Young children's agency and the outdoor environment

In the OMEP World we value children’s voices and support them to make a meaningful contribution to issues that impact on them and their families. Citizenship, agency and participation are clearly stated in Article 29 of... [ view full abstract ]

In the OMEP World we value children’s voices and support them to make a meaningful contribution to issues that impact on them and their families. Citizenship, agency and participation are clearly stated in Article 29 of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child where it states that children have the right to live responsibly in ‘a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace and tolerance’. How, then, is this spirit nurtured in the early childhood context? The outdoor environment is a particular place where these rights are honoured. This presentation will look at children’s agency in the outdoors where children have the freedom to make decisions about what to play and how to play, however, there are elements in the environment that must be respected and protected. Elements within the natural world have an authority that guides the way we respond to the natural world and often restricts the actions children, teachers and adults can take. Through respecting this authority of the elements of the physical world, the social world, the democratic world and the cultural world, we can better understand the deeper significance of agency and the actions we can all take to help create a more peaceful and democratic foundation in our communities.

Keywords: agency, young children, outdoors, citizenship, responsibility