Unsworth, Ruth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4900-3590 (2023) Wellies and whittle-sticks: an ethnographic study of the role of physical artefacts in establishing children’s connection to the ‘forest’. In: Oxford Ethnography and Education Conference 2023, 4-6th September 2023, Oxford, UK. (Submitted)

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Abstract

Through an examination of ethnographic fieldwork data, this paper explores how natural and man-made artefacts build children’s connection to place in a Forest School setting. A Forest School ‘movement’ has grown in popularity in English primary schools over the last decade, alongside a marked expansion in the field of learning outside the classroom (LOTC). Part of this movement has focused on developing children’s relationship with place, particularly natural spaces previously not habitually part of the school day. Whilst much literature focuses on the importance of developing children’s relationship with natural places (for reasons linked to wellbeing, learning or social development), how this relationship may manifest remains empirically underexplored. Using an actor-network theory approach to ethnographic data, this paper describes associations between physical artefacts, children and teachers through which children come to relate to the ‘forest’ within their school grounds. In describing these associations, data is drawn from observations and fieldwork conversations from a wider study of primary school teachers’ practices in 2018. Emerging from this perspective is an argument for greater focus on the role of physical artefacts and the ways they are interacted with by children and teachers in establishing place connected behaviours in instances of learning outside (or inside) the classroom.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Status:	Submitted
Subjects:	L Education > L Education (General) L Education > LB Theory and practice of education
School/Department:	School of Education, Language and Psychology
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/8642

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