Early Childhood Education in the Process of Change. Discourse of Standards or Discourse of Values?

Abstract

The author joins the discussion on the changes in early childhood education. She states that despite many attempts to reform education on this level, we still have great difficulties in departing from the transmission as well as instrumental models of learning processes. The author analyses issues connected with the democratization of the educational process, referring to the theoretical and practical research undertaken within the “Environmental Education for Sustainable Development in Initial Teacher Education” project carried out by a project team of experts from the Academy of Special Education in Warsaw and the University of Agder in Kristiansand. Although the project is focused on the implementation of sustainable develop¬ment to the child’s education, it also includes a democratic approach, which supports the personal and social development of the child. Only a humanistic, subjective and democratic attitude, which contributes to everyday learning can be considered stimulators of the modern transformation of education.