Children's Understandings of Environmental and Sustainability-related Issues in Kindergartens in Rogaland, Norway, and Queensland, Australia

Abstract: This study compared the understandings of environmental and sustainability-related issues of 4- 5-year-old children in kindergartens in Rogaland, Norway, with understandings of similarly-aged peers in kindergartens in Queensland, Australia. Twenty structured conversations with children were undertaken in each country. A qualitative content analysis of these conversations with regard to their contexts elucidated how children experience everyday activities related to environment and sustainability and what they think about adult attitudes and behaviors in relation to these topics. Most of the children in both countries enjoyed being outside in nature; however, they had limited understandings of sustainability-related terms. The Norwegian children seemed to have more frequent and diverse opportunities to explore and to get in touch with nature, while some Australian children had quite sophisticated ideas about sustainability-related relationships and interconnections. Positive adult attitudes and behaviours combined with inquiry-based and language stimulating learning experiences, situated in appropriate social and outdoor contexts, offer potential to promote children’s understandings of sustainability.publishedVersio

Children's Understandings of Environmental and Sustainability-related Issues in Kindergartens in Rogaland, Norway, and Queensland, Australia

Abstract: This study compared the understandings of environmental and sustainability-related issues of 4- 5-year-old children in kindergartens in Rogaland, Norway, with understandings of similarly-aged peers in kindergartens in Queensland, Australia. Twenty structured conversations with children were undertaken in each country. A qualitative content analysis of these conversations with regard to their contexts elucidated how children experience everyday activities related to environment and sustainability and what they think about adult attitudes and behaviors in relation to these topics. Most of the children in both countries enjoyed being outside in nature; however, they had limited understandings of sustainability-related terms. The Norwegian children seemed to have more frequent and diverse opportunities to explore and to get in touch with nature, while some Australian children had quite sophisticated ideas about sustainability-related relationships and interconnections. Positive adult attitudes and behaviours combined with inquiry-based and language stimulating learning experiences, situated in appropriate social and outdoor contexts, offer potential to promote children’s understandings of sustainability

Sub-local differences in Late Holocene land use at Orstad, Jæren in SW-Norway, revealed by soil pollen stratigraphy

Made available with permission from Maney Publishing / Environmental Archaeology. www.maneypublishing.com/journals/env and www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/env.Four soil profiles along an 84 m transect through a clearance cairn field on podsol soils at Orstad, Jæren, SW Norway, were investigated. By relating pollen-analytical results to soil stratigraphical and morphological features, it was possible to reconstruct the landuse history of the site, and to reveal differences along the transect, although pollen preservation was poor. Human activity at Orstad began about 4500 uncalibrated 14C years BP. The reason for an intermediate abandonment of the site between about 4000 and 3600 uncalibrated 14C years BP was presumably a higher ground-water level, caused by local deforestation and/or by a climatic change. After that period, people seem to have grown cereals (Triticum and Hordeum) on at least two different field patches on the site. This land use was presumably occasional, and related to extraordinary needs. Fire-clearance seems to have been practised to prepare the fields for cultivation after long fallow periods. Between 2900 and 3200 uncalibrated 14C years BP, Orstad was possibly permanently inhabited. The agricultural fields were moved to higher levels, as the initial fields had become nutrient-depleted and too moist. Thin black layers in the profile may be remains of manure