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Early childhood education in the outdoors in Aotearoa New Zealand

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posted on 2020-07-30, 00:30 authored by Sophie Alcock, Jenny RitchieJenny Ritchie
© 2018, Outdoor Education Australia. Early childhood care and education services in Aotearoa New Zealand drew initially on the Fröbelian model of the kindergarten or ‘children’s garden’. Later models such as the Kōhanga Reo movement, the highly respected curriculum Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa, and the Enviroschools programme are grounded in te ao Māori, Māori worldviews, that feature a strong connectedness to place, and a deep sense of a spiritual inter-relationship with the land, mountains, rivers, and oceans. This article considers how the imported Scandinavian/European/UK models of ‘forest schools’ might fit within this context. To illustrate early childhood education in the outdoors in Aotearoa (New Zealand) we draw upon research conducted in early childhood settings in this country that illuminates children’s experience in the outdoors. We draw upon critical early childhood scholarship to theorise this situation of forest schools emerging in Aotearoa, along with influences from the forest school movement evident in existing New Zealand early childhood services. The article suggests that traditional Indigenous Māori worldviews and knowledges give meaning and contextualised authenticity to ‘forest schools’ approaches in early childhood education in Aotearoa (New Zealand).

History

Preferred citation

Alcock, S. J. & Ritchie, J. (2018). Early childhood education in the outdoors in Aotearoa New Zealand. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, 21(1), 77-88. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42322-017-0009-y

Journal title

Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education

Volume

21

Issue

1

Publication date

2018-01-01

Pagination

77-88

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Publication status

Published

Contribution type

Article

Online publication date

2018-01-01

ISSN

2206-3110

eISSN

2522-879X

Language

en

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