Exploring Forest Kindergarten Practices in Türkiye: Kindergarten Founders’, Teachers’, and Parents’ Knowledge of Forest Pedagogy

2022-9
Yalçın, Fatma
This study had several objectives. First, to investigate the practices of forest kindergartens in three different geographic regions of Türkiye. Second, to explore how the founders of forest kindergartens overcome challenges and take advantage of favorable circumstances as they set up and run the kindergartens. Third, to research the challenges and favorable circumstances that teachers face in such kindergartens and ways to deal with them. Fourth, to examine what kinds of cultural adaptations kindergarten founders and teachers need to make to use Forest Pedagogy in their own culture or location. Fifth, to elicit the kindergarten founders', teachers', and parents' knowledge of Forest Pedagogy. And sixth, to explore how parents' knowledge of Forest Pedagogy relates to their expectations of forest kindergartens. This study included members of the forest kindergartens (N = 21), which comprised the founders (N = 3), teachers (N = 9), and parents (N = 9). The study discovered that forest kindergartens were not typical, despite sharing similar practices with other kindergartens, such as the daily use of outdoor playgrounds. The diversity of the outdoor settings employed by forest kindergartens varied from region to region, depending on their geographical characteristics. However, they shared certain challenges with other kindergartens, such as a lack of unstructured and affordable natural settings surrounding the kindergartens. In all cases, the kindergarten founders and teachers had limited knowledge of sustainable attitudes for children and the significance of risky play. Yet, the parents possessed the knowledge to value free, muddy, and risky play throughout the year.

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Citation Formats
F. Yalçın, “Exploring Forest Kindergarten Practices in Türkiye: Kindergarten Founders’, Teachers’, and Parents’ Knowledge of Forest Pedagogy,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2022.