Toward Young Children as Active Researchers: A Critical Review of the Methodologies and Methods in Early Childhood Environmental Education

This review critically examined the theories, methodologies, and methods that have been used in early childhood environmental education research over the past 10 years (2004–2014). Of the 36 studies identified, one-third were informed by research on children approaches, positioning children as objects of research. Trends revealed that EE researchers are moving toward research with children frameworks, embracing methods that honor children's perspectives. Yet a lack of congruency was also identified between participatory methodologies and the methods employed. Although researchers advocated for children's agency, adults were still positioned in the primary role of data collectors, analyzers, and interpreters. Findings are useful for EE scholars pursuing research with the very young, providing insight regarding ethical practices, child positioning, and participatory methods.     

Conversations With Environmental Educators: A Conversation With Four Classroom Teachers

Abstract

With the ultimate goal of providing safe, high-quality experiential educational opportunities, decision making on the part of the outdoor instructor has become a critical component in successful programming. Within the outdoor pursuits setting, decisions can be categorized by specific situations and by the person or group affected by the decisions. In addition, decisions can be classified according to the frequency and severity of the consequences of a wrong choice. Correct decision making can be hindered by a variety of situations, such as stress and adversity, which are often present in the outdoor setting. Despite these problems, a number of techniques, such as consensus decision making, can aid the outdoor instructor in making correct decisions.     

Telling it Like it Is

Abstract

This study examined attitudes about business and the environment in a sample of 237 business students, using a 14-item measurement scale, the Business-Environment Questionnaire. The study also explored the underlying worldview concerning the environment using the New Environmental Paradigm Scale (Dunlap and Van Liere 1978). Overall, the study found the expressed attitudes of the sample to be strongly pro-environmental and primarily related to a concern for the balance of nature. The results appear consistent with the emergence of a “New Environmental Paradigm.” To the extent that attitudes of contemporary business students indicate the future orientation of the business community, corporate policies toward the environment may undergo a considerable shift in the future.     

What develops in children's development of altruism?

Abstract

Cognitive-developmental theorists have maintained that children's development of altruism does really mean a movement from centration to decentration. In this paper we make a different claim. Borrowing from the two micromodels Piaget used, in succession, to account for the child's transition from preoperational to operational throught (i.e., a cost-gain model guided by game theory, and an affirmation-negation model based on equilibration theory), we suggest that children's development of altruism represents a movement from centration or cost-perception to compensation or gain-construction. Ninety children from three age levels (30 5-year-olds, 30 7-year-olds, and 30 10-year-olds) were presented with four prosocial dilemmas appealing to sharing, donating, helping, and conforming. Children's cost-perception/gain-construction competence was first assessed and then related to their level of altruism in an opportunity-to-donate situation. Consistent with our cost-perception/gain-construction approach, children became more likely with age to think of prosocial acts in terms of gain than in terms of cost. Positive associations between gain-construction competence and observed altruism were also found. These results strengthen our Piagetian approach to children's development of altruism     

A comparative examination of schools' responses to bereavement and the associated needs of the school community in Galway,West of Ireland and Derry,Northern Ireland

The aim and objective of this study is to examine and compare how schools in Galway, Republic of Ireland and Derry in the North of Ireland (cities located within two independent jurisdictions in Ireland) manage and respond to bereavement. To carry out a survey of schools, the ‘Loss in Schools’ questionnaire is considered the most suitable tool. The questionnaire, which contains 10 questions designed to unearth pertinent issues including the needs and concerns of schools, had previously been administered in studies in Hull. Sixty questionnaires were administered in both Galway and Derry, with a return of 38 and 35, respectively. This study illuminates important aspects of the topic. The schools in both Galway and Derry rate bereavement (and parental separation) as highly important in terms of priorities. In terms of policy, some of the respondents in both study sites report that loss is included in their school's policy documents but not formally included in the curriculum. A designated staff member (who would speak to the pupil experiencing the death of a family member or significant other) is evident in 37% of Derry schools and 23% of Galway schools. Some members of staff in both study sites have attended training in bereavement, although the courses are relatively short term. Schools request assistance from other agencies outside the formal schools arena in times of need. In Galway the psychology services are most commonly consulted, while in Derry the Western Education and Library Board Bereavement Counselling teams and Cruse Bereavement Care are identified as additional resources from which help is sought. This paper outlines recommendations on schools' training needs in the area of child bereavement and the request for support to help further develop and formalise school policies.     

