Abstract
This chapter posits sensory tours as a method for discovering children’s embodied “storied entanglements” in, with, and for the natural world (Ritchie, 2014, p. 50). Drawing from existential forms of phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of perception (C. Smith, Trans.). Routledge, New York. (Original work published in 1945), 1945/2002), and recognizing the significance of somesthetic experiences (Iared et al., 2016), sensory tours provide a novel approach for understanding children’s experiences of being and becoming and relating with other natural beings. During a sensory tour, a child is invited to wear a small wearable video camera; the camera goes where a child goes, sees what a child sees, hears what a child hears, shows what a child touches, and reveals what a child tastes. Informed by the tradition of walking tours, which have been used for some time in place and environmental education research (Hart, 1979), the sensory tour method is uniquely positioned to unravel embodied temporal-spatial meanings during children’s exploratory movements. This method opens up possibilities for bridging the “correspondence” gap between being and thought – by capturing children’s pre-reflective movement – their imaginative song and dance, self-talk, and expressive utterances, as they interact with and relate to others in the more-than-human living world. The chapter will draw from research findings involving young children in an Alaskan cultural and wilderness context (including trudging through tundra, transforming sticks into weapons, and scaling up tree castles). Through these examples, I will reveal how children’s first imaginary and sensory encounters inform their sense of being with the natural world.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barratt Hacking, E., Cutter-Mackenzie, A., & Barratt, R. (2013). Children as active researchers: The potential of environmental education research involving children. In R. B. Stevenson, M. Brody, J. Dillon, & A. E. J. Wals (Eds.), International handbook of research on environmental education (pp. 438–458). New York: Routledge.
Chaflen, R. (2014). ‘Your panopticon or mine?’ Incorporating wearable technology’s glass and GoPro into visual social science. Visual Studies, 29(3), 299–310.
Chawla, L. (1998). Significant life experiences revisited: A review of research on sources of environmental sensitivity. The Journal of Environmental Education, 29(3), 11–21.
Christensen, P. H. (2000). Childhood and the cultural constitution of vulnerable bodies. In A. Prout & J. Campling (Eds.), The body, childhood and society (pp. 38–59). New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Clark, A. (2005). Listening to and involving young children: A review of research and practice. Early Child Development and Care, 175(6), 489–505.
Cobb, E. M. (1977). The ecology of imagination in childhood. Dallas, TX: Spring Publications.
Corsaro, W. A. (2015). The sociology of childhood (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. (2007). Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Languages of evaluation (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Dozza, M., & Fernandez, A. (2014). Understanding bicycle dynamics and cyclist behavior from naturalistic field data. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 15(1), 376–384.
Einarsdottir, J., Dockett, S., & Perry, B. (2009). Making meaning: Children’s perspectives expressed through drawings. Early Childhood Development and Care, 179(2), 217–232.
Forman, G. (1999). Instant video revisiting: The video camera as a “tool of the mind” for young children. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 1(1). Retrieved from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v1n2/forman.html.
Fung, M. F. (2015). Using first-person perspective filming techniques for a chemistry laboratory demonstration to facilitate a flipped pre-lab. Journal of Chemical Education, 92, 1518–1521.
Ghekiere, A., Van Cauwenberg, J., de Geus, B., Clarys, P., Cardon, G., Salmon, J., et al. (2014). Critical environmental factors for transportation cycling in children: A qualitative study using bike-alongs. Science & Sports, 29, S18.
Green, C. (2012). Listening to children: Exploring intuitive strategies and interactive methods in a study of children’s special places. International Journal of Early Childhood, 44(3), 269–285.
Green, C. (2013). A sense of autonomy in young Children’s special places. International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education, 1(1), 8–31.
Green, C. (2015). Toward young children as active researchers: A critical review of the methodologies and methods in early childhood environmental education research. The Journal of Environmental Education, 46(4), 207–229.
Green, C. (2016a). Sensory tours as a method for engaging children as active researchers: Exploring the use of wearable cameras in early childhood research. International Journal of Early Childhood, 48(3), 277–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-016-0173-1.
Green, C. (2016b). Monsters or good guys: The mediating role of emotions in transforming young children’s encounters with nature. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 21, 125–144.
Green, C. (2017). Children environmental identity development in an Alaska Native rural context. International Journal of Early Childhood, 49, 303. https://doi.org/10.1007/s131158-017-0204-6.
Green, M. (2014). Transformational design literacies: Children as active place-makers. Children’s Geographies, 12(3), 189–204.
Hart, R. (1979). Children’s experiences of place. New York: Irvington.
Haw, K. (2008). “Voice” and video: Seen heard and listened to. In P. Thomson (Ed.), Doing visual research with children and young people (pp. 192–207). London: Routledge.
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time. (Macquarrie, J., & Robinson, E., Trans.). New York: Harper and Row
Iared, V. G., de Oliveira, H. T., & Payne, P. G. (2016). The aesthetic experience of nature and hermeneutic phenomenology. The Journal of Environmental Education, 47(3), 191–201.
Ingold, T. (2000). The perception of the environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. London: Routledge.
