Babies and very young children in relationships with nature in early Childhood Education: a powerful encounter

Abstract

This text presents an excerpt from a study that sought to understand how very young children and babies can relate to nature in early childhood education and the consequences of this relationship for them. The field research was conducted in an early childhood education school and was inspired by Graue and Walsh's (2003) proposal for studying children in context, observing the principles of ethnography and the qualitative research approach as a whole. The theoretical framework was supported by Spinoza's philosophy, Vygotsky's Historical-Cultural Psychology, and authors who discuss the relationship between children and nature, such as Tiriba (2005), Santos (2016), and Louv (2016). Based on the theoretical and field studies, it was possible to indicate that the relationship with nature can increase children's power of acting through joyful affections. From observations of children involved in outdoor activities and with nature, it was noticed that the more joyful affections are provoked, the more children want to remain involved with and in a given situation – in this case, with nature. As such, the study showed that the more joyful affective relationships are established with nature, the more children can seek, feel, understand, and live this relationship, and the more they can identify themselves with it and want to care for it, demonstrating the importance of this coexistence for both parties.