Big Mac and Unicorns: Exploring a child rights-based transformative ESD approach for early childhood education and care with young children and ECEC practitioners

Muireann Ranta is an IRC Gov of Ireland Scholar and final year PhD candidate with socialCORE at the South East Technological University. With over 20 years of practice in early childhood education and care (ECEC), her areas of interest focus on Nature as a learning environment and children’s rights. Providing children with an education that supports respect for Nature is a legal curriculum entitlement specified under Article 29 1 (e) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). As part of her research, she has worked with young children and ECEC practitioners to explore their own perspectives and views of Nature learning under this education right. Her work provides empirical knowledge for the further development of education for sustainable development (ESD) for the ECEC sector under young children’s own definitions of their education and participatory rights.