Stories of water: preschool children’s engagement with water purification

Abstract

This article aims to investigate environmental education in preschools by taking Donna Haraway’s call of staying with the trouble together with preschool children seriously, here-and-now, in explorations of dirty water and water purification. This posthumanist inspired research project draws theoretically and methodologically on the writings of Haraway, Anna L. Tsing and Isabelle Stengers. The empirical data consist of three stories from a multidisciplinary intervention research project in the Stockholm region in Sweden, collected from collaboratively produced data such as films, photographs, drawings, and notes from the project. The study can be seen as an invitation to preschools to engage in the debate on climate change and to create a togetherness around environmental concerns, not only in the future, but also here-and-now in the preschool.

Approaches to Foster Young Children’s Engagement with Climate Action: A Scoping Review

“…The systematic search identified studies reporting on approaches to engage young children with climate change. Upon screening the full texts, four peer-reviewed journal articles [26,[41][42][43] and one conference paper [44] met the inclusion criteria and were included in the narrative synthesis below. A backward selection found one book chapter [45], a report [46] and a book [47] that met the inclusion criteria (see Table 2).…”

“…Stories are an enjoyable and creative way of conveying complex messages to children in age-appropriate ways. Elkin Postila [43] used water as a way to investigate young children's engagement with environmental learning in two preschools in Sweden. The author used stories produced by the children in the project and connected them to stories from science, technology and fiction.…”

“…Action-oriented pedagogies of care, hope and action, such as storytelling and citizenship education can help support children's learning to enable them to take personal and collective climate action [43]. Play helps children grapple with what it means to be part of the world around them.…”

An ecology of practices – the hydrosocial cycle as a matter of concern in preschool children’s explorations

“…The article derives from a posthumanist onto-epistemological intervention research project in ECE to investigate forms and methods of collaboration with preschool children and engaging with them in societal and environmental issues concerning various aspects of water (Elkin Postila, 2019, 2021, 2022. The research project was carried out in accordance with the ethical legal framework and guidelines regulating research involving humans in Sweden (European Parliament and Council, 2016;SFS 2003:460;Swedish Research Council, 2017).…”

“…At the same time, the practices of the preschool children and the preschools intervened and became part of my research practices (Elkin Postila, 2021). Water also intervened in our practices and methods during the project (Elkin Postila, 2019, 2021, 2022. Thus, the concept of intervention is challenged and altered compared to the more common use in randomised control research designs (see, for example, Gerholm et al, 2019).…”