What play therapists do within the therapeutic relationship of humanistic/non-directive play therapy

Play therapists are increasingly being employed in schools, yet there is confusion among many health, education and social care practitioners about the role of play therapists. This paper explains how play therapists position themselves and what they do through an examination of the therapeutic relationship between the therapist and child. It discusses the core conditions of congruence, acceptance and empathy with reference to recent research. Play therapists vary their practice in terms of verbal or non-verbal interaction, the tools in their playroom and how they physically place themselves. This paper argues for placing an emphasis on the non-verbal mirroring of the child, the incorporation of expressive media such as paint, clay and sand into the play room and the positioning of the therapist within the play space.     

A comparative study of the child bereavement and loss responses and needs of schools in Hull,Yorkshire and Derry/Londonderry,Northern Ireland

This paper reports the findings from a study of schools' responses to child bereavement in Hull, Yorkshire and Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland. In order to gain an insight and compare how schools in both geographical areas respond to and manage bereavement, the questionnaire ‘Loss in schools’ was selected as an appropriate tool. It has been utilised on previous occasions in Hull and shown to be an effective method of highlighting the issues, needs and concerns of schools. Some significant and important issues emerge in the results of the present survey. While schools rate child bereavement and parental separation highly in terms of their priorities, there is a shortfall in the number of schools in both study sites that have a formal procedure or policy in place around the management and response to death and loss. Although there is evidence that a number of staff have attended training in loss and bereavement, schools in Derry/Londonderry and Hull report that they have sought help from other agencies in times of need. For example, the Western Education and Library Board Bereavement Team and Cruse Bereavement Care (Derry/Londonderry) and the Educational Psychology Service (Hull) are identified. Schools are asking for help and support to develop policies and to gain the knowledge and skills they require to respond with confidence to a child who experiences a loss.     

Light‐ness of Being in the Primary Classroom: Inviting conversations of depth across educational communities

When young children first come to school they bring with them a depth of being; the authors suggest that the educational community should respond to children with a pedagogy that is capable of nurturing this depth. The authors of this paper are teachers of many years’ experience. Their own work in classrooms has shown them that, paradoxically, depth in pedagogy is most surely to be found when teachers follow the light in the eyes of children. The authors draw upon a selection of vignettes and narratives taken from classroom experiences to describe how this is done. They also show how children and teachers can approach the complex learning that requires transcendence of the known. Notions of relational consciousness (), as well as ethical and spiritual sensibility () are developed through reference to a range of educators including Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Dewey, Stanley Cavell, Maxine Greene, Nell Noddings, Vivan Paley and Arthur Vogel.

The broader educational community is reminded that school experiences should balance the measurable and the immeasurable. The authors question some aspects of the (PL 107–110), sharing their concern that it may focus teachers’ attention too tightly on ‘that which is formed from without’ (, p. 17). The authors suggest that the weight of this legislation may result in the neglect of some very important aspects of learning. The broader educational community is invited to consider the implications of a pedagogy of depth, to become more aware of the skill of transcending known limitations through coming to shared understanding, and to find ways to reconcile the potential violence of legislated structures with the being‐in‐the‐world of children in schools.     

Miss,What's My Name? New teacher identity as a question of reciprocal ontological security

This paper extends the dialogue of educational philosophy to the experience of beginners entering the teaching profession. Rather than impose the ideas of any specific philosopher or theorist, or indeed official standard, the exploration presented here owes its origins to phenomenology and the use of grounded theory. Working from a narrative data base and focussing on the knowing of name in the first instance, the authors develop their emergent ideas on self and identity in relation to children taught, through connection to a wider literature that includes reference to Giddens, Illeris, Deleuze and Heidegger, for example. The paper is thus also an exercise in suggesting that research on practice by academics working in professional education, who are non‐philosophers, can lead to constructive and relevant engagement with philosophy in developing theory from and about about practice, even though the approach, in the initial stages, may well be serendipitous and eclectic in nature.