| Summary: | This doctoral thesis contributes to discussions about the role of the outdoor environment in children’s learning. The intention of this research was to investigate the role of the outdoor environment on policy makers’, teachers’ and children’s views, as well as teachers’ actions regarding children’s learning. To accomplish this, four studies were conducted, each focusing on one of the agents’ views and the teachers’ use of the outdoors. Study 1 was about what characterises the discourse on the role of the outdoor environment in children’s learning in policy documents, both countrywide and on a municipal level. Study 2 was about how teachers, who were experienced, using an outdoor learning environment and had participated in a project on sustainability education, experienced and viewed the role of the outdoor environment in children’s learning. Study 3 was about children’s views and preferences of the outdoor environment. Study 4 was about how teachers used the outdoor environment in children’s learning about living beings. The theoretical background of the research constitutes of concepts drawn from various theories. These are Gibson’s (1979) theory of affordance of the environment, Dewey’s (1938/2000) theory of experience, place-based theories (see, for example, Gruenewald & Smith, 2008), sociocultural theory (see, for example, Rogoff, 2003), and theories of children’s participation (see, for example, Percy-Smith & Thomas, 2010). Qualitative methods were used in the research, except a historical discourse analysis was employed for analysing policy documents. Data was gathered over a period of three years in 2008–2011. The data in Study 1 was gathered by selecting specific documents both country wide and also from municipalities in the eight main parts of Iceland, Data analysis was done by using historical discourse analysis (Jóhannesson, Jóhannesson, 2006, 2010). Studies 2–4 were parts of two bigger research and development projects. On one hand, the ActionESD project conducted by a research group from ...
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