, and Czech, but it also shows a practical awareness of how fragmented early childhood education is throughout Europe. Preschool systems differ greatly between nations due to varying levels of public investment, cultural norms, and regulatory traditions. One of the more subtle obstacles to professional development is eliminated by making the same research-based content available across those divides without requiring participants to navigate foreign languages.
Naturally, the question of whether this course truly alters classroom practice on a large scale is different. Downloading an app is not the same as reconsidering how you spend a Tuesday morning with a room full of four-year-olds, and free access does not ensure engagement. However, the infrastructure is now in place.
The study is translated. The exercises are prepared. Ingrid Engdahl, speaking on behalf of OMEP Sweden, outlined the goal in broad strokes: giving teachers all over the world the resources they need to encourage young students to think sustainably. For a tiny app, it’s a big claim. However, it’s difficult not to feel that something subtly beneficial has been achieved when you see a project like this go from an Erasmus+ grant application to a freely accessible resource in six languages, created by people who obviously understand the difference between policy language and actual teaching.