Ingold, T. (2011). Being alive: Essays on movement, knowledge, and description. New York: Routledge.
James, A. (2000). Embodied beings: Understanding the self and the body in childhood. In A. Prout & J. Campling (Eds.), The body, childhood and society (pp. 19–37). New York: St. Martin’s Press.
James, A. (2009). Agency. In J. Qvortrup, W. A. Corsaro, & M. S. Honig (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of childhood studies (pp. 34–45). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kindt, D. (2011). Seeing through the eyes of the students: First impressions of recording in the classroom with a GoPro head-mounted camcorder. Nagoya University of Foreign Studies Journal of the School of Contemporary International Studies, 7, 179–199.
Kjørholt, A. T. (2003). ‘Creating a place to belong’: Girls’ and boys’ hut-building as a site for understanding discourses on childhood and generational relations in a Norwegian community. Children’s Geographies, 1(1), 261–279.
Knight, J., & van Nieuwerburgh, C. (2012). Instructional coaching: A focus on practice. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 5(2), 100–112.
Kylin, M. (2003). Children’s dens. Children Youth and Environments, 13(1), 30–55.
Leong, E., Mahapatra, P., Duncan, J., & Sadri, A. (2014). Train hard, go pro–use of personalised video training in orthopaedic surgery. International Journal of Surgery, 12(1), 1743–1750.
Lindqvist, G. (1996). The aesthetics of play. A didactic study of play and culture in preschools. Early Years, 17(1), 6–11.
Louv, R. (2008). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books.
Malone, K. (2016). Reconsidering children’s encounters with nature and place using posthumanism. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 32(1), 42–56.
Merleau-Ponty, (2002). Phenomenology of perception (C. Smith, Trans.). New York: Routledge. (Original work published in 1945).
Palmer, J. A. (1993). Development of concern for the environment and formative experiences of educators. The Journal of Environmental Education, 24(3), 26–30.
Parkinson, D. D. (2001). Securing trustworthy data from an interview situation with young children: Six integrated interview strategies. Child Study Journal, 31(3), 137–156.
Payne, P. (2013). (Un)timely ecophenomenological framings of environmental education research. In R. B. Stevenson, M. Brody, J. Dillon, & A. E. J. Wals (Eds.), International handbook of research on environmental education (pp. 424–437). New York: Routledge.
Pink, S. (2011). Multimodality, multisensoriality and ethnographic knowing: Social semiotics and the phenomenology of perception. Qualitative Research, 11(3), 261–276.
Robson, S. (2011). Producing and using video data in the early years: Ethical questions and practical consequences in research with young children. Children and Society, 25(3), 179–189.
Rowe, V. C. (2009). Using video-stimulated recall as a basis for interviews: Some experiences from the field. Music Education Research, 11(4), 425–437.
Sanchez-García, R., Villaroya-Gil, Á., & Elrio-López, A. (2015). Manipulating task constraints of situated normativity to study decision making in Krav Maga. International Journal of Sports Psychology, 46, 1–22.
Schwandt, T. A. (2015). The sage dictionary of qualitative inquiry (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Seamon, D. (2014). Place attachment and phenomenology: The synergistic dynamism of place. In L. C. Manzo & P. Devine-Wright (Eds.), Place attachment: Advances in theory, methods and applications (pp. 11–22). New York: Routledge.
Shusterman, R. (2009). Body consciousness and performance: Somaesthetics east and west. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 67(2), 133–145.
Sobel, D. (2001). Children’s special places: Exploring the role of forts, dens, and bush houses in middle childhood. Detriot, MI: Wayne State University Press.
Tanner, T. (1980). Significant life experiences: A new research area in environmental education. The Journal of Environmental Education, 11(4), 20–24.
Thomson, P. (2008). Children and young people: Voices in visual research. In P. Thomson (Ed.), Doing visual research with children and young people (pp. 1–19). London: Routledge.
Thrift, N. (2008). Non-representational theory: Space, politics affect. NewYork: Routledge.
United Nations. (1989). Convention for the rights of the child. New York: United Nations.
United Nations. (2005). Convention on the rights of the child: General comment no. 7. Implementing child rights in early childhood. Geneva: United Nations.
Williams, C. C., & Chawla, L. (2016). Environmental identity formation in nonformal environmental education programs. Environmental Education Research, 22(7), 978–1001.
Ritchie, J. (2014). Learning from the wisdom of elders. In J. Davis & S. Elliot (Eds.), Research in early childhood education for sustainability: International perspectives and provocations (pp. 248–265). NewYork: Routledge.
Acknowledgements
The examples included in this chapter were derived from findings from two research projects: Exploring Methods for Engaging Young Children as Active Researchers and Children’s Environmental Identity Development in an Alaskan Native Rural Context. These projects were supported by funding from the University of Alaska Fairbanks URSA program and Alaska EPSCoR NSF award #OIA-1208927 and the state of Alaska.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Green, C. (2018). Embodied Childhoodnature Experiences Through Sensory Tours. In: Cutter-Mackenzie, A., Malone, K., Barratt Hacking, E. (eds) Research Handbook on Childhoodnature . Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_52-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_52-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51949-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51949-4
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education