Outdoor Community Learning: Early Educators’ Perceptions on Children’s Reactions and Connection to the More-than-Humans in Urbanized Places

Conference: The Asian Conference on Education & International Development (ACEID2022)
Title: Outdoor Community Learning: Early Educators’ Perceptions on Children’s Reactions and Connection to the More-than-Humans in Urbanized Places
Stream: Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy, Practice & Praxis
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
Authors:
Siew Chin Ng, University of Melbourne, Australia
Nicola Yelland, University of Melbourne, Australia
Jeanne Marie Iorio, University of Melbourne, Australia

Abstract:

Differing opportunities for outdoor teaching and learning for educators and young children exist globally as urbanised countries do not have accessibility to extensive natural spaces and resources. A rich resource which urbanised landscapes might consider are the community facilities and settings which Chaudhury et al. (2015) described as public open spaces including parks and shopping malls. These spaces are easily accessible to the public and allow for varied uses for individuals and groups, which can foster the engagement of public and in turn support social connectedness within the community members (Lachowycz & Jones, 2013) including the more-than-humans (Common Worlds Research Collective, 2020) in order to learn to become with the world. These learning opportunities and connections in the outdoors could be influenced by aspects related to educators’ perceptions (e.g., Ernst, 2014). With a focus on exploring urbanized landscapes, this qualitative study reports findings based on pedagogical conversations from six early educators of children in six Kindergarten (five- to six-year-olds) classrooms across four preschools in Singapore. Analyses reveal that educators perceived children in viewing animals and plants as objects at times. Content analysis is being conducted to illustrate educators’ perceptions on children’s interaction with plants and animals in everyday places, including how children reacted to and managed death of pets. The findings suggest that educator perceived children as viewing themselves as superior to plants and animals in everyday places, which demonstrate the need for educators to build children’s connections to the more-than-humans.

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