2020 / Health and well-being, Nature school

Closing the Gap Through Rewilding, Interacting, and Overcoming

Citation

Blenkinsop, S., & Kahn, P. H. (2020). Closing the Gap Through Rewilding, Interacting, and Overcoming. In Research Handbook on Childhoodnature: Assemblages of Childhood and Nature Research, 391-394. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67286-1_27

Link to file

The Research Handbook on Childhoodnature is a collection of research that brings together well-known studies and authors in the field, along with new cutting-edge work from top researchers around the world. It draws on data from many different cultures and countries.

The handbook has two main goals:

To create space for researchers studying Childhoodnature.
To bring Childhoodnature research together in one place that can inform education.

The term “Childhoodnature” is a new concept. It reflects the editors’ and authors’ core belief — and the latest ideas in the field — that children are part of nature, not separate from it. So the handbook rejects a human-centered view of nature. It challenges the usual way people think about children and nature, and it pushes back against the idea that humans are superior to the natural world.

The chapter “Closing the Gap Through Rewilding, Interacting, and Overcoming” serves as a short introduction. It gives an overview of each chapter and helps readers connect ideas across the whole section. What becomes clear is that the work ahead for education and educators is significant. These chapters are not interested in making small adjustments to what already exists.

Abstract

The Research Handbook on Childhoodnature provides a compilation of research in Childhoodnature and brings together existing research themes and seminal authors in the field alongside new cutting-edge research authored by world-class researchers drawing on cross-cultural and international research data.

The underlying objectives of the handbook are two-fold:

Opening up spaces for Childhoodnature researchers;
Consolidating Childhoodnature research into one collection that informs education.

The use of the new concept ‘Childhoodnature’ reflects the editors’ and authors’ underpinning belief, and the latest innovative concepts in the field, that as children are nature this should be redefined in this integrating concept. The handbook will, therefore, critique and reject an anthropocentric view of nature. As such it will disrupt existing ways of considering children and nature and reject the view that humans are superior to nature.

The “Closing the Gap Through Rewilding, Interacting, and Overcoming” chapter serves as a short introduction to the section. Thus, aside from providing an overview of each of the chapters herein it offers an orientation that might assist readers in connecting ideas throughout the entire section. What does become clear is that the work for education and educators going forward is likely to be substantial, these are not chapters interested in tweaking what currently exists.