Between nature kindergartens and Forest School: Forging pathways for nature play in Australia's ECE sector

Amanda England, Jo Bird, Sue Elliott and Marg Rogers
University of New England, Australia

Integral to the global nature play movement, nature play programs have flourished over the last decade, both in Australia and internationally. Internationally, there are two prominent schools of thought in this movement, Danish Nature Kindergartens, and British Forest Schools. The underpinning philosophy of Danish Nature Kindergarten programs has been translated worldwide, raising questions about implementation, and possible decontextualisation, post-translation. Specifically, there are claims that the British translation known as Forest School, has become a marketable commodity and a 'McDonaldised' set of practices that educators have been trained in worldwide, including Australia. In this review article we examine Australian outdoor, nature play programs in early childhood education (ECE) settings to identify the relevance of these claims to Australian ECE contexts. These contexts appear to be diverging from the two international schools of thought, forging a uniquely, Australian 'Nature Play' pathway contextualised to social, cultural, political and educational landscapes. However, we acknowledge the limited Australian nature play program research to date has only been conducted in government regulated ECE settings. In such settings, legislation mandates that early childhood (EC) qualified educators implement programs underpinned by philosophy and pedagogy. Although not infallible, this likely minimises the potential for commodification. Whereas among private-for-profit, outdoor, nature play programs without the same legislated requirements, we argue the potential for commodification may be greater. We identify the need for research to examine the philosophical and pedagogical basis of such private-for-profit programs. As there is no Australian research in these settings, we recommend a research agenda to explore this gap.
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Authors: Miss Amanda England (corresponding author) is an experienced primary and early years educator who has worked in various educational environments. She established, and currently manages a nature play setting, alongside offering nature play professional development courses. Amanda is completing her doctorate in the School of Education, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia, focusing on Australian nature play philosophy and pedagogy. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-5357-7926 Email: aenglan5@myune.edu.au Dr Jo Bird is a Senior Lecturer, Course Coordinator, Higher Degree by Research Coordinator, and researcher in Early Childhood Education at the University of New England, Australia. Her research focus includes digital technologies in children's play, in outdoor education and ways to scaffold educators' digital programming and to streamline their documentation. ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3345-1815 Email: jbird21@une.edu.au Dr Sue Elliott is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at the University of New England, New South Wales, Australia and visiting scholar at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Sue is a researcher and advocate in early childhood education for sustainability and nature play. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5956-356X Email: sue.elliott@une.edu.au Dr Marg Rogers is a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at the University of New England, Australia. Marg researches marginalised voices within families and education, especially in regional, rural and remote communities. Marg is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Commonwealth Government funded Manna Institute. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8407-7256 Email: marg.rogers@une.edu.au Please cite as: England, A., Bird, J., Elliott, S. & Rogers, M. (2024). Between nature kindergartens and Forest School: Forging pathways for nature play in Australia's ECE sector. Issues in Educational Research, 34(3), 953-973. http://www.iier.org.au/iier34/england.pdf