Peer-reviewed research2017–2026 update
Place, space and time: A topological perspective of a forest school-based educational mode of existence
An ethnographic study of how Forest School teachers build children's connections to forest places through the interplay of materials, meaning, time and space.
What's new
The paper asks how teachers shape children's connections to forest places and establish educational ways of being and knowing during Forest School sessions. Drawing on ethnographic data and on social topological perspectives and theories of modes of existence, it treats Forest School as the deliberate construction of an educational mode of existence. It argues for more attention to how materials and meaning come together across time and space when building place connection.
Why it matters in Aotearoa
Forest School and nature-based programmes are part of the EOTC landscape in Aotearoa. This paper helps teachers think about the teacher's role in deliberately building children's relationships with place over time.
Putting it into practice
Return to the same outdoor site regularly and plan how routines, materials and recurring activities will build children's connection to that place over the term.
How strong is the evidence
This is a theory-heavy ethnographic paper. The abstract gives no details of the setting or sample, so its findings are best read as conceptual insights.
What to read
The argument about how teachers construct place connection and an educational mode of existence.