It can be easily agreed that there is a need to educate young and very young children about environmental protection and sustainable living, and while very good progress is being made through hands on schemes and engaging initiatives, it could be argued that the opposite end of the spectrum has been left behind.
Framing a complex global concern to make it's relevance clear to a class of young children is a significant challenge to teachers and educators, but arguably a necessary step for future generations that are set to inherit complicated global problems that require sophisticated solutions and an unparalleled level of global cooperation.
The approach taken by teachers at a kindergarten in the north of the Czech Republic follows on from the good principles and practices identified in the 20 12-2014 Comenius project 'What is Europe?' to create personal relationships between children of vastly different and contrasting socio-political and geographical backgrounds. In this unscientific study, the children were asked before and after a video conference call with a group of similar aged children in Kenya and another group from India, for their thoughts and feelings on the children's lives in comparison with themselves.
It became evident that, even at a young age, some preconceptions had already been made. Most likely having been passed down from influential adults, such as parents and teachers. However, it's important to note that these preconceptions were a balance of positive and negative or that the child simply had no notion of the other children's lives before the video call.
After the call the children demonstrated significantly greater interest in the daily lives of the new 'friends', their school, their homes and environs, their culture and country.
Keywords: culture, environment, globalization, kindergarten
