In our rapidly changing contemporary society, it has become apparent that children spend significantly less time playing outdoors than their parents did. Therefore, considerable attention must be paid by professionals to engage this challenge, especially within early educational contexts. The goal of this study was to first explore the continual drive of play in educational growth and, second, the ways in which children play outdoors at school, in order to reap the developmental benefits of outdoor play in a supportive context, where such fundamental activity is not only allowed, but also supported. The results of this study reinforce existing research in this area, highlighting the findings of children’s physical play behaviour and its frequency, also in connection with the use of tools and toys; further findings highlight teacher’s attitudes and suggest several options for early childhood professionals to foster children’s enjoyment of outdoor play. Finally, the study results have implications for future opportunities in the planning of active spontaneous-play.

The Culture/Nature dualism has supplied post-Enlightenment philosophers, scientists and social scientists with a neat way to set limits on the respective concerns of the social and natural sciences (see Barad, 2007; Braidotti, 2013; Fullagar et al., 2019), and has enabled the creation of distinctions between “modern” (read “civilised”) and “traditional” (read “primitive”) bodies and ways of being-in-the-world (Denowski and Viveiros de Castro, 2014). Yet, when critically exploring issues of embodiment, the influence of the built environment on well-being, climate transitions and/or the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic such distinctions start to become problematic, as eloquently argued in the last three decades by feminist, post-human, new-materialist and political ecological –among others– debates and propositions. Giving continuity to an ongoing dialogue started in 2018 between scholars and activists from Latin America and Europe (see Donato, Tonelli, Galak, 2019) this seminar explored how the interrelated domains of health, physical activity, and education can look like from perspectives that de-stabilise established ontological boundaries between nature, culture, the body, and their relationship. It did so through a dialogue between Alessandro Bortolotti, Simone Fullagar, Bruno Mora, Niamh Ni Shuilleabhain, four scholars from Australia, Italy, United Kingdom and Uruguay. The online event took place as the first of a two-parts online seminar series on Re-assembling the nature-culture-body nexus: practices and epistemologies.

Across the globe, increasing attention is being paid to curricular learning outside the classroom. While there is no Italian national outdoor learning policy, there is a growing wave of lecturers, teachers, schools, environmental education centres, who are developing this field. This paper examines one rural primary school’s attempts to incorporate learning outside the classroom into their rather conventional teaching practices. Michael Fullan’s seven premises of ‘change knowledge’ are employed to lend a deeper interrogation of the findings. Since the boundaries of inquiry were so clear, in terms of context, space-time, and people, a case study design was used. Data generation featured two principal methods and took place over a six-year period. First, there were open-ended interviews with each of the two principal educators; two focus group interviews with the entire staff team; and large focus groups with senior pupils. Field notes from participant observation and informal conversations were also used. The findings highlighted the importance of alliances between teachers, parents, and the wider community; the need for pupils to have the power to shape what is being learned; and the value of having pupil groups with different ages and abilities. The teachers stressed how crucial it was for pupils to learn how to critically refine the questions they were asking about their ‘places’. Further analysis of the data showed that Fullan’s premises of motivation and commitment, learning in context, capacity building, and persistence and flexibility were especially present. A livello globale, si registra un crescente interesse nello sviluppare il curriculum scolastico all’aperto. In Italia, pur non essendoci un diretto interesse da parte di organizzazioni centrali, si assiste comunque ad un’ondata di docenti, insegnanti, scuole, centri di educazione ambientale, che stanno vieppiù sviluppando questo settore. Il presente lavoro esamina gli sforzi di una scuola elementare rurale, al fine d’inserire l'apprendimento all’aperto nelle proprie pratiche didattiche, generalmente piuttosto convenzionali. Le sette premesse di Michael Fullan per "cambiare la conoscenza" sono state utilizzate per riflettere a fondo sui risultati ottenuti. Poiché i confini dell’indagine qui sviluppata erano molto chiari in termini di contesto spazio-temporale e personale, è stato adottato l’approccio dello “studio di caso”. I dati sono stati raccolti nell'arco di sei anni, attraverso due metodi principali. In primo luogo, si sono utilizzate interviste approfondite con ciascuno dei due insegnanti principali della scuola; due incontri di focus group con l'intero corpo insegnante; e focus group allargati a tutti gli alunni. Inoltre, sono state raccolte numerose note di campo provenienti sia dall'osservazione dei partecipanti, sia da conversazioni informali. In generale, i risultati hanno evidenziato l'importanza dell’alleanza tra insegnanti, genitori e con la comunità locale; la necessità che gli alunni abbiano la possibilità di essere coinvolti nella definizione dei contenuti d’apprendimento; il valore dei gruppi d’alunni con età e capacità diverse. Gli insegnanti hanno sottolineato quanto sia cruciale che gli alunni imparino ad affinare criticamente le domande che si ponevano sui loro "luoghi". Un'ulteriore analisi dei dati ha mostrato che le premesse di Fullan su motivazione, impegno, apprendimento nel contesto, sviluppo delle capacità, continuità e flessibilità, siano particolarmente presenti. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0720/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>