Making Use of “strongNaturestrong” in an Outdoor Preschool Classroom,.pdfVIP

Children, Youth and Environments 20(1), 2010 Making Use of “Nature” in an Outdoor Preschool: Classroom, Home and Fairyland Eva Änggård Department of Didactic Science and Early Childhood Education Stockholm University Citation: Änggård, Eva (2010). “Making Use of ‘Nature’ in an Outdoor Preschool: Classroom, Home and Fairyland.” Children, Youth and Environments 20(1): 4-25. Retrieved [date] from /journals/cye. Abstract In Swedish preschools, visits to nature environments are traditionally seen as important, and during the past two decades, interest in outdoor education has increased. This article concerns different ways of talking about and making use of nature in everyday activities in a Swedish preschool with an outdoor focus. The researcher studied 32 children between 1½ and 6 years old and their teachers during a one-year period. The data collected include ethnographic material such as video observations, interviews and local documents. The analysis indicates that nature is used in three ways: as a classroom where children learn about nature, as a home—a peaceful place for eating, sleeping and playing, and as an enchanted world, a fairyland. Keywords: nature, preschool, outdoor education, ethnography, Sweden © 2010 Children, Youth and Environments Making Use of ”Nature” in an Outdoor Preschool: Classroom, Home and Fairyland 5 Introduction Nature: An Important Element in the Swedish Preschool This article concerns different ways of talking about and making use of “nature” in a Swedish preschool with an outdoor focus. This preschool has been studied in the context of a project about nature as a symbol of ideal childhood.1 In Scandinavia, there is a strong notion that children and nature belong tog