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Nature by Default in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2015

Sue Elliott  and
Tracy Young
Sue Elliott*
Affiliation:
University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
Tracy Young
Affiliation:
Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Sue Elliott, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351, Australia. Email: sue.elliott@une.edu.au
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Abstract

This essay critiques the relevance of historical antecedents about children's play in nature and how these historical and political mechanisms create cultural rovoked by Taylor's (2013) exploration of the pervasive influence of romanticised images of innocent children in nature and our own experiences of never-ending ‘nice’ stories about young children in nature, here we trouble how nature experiences may or may not preclude children's meaningful and agentic participation in sustainability. We question is engagement with nature, a tangible and easily accessible approach in early childhood education (ECE) promoting a ‘nature by default paradigm’ and potentially thwarting a fuller transformative engagement with sustainability. Thus, we argue the case for shifting our frames beyond idealised romanticised notions and human–nature dualisms to a ‘common worlds’ (Haraway, 2008; Latour, 2004; Taylor, 2013) frame guided by collectivist understandings within connective life worlds. Such a shift requires a significant recasting of ethical human–nature understandings and relationships in ECE.

Keywords

nature-playearly childhood educationsustainabilitycommon worldsrelationality

Information

Type
Submission for the AJEE Special Issue for the 18th Biennial AAEE Conference — Sustainability: Smart Strategies for the 21st Century.
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 32 , Issue 1: 18th AAEE Biennial Conference - Sustainability, Smart Strategies for the 21st Century , March 2016 , pp. 57 - 64
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015 

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