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Water as method: Explorations of locally situated environmental issues together with preschool children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 December 2019

Teresa Elkin Postila
Teresa Elkin Postila*
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Youth Studies, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
*
Corresponding author. Email: teresa.elkin.postila@buv.su.se
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Abstract

The aim of this article is to show how water emerged as a research method nearby and within a small stream during a 9-month fieldwork carried out with preschool children. The fieldwork was informed and shaped by the preschool children’s and researcher’s situated knowledges and their questions about environmental issues concerning water, absence of water, pollution and ethics. The empirical material consists of films and photos, drawings and field notes, produced together by the preschool children and the researcher during the research. The analysis draws on relational ontology and the writings of Isabelle Stengers and Donna Haraway. The article concludes with a discussion about what can be learnt from the study and its contribution to research within the fields of Early Childhood Education and Environmental Education.

Keywords

early childhoodenvironmental educationeducation
Type
Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , November 2019 , pp. 222 - 229
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Cambridge University Press

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