Playful Environmental Education and Climate Justice Practices for Early Childhood in Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

This article presents a playful-pedagogical intervention focused on Environmental Education and Climate Justice, carried out with children from a public school in Salvador, Bahia (Brazil). Adopting a qualitative approach grounded in critical Environmental Education, eco-citizenship, and children's agency, the project fostered experiential learning through a pedagogical garden. Activities included discussion circles, literary storytelling, and practices of caring for nature, aiming at the (re)construction of the children’s environmental identity and the development of eco-citizenship. Initial results indicated positive effects, such as the emergence of attitudes of belonging, empathy, and care—reinforcing the idea that childhood is fertile ground for sowing socio-environmental ideals and imagining other possible worlds. The study concludes that playful and affective practices within Environmental Education in early schooling have strong formative potential.