Constructions of nature and emerging ideas in children’s education and care, 1600s - 1900s

This chapter examines some of the ways in which constructions of nature were presented in books that served as communicative artefacts, responsible for the development of the field of early childhood. The analysis centres on texts, which were established from the 1600s until 1900. The chapter sketches the thoughts that structured and nurtured the emerging discipline; and surveys some of the most prevalent aspects of the constructions of nature and its cognates, with particular reference to the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jan Amos Comenius, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Robert Owen and Rudolf Steiner. This category, still debated by early childhood scholars today, is rooted in these early philosophical traditions. In recent years, a good deal has been written in the scholarly literature about the role of the natural environment in a child’s education and care (Wilson 2012; Holloway 2014; Chawla 2007). Although the notion of outdoor education enjoys wide popularity amongst academics, practitioners and leaders, in reality, the arguments made are often elusive, inadequately informed and driven by feelings and unexamined assumptions.