In this thesis, we investigate how preschool educators view the children’s outdoor activities in preschool, and for what purposes the educators bring the children outside. Outdoor activities are seen as an obvious part of the Swedish preschool, and the local environment is of great importance as a complement to preschool yards for the educators’ daily work. Extensive research indicates that there are a number of advantages having preschool activities outdoors, both from a health and a learning perspective. At the same time, there seems to be a discrepancy between theory and practice regarding the purpose and organization of outdoor activities in preschool. We affirm that this discrepancy exists, and investigate how it manifests itself. The study’s research approach is phenomenographic. We have gathered material by qualitative interviews, where we have let the informant explain, describe, and give their own view of the children’s outdoor activities and the outdoor environment. The concepts “silent knowledge” and “child perspective” are used as additional tools. The study shows that there is a difference in how outdoor activities in woods and similar environments are managed, versus outdoor activities in the preschool yard. During activities in wood like environments, there is a greater focus on creating situations promoting health and learning, compared to yard activities. The purpose of children’s yard activities is often to split large child groups, separate certain individuals, or to solve work schedule deficiencies. It could also be to give the educators time for administrative duties, such as planning, documentation, or operations development. In their statements, the educators show that they possess knowledge about outdoor activities and the benefits thereof, both from health and learning perspectives, but also that this knowledge is not put into practice for a number of reasons.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-34322 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Jensen, Jennifer, Lidén, Catharina |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Lärarutbildningen, Södertörns högskola, Lärarutbildningen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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