Date

2015-12-04

Author

Cengizoğlu, Seçil
Olgan, Refika
Teksöz, Gaye

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The environment, in which a child spends his time both in indoors and outdoors, is crucial for early learning through shaping a child’s physical and social world (Bordova & Leong, 2007). Literally, young children need to grow in responsive environments which are always attractive and full of wonder for them. Children love being in environment, exploring animals, plants and learning much broader topics about nature (Wilson, 1997 & PramlingSamuelsson, 2011). The importance of interaction between children and environment has always been emphasized; as well-known contributors to early childhood education, Locke, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Montessori and Dewey, assert that direct experience with environment and nature provides strong relationship between individuals and the environment. In this juncture, John Locke stated that environment and early experiences (especially interaction with parents, the teachers and the environment) shape mind and enhance children develop skills, attitudes, values and behaviors to foster sustainable development (Essa, 2003). However, as claimed by several researchers, the children today have minimum connection with nature (Louv, 2005; Kaga, 2008; Edwards, Skouteris, Rutherford & Mackenzie, 2012). Actually, this position is justified through high rates of urbanization and industrialization. Cities are growing in size, getting crowded, green areas are eroded, forests are disappearing and the natural habitat is declining. As a result, urbanization and industrialization distort the systems within the Earth, cause global environmental challenges and also make almost impossible for children to touch the natural environment. This is one of the reasons why, children learn about the environment and nature through car windows, pictures, internet and TV (Elliott, 2010). That is to say, children do not have a direct connection with their environment anymore and their experiences are dominated by media, written language, and visual images (Chawla, 2007); causing children to be the most vulnerable individuals to face with the risks of unsustainability. Elliot (2010) highlighted that environment includes connection among mankind and accepts individuals as a part of the environment. This point of view is also valid for the first principle of Rio Declaration (1992); “Human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature” (p.1). From this perspective, Elliott (2010) suggested that a sustainable future depends on a deeper understanding of human being in environment, because disconnectedness between human and environment has no place in a sustainable world. Therefore, accepting young children as the key for sustainability brings us to the point that it is very important for young children to perceive the interconnection between the environment and themselves. The issue has been examined by many researchers (Palmer, 1995; Clement, 2004; Louv,2005; Rosenow, 2008; Davis, 2010; Prince, 2010) and the findings are agree on the point that, children have an understanding about their environment, yet there is not a clear statement about how humankind fits this world. Therefore, it is significant to obtain children’s perceptions on human-environment interrelationship in order to develop the context and methodology for further implementations to grow more concerned individuals for a sustainable future. This is a concern for educators, because, as also reported by Keliher (1997), understanding how young children perceive the environment is essential for planning educational experiences. In line with the above mentioned frame, the purpose of the study is set as to reveal how preschool children perceive human-environment interrelationship.The current study was conducted through qualitative inquiry in order to better understand children’s perceptions. Participants were a class of 60-66 month-old preschool children (N=18) in a public eco-preschool located in Ankara, Turkey. Children’s drawings were used as an empirical instrument in the context of this study and the data were collected in two steps as drawings and narratives related to drawings, based on the conclusions made by Mac Naughton, Rolfe and SirajBlatchford (2001) that children’s own drawings and paintings are effective ways to create a discussion on what children think about. Hence, in the current study children’s drawings are considered as an effective tool to learn about their internal thinking and perception about environment and human interrelation. Data collection procedure was implemented in two steps, as drawing and interviews. In the drawing session, children were asked to draw a picture about “human and environment”. After completion of the drawings, each child was interviewed by the first researcher to complete the drawing in narrative way. Data analysis however, involved content analysis of drawings and children’s subsequent comments. Initial analysis of the current study was done by two researchers that include analyzing drawings and transcribing the children’s comments and determining the common and frequent words and the statements to reveal the children’s perceptions.The major outcome of the study was that most of the children did not draw a human, although they were asked to draw a picture on human and environment. As well, five children, out of 18, drew unusual, fantastic persons or objects with extraordinary power and the power was, most of the time, used to save the world. One of the children for example, drew a flying, invisible (as is understood through his explanation during the interview) hero saving the world from the aliens. One other drew a banana man who carries huge banana and works with firemen to save the world, and another drew an extraordinary car and explained that the car was designed to save the world. Moreover, one of the children drew animals in Africa (as is understood through his explanation during the interview) a place he had never been; he explained the reason for drawing animals in Africa with the cartoon he watched. Furthermore, one other child drew a forest and while explaining her drawing, she stated that, she has never been in a forest, but she saw it on TV and impressed very much. During the interviews on the other hand, three of the children stated the source of what they drew on their pictures as the cartoons and/or movies they saw on TV. Therefore, the results of this study support the claim that, nowadays children learn the environment through car windows, and TV programs (Elliott, 2010). What is more, as the results of this study display, the children living in crowded, insecure big cities without any contact with nature, perceive environment as composed of creatures with extraordinary power that will save the world either from aliens or disasters like a fire.

Subject Keywords

Education for sustainable development, Preschool children, Children drawings

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/78130
https://ejercongress.org/pdf/BildiriKitab%C4%B12015.pdf

Collections

Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Conference / Seminar