Peer-reviewed research2017–2026 update
Literacies in the More-Than-Human World: Elementary Aged Learners in an Outdoor Learning Community
In a Canadian forest school, children's literacy took embodied, sensory, multimodal and relational forms shaped by the more-than-human world, going beyond written and spoken language.
What's new
This post-qualitative inquiry asked what kinds of literacies children practise in an elementary outdoor programme and how the more-than-human world shapes them. The study followed fifteen children in a multi-grade forest school programme in southern British Columbia, Canada, using photographs and field notes. Drawing on posthuman theory in conversation with Indigenous literacies, it treats literacy as an 'event' in which meaning-making and sense-making happen relationally and often unpredictably. The author argues for an embodied, sensory, multimodal, emergent and relational view of literacy.
Why it matters in Aotearoa
It offers a way to see literacy learning happening during outdoor and nature-based programmes, which may help primary teachers and early childhood kaiako connect EOTC to literacy goals.
Putting it into practice
During regular outdoor sessions, use photographs and brief field notes to record how children make meaning through gesture, movement, sound and their encounters with plants, animals and places, then discuss these records with colleagues as evidence of literacy learning.
How strong is the evidence
This is a theory-driven post-qualitative study of fifteen children in one programme. It offers conceptual insight into literacy and does not test outcomes or generalise.
What to read
The sections presenting literacy 'events' from the forest school.