Children’s representations of nature using photovoice and community mapping: perspectives from South Africa

The aim of the study was to explore children’s representations and perceptions of natural spaces using photovoice and community mapping. The sample consisted of 28 children aged 12–14 years residing in urban and rural communities in the Western Cape, South Africa. Data were collected by means of a series of six focus groups interviews (three photovoice discussion groups and three community mapping discussion groups). For the photovoice missions, children were provided with a 28-exposure disposable camera and given 1 week to complete their missions. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the data. Three key themes emerged, namely: safe spaces in nature, unsafe spaces in nature, and children’s favourite places in nature. Socio-economic status (SES) was found to be a determining factor in how children make sense of natural spaces. Children from low SES communities indicated being more constricted in their mobility, and were unable to access to safe natural spaces compared to the children from the middle SES community. It is recommended that an expedient starting point would be to work towards and build environmentally and child-friendly communities for children, with children as key contributors in the planning process using a child participation framework.IS

Preschoolers' possession-based disputes during indoor and outdoor play

At present there is little evidence documenting children’s possession-based behaviours during play within preschool settings. This ethnographic study observed the same group of 12 children over a four-month period during sustained bouts of indoor and outdoor play. An event sampling approach was employed in order to identify episodes of possession-based disputes and ways through which children with or without the involvement of the adult negotiate and resolve them. The results captured (1) the total amount of possession-based disputes, episodes where practitioners (2) were involved in the play during disputes, (3) were successful in supporting children’s resolution of possession-based disputes, and finally, (4) disputes resolved through the first-possession heuristic. The findings show how children experience possession-based disputes in relation to the contextual factors of the environment and the role of the practitioner; underlying the broader socio-cultural implications of learning culturally relevant social skills and knowledge

Who am I?:shaping young children’s identities through everyday narratives

Abstract Young children have largely been neglected in narrative identity research. This chapter is based on the premise that identity construction is a process that begins in the early years and is formed through the everyday narratives that comprise the daily interactions through which identities are constructed, negotiated, and performed. These everyday narratives provide children with the sense of who they are, who they will become, what kind of children they are expected to be, and the nature of the world in which they live. The chapter is based on research into everyday narratives produced in early education settings. I suggest that four themes frame the construction of children’s narrative identities: the possession of material items; skills and competences; peer relationships; and the child’s relation to the rules and conventions of the child care center