OBSERVATION OF KINDERGARTEN WORKERS’ RELATION TO NATURE - HOW TO GO ABOUT THIS?

Marianne Høyen, Aarhus UniversitySeptember 2014

ONGOING PROJECTMain project: Production and reproduction of our view on nature. Hypothesis: View on nature is a cultural aspect which can be described sociologically Period: 1899-today, 4 cases

Recent sub-project: Kindergarten workers and their relation to and thinking about natureHypothesis: How kindergarten workers relate to nature can be understood through analysis of their life stories

Context

- FINDINGS SO FAR

Interviews with kindergarten workers showed that the language they were able to use to describe nature was poor:

When talking about their work with nature and nature phenomena in relation to the children, the interviewee talked about their personal matters such as feelings, what they liked and dis-liked, what they experienced as being nice etc.

Hardly any language for nature or their relation to nature

- other methods for understanding view on nature are necessary!

- WHICH OTHER METHODS

Project’s next step:

‘Instagram ethnography’

Observations

Focus groups

how ?

THE SOCIOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR OBSERVATIONS

General - Agents occupy positions in the social space based on their possessions of various capitals

Specific - Positions in the field of reproduction of view on nature (kindergarten, school, higher education)

The embodied practice of the positions —> logic of practice

THREE POSSIBLE THEMES FOR OBSERVATIONSFrom life story interviews: the sense of being in or relating to nature in the period of childhood

Example: being ‘blown through’

Greater forces?

Wrong

Wrong

FROM MY OWN (UNSYSTEMATIC AND UNFOCUSED) OBSERVATIONS

The gaze, the feeling

THE RELATION BETWEEN ADULT AND CHILD - AND NATURE