ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out to research and detail explicit and implicit links to education for sustainable development (ESD) within the early years pedagogical framework of Northern Ireland. Reference will be made briefly to some relevant policy directives but the main focus of this chapter is to identify ESD within practice. Reference will be made to language associated with the three pillars of ESD – economic, social/cultural and environmental. Language that is explicitly referring to ESD is not immediately apparent within either the early years framework Learning to Learn (Department of Education, 2012), the early years strategy (Department of Education, 2010) or the earlier Foundation Stage framework (Department of Education, 2007). As noted in the Brundtland report (1987:96):
Environmental education should be included in and should run throughout the other disciplines of the formal education curriculum at all levels – to foster a sense of responsibility for the state of the environment and to teach students how to monitor, protect, and improve it.
