The social climate in the classroom can impact students' mental well-being, behaviour and peer-learning opportunities. This article describes one way that elementary teachers can understand students' social networks using a sociogram. Findings show variation in classroom cohesion and reveal groups of students who are at higher risk of social…

Outdoor and natural environments have been steadily recognised as conducive to learning and social development. Most practice and research in this field has mostly focused on green spaces, such as forests and parks, and practices such as forest school. This particular paper looks at outdoor learning in a coastal environment, which has not received…

Recently most sub-Saharan countries have successfully broadened access to basic education. However, empirical and educational reports from this region have consistently documented children not acquiring the foundational literacy skills. This study examined the differences in the level of literacy acquisition between pupils from urban and rural…

Forest School in England is the practice of young children playing outside, rooted in the outdoor kindergartens of Scandinavia and more especially Denmark. Using observation and semi-structured interviews with children and adults in two settings, this case study approach allowed an in-depth look at where, how and what children played in a Forest…

This article presents a small-scale study that sought to explore in what ways Philosophy with Children (PwC) might support a classroom environment that is conducive to children's well-being. Following a series of Community of Philosophical Inquiry sessions with a class of nineteen Primary six children (ten- and eleven-year-olds) in a Scottish…

Forest Schools emerged in the UK in the early 1990s after a group of practitioners developed the Forest School programme following a visit to Denmark. In our recent systematic review of forest school literature in England (Garden and Downes 2021), we proposed that a focus on space in future research to generate new complexities around the broader…

This article reports on research which investigated the lived experiences of primary school headteachers, teachers and parents during the first lockdown in England between March and July 2020. The study aimed to understand how homeschooling was approached and the challenges and opportunities it afforded. Individual semi-structured interviews were…

The aim of the study is to determine the level of relationship between school climate and happiness according to student perceptions. This research is in the descriptive relational survey model. The sample of the study consists of a total of 539 students studying in public primary schools in the districts located in Ankara, the capital city of…

This paper examines Forest School's potential to support gender equality among primary school-aged children. Using a rights-based perspective, an observational study - including children's drawings - explored children's constructions of gender in Forest School and classroom sessions. The study found that although children generally appeared…

This study sought to examine the direct and indirect influences of school climate characteristics and the mediating role of teacher professional identity to the development of teachers' professional capital using data from 302 primary and middle school teachers of Banja "woreda," Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Results of Structural Equation…

This paper reports on a study that examined how more inclusive classroom communities might be achieved. Its particular concerns were to explore the contribution children's perspective might make to this work and to generate findings that would be meaningful for practitioners. The study was underpinned conceptually by the Framework of…

This quasi-experimental study explored the impact of inquiry-based instruction on students' conceptions of climate change and their perceptions of science learning environment. A total of 68 senior primary school students participated into the study. Data sources included Questionnaire on Global Climate Change and Constructivist Learning…

Schools strive to respond compassionately to disadvantaged families. However, barriers to authentic home-school relationships persist because the concept of parental engagement at home is not well enough understood. Socio-cultural stereotyping still contributes to schools' fixed impressions of what parental engagement should consist of, and the…

This study aimed to explore the nature of the continuous professional development (CPD) programme adopted in Ethiopian schools and the underlying contextual factors that constrained its implementation by examining primary school teachers' perspectives. Twenty-four primary school teachers from four schools participated in the study. A qualitative…

The article presents the results of a large-scale Polish project aimed at examining the quality of early childhood education and care using the SACERS research tool. Although the SACERS scale consists of 47 items, this article focuses mainly on the data concerning the assessment of space and furnishings of 140 school common rooms in terms of the…