Speculative spaces: Children exploring socio-ecological worlds with mythical nature spirits

Abstract

Drawing on Donna Haraway's notion of speculative fabulation, in this study the authors investigate how a pedagogy grounded in mythical nature spirits, children's imaginative explorations and storying activities created spaces for children to explore socio-ecological worlds. Their inquiry draws on an ethnographic case study of three children (aged seven to eight) in a Finnish primary school who participated in a cross-curricular unit framed by a set of pedagogical materials called ‘The Riddle of the Spirit’. Their inquiry shows how speculative fabulations emerged into performing spaces, in which imaginary fabulations of humans, spirits and places created alternative narratives about more-than-human relations. Such fabulations emerged when the children became spirits, when the spirits were transformed from kings to queens, and when trees that humans had cut down could be revived and returned to the forest. Thus, the authors’ inquiry suggests that myths embedded in storying activities can offer unexplored educational opportunities to invite children to attend to and imagine socio-ecological worlds.

Lingering with Multispecies Kin: Re-Turning to Encounters between Children, Invertebrates and Amphibians

“…Therefore, although we perceive lifeworlds "through ourselves," affective enterings are only possible through relationality, which pushes us to look and act beyond ourselves in relation to ecosystems. In our study, we conceptualised lingering as an embodied approach to attuning-with speculative spaces, frictions, and awkwardness in children's narratives about more-than-human worlds (Byman et al, 2023;Renlund et al, 2023), but also as a sensuous experience that captivates children and prompts their attunement with materialities in local surroundings (Renlund et al, 2022).…”