About ECO-play

Members of the ECO-play project are working collaboratively to develop shared understandings and practical strategies that will promote a greater respect for the natural world among early years educators and young children and sustainable development within childcare settings. Our desire is to identify practices with immediate and longer-term impact that will support the conservation and protection of our world’s resources.

 

The rationale is to bring together three areas of interest that span the partners' known expertise:

• to assess and promote knowledge and understanding of nature and the natural world through pedagogical and practical collaborations
• to assess and promote the role of visual and verbal media (factual and fictional) in shaping knowledge and understanding of environmentally friendly play and learning
• to assess and promote sustainable ideologies among educators and the children they teach who will be the future generation of leaders and decision-makers.

 

Project plans

Following a successful planning meeting in Cambridge in June 2015, the ECO-play partners are currently collecting background data from their own countries, determining:

• EXPERT participating organisations (eg: museums, field centres, advisers, NGOs)
• PRACTITIONER participating organisations (among local nurseries and schools)
• EUROPEAN ACADEMIC participating organisations interested in trialling our new pedagogic strategies.

We are also establishing common understandings of current national perspectives (like curriculum requirements) and key terminology used across the different cultures.

 

Outputs

Presentations

Wright, H.R. (2015) Seeing and Saying: Developing the language to talk about nature.

EECERA 2015 Conference, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain, 7-10 September.

Wright, H.R., Emre, C.S. and Luff, P. (2014) Early childhood play with reclaimed resources: potential benefits for young children. Erasmus Intensive Program Project; Play, Toys and Culture, Institute of Educational Sciences, Marmara University, Istanbul, 26-27 September.

Wright, H.R. (2014) Sustainable learning: Early Years workers reflect on the benefits of vocational training. BERA Annual Conference, Institute of Education, London, 23-25 September.

Høyen, M. (2014)  Research through Teaching: How to learn, reflect on and use bibliographic interviews in a research-like environment. Paper presented to the ESREA Life History and Biographic Research Network conference, Otto-von-Güericke University, Magdeburg, 6-9 March.

Papers

Høyen, M. (2015) Research through Teaching: How to learn, reflect on and use bibliographic interviews in a research-like environment. In R. Evans (ed), Before, Beside and After (Beyond) the Biographical Narrative. Duisburg: Nisaba Verlag (forthcoming).

Wright, H.R., Emre, C.S. and Luff, P. (2014) Early childhood play with reclaimed resources: potential benefits for young children. Journal of Educational Sciences (University of Marmara) (forthcoming).

Høyen, M. (2013) View on nature – a field? Paper presented at ESA, 11th conference, Torino, Italy

 

Linked publications

Articles/Chapters

Luff, P. (2014) Researching the use of reclaimed resources in early childhood settings. OMEP (World Organisation for Early Childhood Education) 66th World Assembly and International Conference, Children’s Cultural Worlds. Cork, Ireland. 1st– 5th July.

González Monteagudo, J. (2014) Hacia una escritura libre en la infancia: contribuciones de Célestin Freinet y la Escuela Moderna. Infância, aprendizagem e exercício da escrita. Editora CRV:263-275.

Høyen, Marianne (2015) "Teaching about nature across three generations". In: West & Formenti (eds.) Stories that make a difference. Exploring the collective, social and political potential of narratives in adult education research. Pensa Multimedia (Italy)

 

Books

Wright, H. R. (2015) The Child in Society. London: Sage.

Wright, H. R. (2011) Women Studying Childcare: Integrating Lives Through Adult Education. Stoke-on-Trent, Trentham Books.

González Monteagudo, J. & Merrill, B. (Eds) (2010) Educational Journeys and Changing Lives. Edición Digital @ Tres.

Links

UK OMEP via Paulette http://www.omepuk.org.uk/}