Culture is the life blood of a society, which influences people’s worldviews, values, and behaviours. Research has confirmed that children’s participation in culture helps develop thinking skills, builds self-esteem, and improves resilience. This paper aims to explore how a purposely designed project can foster cultural sustainability through a case study of a neighbourhood project conducted in Chinese and Norwegian kindergartens. A qualitative research methodology is utilised. Major data sources are an overall project plan prepared by one of the Norwegian university researchers, project descriptions and PowerPoint presentations from the kindergartens, as well as workshop notes taken by one researcher during the workshop, complemented and triangulated by the follow-up reflective narratives from three kindergartens. Qualitative content analysis and comparative analysis are used to analyse the collected data. Findings have indicated that kindergartens hold similar views on culture and cultural stainability. Though the actual activities are diverse and implemented in different ways, the goal of fostering cultural sustainability is achieved in all participating kindergartens. Children not only have gained knowledge of their neighbourhood and problem solving and social skills but also have developed sense of belonging and emotional link with their local culture through the active participation. More importantly, this study has indicated that purposely designed projects/activities can promote early childhood education for sustainability and quality of early childhood education. It is thus recommended cultivating student teachers’ and kindergarten teachers’ competence to design projects/activities integrating different dimensions of sustainability in early childhood teacher education

Process drama refers to social, educational and artistic activity carried out by a teacher in a classroom. Specifically, process drama can be used to explore an everyday problem or a specific situation or theme through artistic activities or unscripted drama and play. A teacher may choose activities from a variety of drama conventions and create activities that challenge children to actively investigate questions, issues or dilemmas from different angles. Drama activities in kindergarten are closely related to children’s role-play, and the two mutually influence one another. For example, when participating in process drama, children may regard the activity as play that involves meaning, joy and excitement. This implies that process drama is one means of openly encouraging children to explore. The teacher’s own knowledge, skills and playfulness also influence this process.Few research studies have examined the concept of process drama or the concept of exploration in process drama for children aged 3–6. This chapter will expand knowledge in this field by examining the following research question: How does exploration occur in the activities of process drama? Examples will be taken from the observations of an early childhood educational setting. This chapter will specifically examine how process drama can be performed in settings with children aged 3–6 and how exploration plays a part. Furthermore, the teacher’s role in the activities of process drama will be analysed and discussed. Vygotsky’s concepts of play and child development are crucial for this discussion. The chapter will therefore discuss possible practices and means of child engagement in exploration (Vygotsky LS: Play and its role in the mental development of the child. In: Bruner J, Jolly A, Sylva K (eds) Play: its role in development and evolution. Basic Books, New York, pp 537–554, 1967).