Locating the Educator in Outdoor Early Childhood Education

Abstract

We tell the story of an experience Kate Dawson, her students, and three eagles had at an outdoor preschool. The experience profoundly affected Kate, and prompted us to ask the following questions: What made this experience feel so magical, and what caused it to happen? Why are these magical moments valuable, and how might they impact our pedagogical practices? We posit that magical moments in outdoor early childhood education depend upon relational and pathic knowledge, and understanding of place, rather than intellectual or cognitive knowledge about place. We suggest conditions and practices educators may employ to foster magical moments, including slow ecopedagogy and embodied, sensory, and spiritual attunement to place. We consider our role as educators in the educator-students-place system, particularly when acknowledging that place is agentic, and acts as learner, knower and teacher. To understand place pedagogically, we must think of ourselves as learners and as the objects of learning, as much as thinking of ourselves as knowers. This requires a pedagogy of embodied responsiveness and a surrender to place as teacher. Far from simplifying the work of the educator, living within a relationship of educator-students-place complexifies the practice of teaching.

Systematic Review of Education for Sustainable Development at an Early Stage: Cornerstones and Pedagogical Approaches for Teacher Professional Development

“…On ECE, ESD addresses the flaws and limitations of current early-childhood education and sustainability approaches. This encompasses the need to overcome adult-centric views of children that consider them incapable of coping with harsh and complex issues (e.g., climate change) [12,13,[20][21][22], to focus on developing experience rather than transmitting knowledge to raise change-agents [13,23,24], to overcome positivistic and romanticized views in our relationship with the environment [20,[25][26][27][28], and to integrate individual and collective values [13,29]. ESD encompasses previous fields of education, such as environmental education, science education, intercultural education, citizenship education and community-based education.…”

“…A range of studies [14,28,33,54], some of which directly question adult-centric education, advocate for outdoor experiences with minimal adult intervention. Defending children's autonomy and their need for adults to take them seriously as agents in their own environment [29], some research studies stand against "teacher-directed-methods" [14] as an appropriate approach to outdoor learning for ESD.…”

“…This view has been nuanced by others [53] who state that a certain content-orientation proposed by teachers is needed so that outdoor activities could have a greater impact. Outdoor experiences are important for developing sensory engagement with the environment, which is considered the basis for developing environmental stewardship [12,14,28]. From a critical and post-humanist perspective, Elliott and Young [26] have argued that, even if outdoor experiences are beneficial for children, they do not automatically produce an engagement with sustainability issues:…”

From the Ground Up: Children's Experiences of Connecting With Nature Through Technology

“…As children experience aspects of nature within their local environment, they can also begin to appreciate nature and form positive connections with the natural world (Dawson & Beattie, 2018;Elliot et al, 2014;Ghafouri, 2014;Green, 2013;Kahn & Weiss, 2017).…”

“…While the children I worked with had varied experiences such as planting seeds in a Styrofoam cup, examining frogs, or watching skunks as we went on a nature hike, many children acknowledged they enjoyed these experiences. This enjoyment can be seen in the experiences of many young children (Dawson & Beattie, 2018;Elliot et al, 2014;Green, 2013). While I do enjoy and appreciate nature, I must profess that my experiences with and in nature are quite limited.…”