ERIC Number: EJ1296039
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1038-2046
EISSN: N/A
Wolves in the Amazon? Child Perceptions of a Distant Natural Environment in an English Primary School
International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, v30 n2 p132-147 2021
By analysing an academic exhibition on the Amazon region made by Year 5 children from an Oxford-based primary school, this qualitative study explores the ways that children perceive a representation of a natural environment geographically distant from their home context. The phenomenographic analysis of written and visual documentary sources focuses on incorporated biophysical and socio-cultural elements. Three hierarchically inclusive ways of perceiving the Amazon were identified: (1) Nature as species of wild fauna and their habitat; (2) Nature as political economy; and (3) Nature as an imaginative world. Correspondingly, findings highlighted: (1) children's affiliation to other living organisms; (2) children's stereotypical constructs in relation to developing countries; and (3) nature as a concept that is actively constructed by children, including the conjuring of imagined 'natural' worlds. The findings have implications for interdisciplinary approaches to Environmental Education in primary contexts.
Descriptors: Environment, Elementary School Students, Student Attitudes, Exhibits, Foreign Countries, Geography, Phenomenology, Sociocultural Patterns, Biology, Wildlife, Political Attitudes, Imagination, Stereotypes, Developing Nations, Interdisciplinary Approach, Environmental Education, Cartoons, Freehand Drawing, Animals, Geographic Regions
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A