The International Panel on Climate Change report of Global Warming of 1.5°C (October 2018) strongly recommends unprecedented scale of systems transitions to ensure little to no overshoot of global warming of 1.5°C. In the interest of examining educational efforts towards this reality, this qualitative study is designed to understand how the field of early childhood education is adapting to living with climate change and preparing early learners for their future under the guiding principle of the required systematic change that must be met to mitigate the effects of the human ecological footprint on the environment. This qualitative study features a cross-cultural comparison of early childhood professionals’ ideas about the role that early childhood teachers play in helping children learn foundational ideas about climate change. Three participants from Washington state and 4 participants from Trondheim, Norway were interviewed and the content of the interviews was analyzed and coded for themes. Participants all had early learning teaching experience, but their roles varied from State policymaking, teacher educators, and early learning educators. Participants described barriers in supporting early learners’ understanding of, relationship with, and caring for the environment and how the field of early education can be intentional in supporting these goals. Participants identified lack of educator knowledge, lack of access to nature, family emphasis on spending time in nature, the risk of scaring children, emphasis on academic readiness, and cultural emphasis on environment as the main barriers to effectively preparing early learners for their complex future. All the participants felt children were capable of understanding topics related to sustainable practices, cause-effect, and co-existing with the other life on this planet. The next steps of this work is to determine how to best prepare early educators in supporting the goals identified by participants through professional development or teacher preparatory programs.

As the Latinx student population continues to grow in public K-12 institutions, it is increasingly important to center this student group within educational research studies. Existing research shows that Latinx students face challenges that discourage them from continuing on to higher education, such as apathetic teaching, language barriers, and institutionalized cultural erosion. The bulk of such findings come from studies conducted in larger urban cities, thus excluding students from the many small farmworker communities that exist in rural agricultural areas such as those in eastern Washington. My research aims to include such populations in the educational discourse, using an asset-based model. Instead of asking students from these rural populations what went wrong for them, the current research project focuses on what went right for them in their paths to higher education. The present study asks the following question: What familial, social, and aspirational forms of cultural capital aid Latinx students in their transition from rural school districts to higher education institutions? To answer this question, I analyzed the retrospective accounts of first year Latinx students from small schools in central and eastern Washington state. Following the Grounded Theory approach, I used semi-structured interviews to collect data, which will later undergo transcription and analysis. I anticipate that results will highlight cultural resources such as community bonds, familial support, and encouragement as helpful resources in the pursuit for higher education. The findings of this research will aid rural secondary-school educators and staff to provide resources that support the educational attainment and success of Latinx students.