Key points:
Children, families, and educators are affected by wider contexts.
Every early years setting is a community with its own values, but it also connects beyond.
Place, space, and histories are important.
Children are citizens now and in their futures.
Early years settings can be communities for social justice and sustainability. 
Children, families, and educators are affected by wider contexts. Beyond a setting’s environment which has a crucial impact on children, it is important to bear in mind that the setting exists within a wider context that also influences children and families. Context is the environment people enter or create together, and everyone within a context will influence it both directly and indirectly.
Contexts can have multiple layers shaped by physical environments, personal experiences, social relationships, emotions and ways of thinking. Aspects of a context may be visible to some but not to everyone – although people may share a context at a particular time and place, it does not mean that everyone hears, sees, feels, or values the same things. Some influences operate at larger scales, including contemporary issues such as environmental challenges and climate change, the need for sustainable development, economic inequalities, migration and displacement and a variety of social and political movements. These wider contexts filter into the daily lives of children, families, and educators and find expression in local contexts.
Contexts and communities are dynamic, multiple, and constantly changing through circumstances such as politics, demography and technology. It is important to remember the role that children, families, and educators can play in shaping local contexts, and be aware that communities are not static groups. They develop from living practices that give people’s lives shared meaning and value.Every early years setting is a community with its own values, but it also connects beyond, with:
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- children’s communities (siblings, cousins, friends)
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- trans-local communities (including family members living abroad)
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- digital communities (social media, online groups)
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- inter-agency/multi-professional communities, and other early childhood education communities
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- non-human things and beings that children are attached to (such as animals, insects, imaginary friends, special objects, sounds and images).
Relationships between early years settings and communities can be supported through contact, communication and activity, with scope for mutual benefits. There is potential to tune in to one another’s hopes, fears, priorities and beliefs about children and childhood, and to learn from each other through reciprocal support and understanding.
Place, space and histories are important. Communities and settings are embedded in particular places with their own geographies, neighbourhoods and local knowledge. They have local histories, group cultures and collective memories that shape the way spaces are created and used. Shared memories and experiences can offer comfort and strengthen connection, while encouraging us to meet the present thoughtfully, especially where there are past experiences of hardship or injustice.
Communities can often take responsibility for creating and caring for local environments and experience a sense of wellbeing and connection to the places they live. Communities may, however, also be subject to negative impacts on the local environment such as pollution, traffic and a lack of accessible, safe public spaces to move and play. In practice, you might consider the role of partnership working with families, and whether there are creative solutions for building stronger community connections.
Children are active citizens now and in their futures. It is important to respect and recognise children’s roles as active citizens in shaping their environments and communities. Children’s needs, preferences, thoughts and choices need to be heard and responded to respectfully so that their vision and energy contribute to building healthy communities and environments for all. Children might be considered “active community-makers” as they move with agency between home, family, setting and play spaces.
Active steps can be taken to focus on building children’s view of themselves as citizens with both rights and responsibilities, and on supporting their capacities to actively participate and contribute. The expectations children build within the life of a setting community will carry through to how they see their role in other contexts to which they belong, now and as they grow up. Settings can make both rights and responsibilities explicit to young children, alongside providing lived experience of being active agents of change who have influence on others and on decisions that are made.
Settings can promote citizenship by supporting children’s sense of agency, such as:
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- Genuinely sharing power in an open way – Two-way respectful dialogue enables adults and children to experience both learning from and teaching the other. There can be explicit times when children know they are in charge of decisions. Play is important in building a sense of agency, with children determining how, where, with whom and with what they play. This can be made especially clear to children by encouraging them to articulate what they are choosing to do. When children are in charge this should be respected, without calling them away for adult purposes.
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- Involving children in making decisions – When decisions are made, children and adults can work together to discuss, problem-solve and try to reach consensus. Even babies and very young children can experience agency when adults recognise and respond to their preferences, initially being invited to communicate a preference between just two things offered to them. Over time, children can suggest options themselves. Enabling children to make free choices within clear boundaries encourages them to develop and express their own ideas, strengthening their identity as active citizens.
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- Responsibility for the shared space – children can be empowered to contribute towards caring for their environment, developing social awareness, empathy and environmental responsibility. Activities such as tidying and planning play areas or selecting and caring for classroom materials support children to see themselves as active members of their community.
A sense of responsibility for the environment in the setting and for everything to work effectively is built through routines and expectations where children have regular responsibilities, and where they know their contributions and ideas are valued. Responsibility for others grows from a setting ethos of fairness and valuing everyone, so children feel valued members of the group, promoting empathy and cooperation. Educators can give attention to the views and feelings of everyone involved when conflict arises and problem-solve the situation together rather than relying on an adult-imposed rule.
Early years settings can be communities for social justice and sustainability. By bringing together diverse communities, early years settings lie at the heart of social change. The setting can create a sense of community through the relationships and environments that pull diverse elements together. They are safe spaces for families and generate social and community participation. As early years educators and families engage in the care of these environments, they can experience positive change, social justice and sustainability in action.
Early years settings have an important role to play in challenging unconscious bias and contributing to equity by understanding how race, gender, sexual orientation, poverty, faith, prejudice and disability affect learning and life chances. To address unconscious bias regarding the local context, early years educators can learn more about what families like about the places they live in, engage with and support those who want to improve, and encourage greater ownership of the spaces they would like to change.
Sustainability is addressed through shared respect and care for the material environment, for example collectively coming up with ways to reduce consumption, repair, recycle and reuse. Wider contexts that involve principles of common worlds and climate change can inspire settings to become actively involved in local and broader groups and networks focused on sustainability and environmental restoration. Such involvement can help children recognise their place in the wider world, fostering a sense of connection and responsibility, toward creating a sustainable peaceful society.