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Published (Version of record)CC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open
Journal article
Eco-aesthetics and childhoodnature: cartographies of nature play in early childhood education and care
Children's geographies, Vol.First online
08/09/2025
Appears in Recent Faculty of Education Publications
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Abstract
This paper explores the agentic artmaking of young children, specifically their photographic making and associated stories, created through a project focused on nature play in early childhood education and care settings. Engaging a participatory, cartographic methodology, the rich and multifaceted data enabled us (the research team, the educators, the children) to expand current theoretical frames through a focus on the posthuman elements of nature play and the attendant concept of childhoodnature. The posthuman elements shift the focus of nature play pedagogies and curriculum design to consider a relational conceptualisation of ‘nature’ where the child is re-origined as childhoodnature. Importantly, in this project, the children are not positioned as objects under study but rather engage as researchers by inquiring, capturing and creating data alongside the educators in their settings and at home. The study enacts agential cuts in its analysis, but also importantly in the presentation and performance of this paper by including the agentic assemblages of children’s voices through stories and images as foregrounded texts of eco-aesthetics, childhoodnature and nature play
Details
- Title
- Eco-aesthetics and childhoodnature: cartographies of nature play in early childhood education and care
- Creators
- Alexandra Lasczik - Southern Cross UniversityAmy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles - Southern Cross UniversityMarie-Laurence Paquette - Seabin Foundation (Australia, Sydney)Maia Osborn - Southern Cross UniversityKaren Malone - Swinburne University of TechnologyLinda Knight - RMIT University
- Publication Details
- Children's geographies, Vol.First online
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis; ABINGDON
- Grant note
- We also would like to acknowledge the Queensland Government for awarding funding for this project under its Edu-cation Horizon Grant Scheme, and all of the educators, children and parents who generously contributed to this project.
- Identifiers
- 991013314228502368
- Copyright
- © 2025 The Author(s).
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Education
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article