EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2018, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Curriculum and Instruction

Nature preschools, which bridge the world between environmental education and early childhood education (Bailie, 2012), are gaining popularity across the globe. This educational philosophy has grown in response to the changing outdoor lives of children. Current research shows that children in the United States have limited access to unstructured play in outdoor settings (Clements, 2004; Singer, Singer, D'Agnostino, &DeLong, 2009; Wridt, 2004). Since a number of studies have linked childhood experiences in nature to environmentalist attitudes later in life (Broom, 2007; Chawla, 1999; Wells & Lekies, 2006), there is concern that children today are not getting these foundational experiences in nature that lead to a caring relationship with the natural world. Nature preschools aim to fill this gap by giving children facilitated experiences in nature and time for unstructured outdoor play. The purpose of this photovoice study was to understand nature preschools through the perspective of the preschool children. This study adds to the literature by answering three research questions: 1) How do young children attending a U.S. nature preschool describe their school experience? 2) What are the characteristics of the child-nature relationship for young children attending a U.S. nature preschool? 3) What are best practices for working with preschool children in a photovoice process? Results show that the children do not view nature preschool as a traditional classroom experience and that they value outdoor hikes as the most important part of the school day. The children are interested in learning the names of plants and animals and scientific terms and view being in nature as a positive experience. Photovoice methodology, having individuals use cameras to collect and analyze their own data, is typically used with teens and adults. The results of this study demonstrate that children ages 3 – 6 are capable of being active collaborators in a photovoice protocol. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Helen Meyer Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Victoria Carr Ed.D. (Committee Member); Emilie M. Camp Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lisa Vaughn Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Preschool Education