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Fostering Children’s Connection to Nature Through Authentic Situations: The Case of Saving Salamanders at School

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The aim of this paper is to explore how children learn to form new relationships with nature. It draws on a longitudinal case study of children participating in a stewardship project involving the conservation of salamanders during the school day in Stockholm, Sweden. The qualitative method includes two waves of data collection: when a group of 10-year-old children participated in the project (2015) and 2 years after they participated (2017). We conducted 49 interviews with children as well as using participant observations and questionnaires. We found indications that children developed sympathy for salamanders and increased concern and care for nature, and that such relationships persisted 2 years after participation. Our rich qualitative data suggest that whole situations of sufficient unpredictability triggering free exploration of the area, direct sensory contact and significant experiences of interacting with a species were important for children’s development of affective relationships with the salamander species and with nature in an open-ended sense. Saving the lives of trapped animals enabled direct sensory interaction, feedback, increased understanding, and development of new skills for dynamically exploring further ways of saving species in an interactive process experienced as deeply meaningful, enjoyable and connecting. The behavioral setting instilled a sense of pride and commitment, and the high degree of responsibility given to the children while exploring the habitat during authentic situations enriched children’s enjoyment. The study has implications for the design of education programs that aim to connect children with nature and for a child-sensitive urban policy that supports authentic nature situations in close spatial proximity to preschools and schools.
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
published: 08 June 2018
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00928
Edited by:
Maria Johansson,
Lund University, Sweden
Reviewed by:
Giuseppe Carrus,
Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy
Marianne Krasny,
Cornell University, United States
*Correspondence:
Stephan Barthel
stephan.barthel@hig.se;
stephan.barthel@su.se
Specialty section:
This article was submitted to
Environmental Psrychology,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Psychology
Received: 14 August 2017
Accepted: 22 May 2018
Published: 08 June 2018
Citation:
Barthel S, Belton S, Raymond CM
and Giusti M (2018) Fostering
Children’s Connection to Nature
Through Authentic Situations:
The Case of Saving Salamanders
at School. Front. Psychol. 9:928.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00928
Fostering Children’s Connection to
Nature Through Authentic Situations:
The Case of Saving Salamanders at
School
Stephan Barthel1,2*, Sophie Belton2, Christopher M. Raymond3and Matteo Giusti2
1Faculty of Engineering and Sustainable Development, University of Gävle, Gävle, Sweden, 2Stockholm Resilience Centre,
Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden, 3Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp, Sweden
The aim of this paper is to explore how children learn to form new relationships
with nature. It draws on a longitudinal case study of children participating in a
stewardship project involving the conservation of salamanders during the school day
in Stockholm, Sweden. The qualitative method includes two waves of data collection:
when a group of 10-year-old children participated in the project (2015) and 2 years
after they participated (2017). We conducted 49 interviews with children as well as
using participant observations and questionnaires. We found indications that children
developed sympathy for salamanders and increased concern and care for nature, and
that such relationships persisted 2 years after participation. Our rich qualitative data
suggest that whole situations of sufficient unpredictability triggering free exploration
of the area, direct sensory contact and significant experiences of interacting with a
species were important for children’s development of affective relationships with the
salamander species and with nature in an open-ended sense. Saving the lives of trapped
animals enabled direct sensory interaction, feedback, increased understanding, and
development of new skills for dynamically exploring further ways of saving species in an
interactive process experienced as deeply meaningful, enjoyable and connecting. The
behavioral setting instilled a sense of pride and commitment, and the high degree of
responsibility given to the children while exploring the habitat during authentic situations
enriched children’s enjoyment. The study has implications for the design of education
programs that aim to connect children with nature and for a child-sensitive urban policy
that supports authentic nature situations in close spatial proximity to preschools and
schools.
Keywords: nature experience, affordances, affective relationships with nature, urban, situated learning,
stewardship, qualitative methods, longitudinal approach
INTRODUCTION
Globally, the number of urban dwellers is projected to increase from 3.2 billion in 2005 to
about 6.4 billion by 2050 (UN-Habitat, 2016). This unpreceded rate and scale of urbanization
may embark civilization on a development trajectory with limited possibilities for people, and
especially for children, to experience natural environments on a regular basis (Giusti, 2016;
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Barthel et al. Saving Salamanders at School
Colding and Barthel, 2017;Hand et al., 2017). Such a
development trajectory, if not carefully designed, may lead
to a shift in baseline related to connection to nature (Miller, 2005;
Giusti, 2016;Hartig and Kahn, 2016;Soga and Gaston, 2016),
defined as ‘one’s affective, experiential relationship to the natural
world’ (Mayer and Frantz, 2004, p. 504).
Multiple studies in distinct scientific traditions have
considered adults’ connectedness to nature, otherwise termed
human-nature connections, and its relationship to pro-
environmental behavior (e.g., Raymond et al., 2010;Brehm
et al., 2013;Restall and Conrad, 2015;Ives et al., 2017). In
the environmental psychology literature, connectedness with
nature can be seen as a psychological construct that reflects
the degree to which individuals perceive that they are part
of the natural environment (Schultz, 2001, 2002), and such
perception arguably influences adults’ motivations to engage in
pro-environmental behavior (Kals et al., 1999;Chawla, 2007;
Ernst and Theimer, 2011;Cheng and Monroe, 2012;Liefländer
et al., 2013;Mayer and Frantz, 2014;Richardson et al., 2016). For
example, environmental activists report greater connectedness
with nature compared to college students, suggesting that
connectedness with nature may be related to pro-environmental
attitudes and behaviors (Bruni and Schultz, 2010). However,
recent studies indicate that the attitude–action gap is still an
unresolved scientific problem in sustainability planning and
management (Sörqvist, 2016;Kaaronen, 2017;Linder et al.,
2018).
Scholars have recently begun to unpack the meaning of
children’s connection to nature and its association to different
nature-based activities (Ernst and Theimer, 2011;Cheng and
Monroe, 2012;Giusti et al., 2014, 2018;Giusti, 2016). For
example, the findings of Cheng and Monroe’s research (2012)
suggest that learning, understanding, and experiencing nature
are all factors that can positively influence the development of a
child’s affective relationship. However, the many studies aiming
to evaluate an activity’s effectiveness in enhancing children’s
connection to nature employ quantitative methods (usually
performing pre- and post-activity tests), with results indicating
no, or very little, change (Ernst and Theimer, 2011;Bruni et al.,
2015;Giusti, 2016).
In response to this shortcoming, there is a need for
longitudinal studies for assessing the changes in children’s
connections to nature across time. Furthermore, research is
needed to assess what specific aspects of environmental education
programs encourage positive shifts in connection to nature (Ernst
and Theimer, 2011;Kossack and Bogner, 2012;Liefländer et al.,
2013).
In this paper, we focus on if and how urban children
strengthen their connection to nature, used here open-endedly
as an affective relationship with nature characterized by empathy
for creatures, enjoyment of nature, sense of oneness, and sense
of responsibility (cf. Cheng and Monroe, 2012). We focus on
a case where young children take part in a stewardship project
aiming to save endangered species, the Salamander Project,
and how their participation shapes their connection to nature.
Our focus on children is important given that people acquire
strong connections to nature most easily during childhood, by
participating in social action, but also by first-hand sensory
interaction with natural environments and species (Kahn and
Kellert, 2002;Mayer and Frantz, 2004;Chawla, 2006, 2007;Wells
and Lekies, 2006;Chawla and Cushing, 2007;Evans et al., 2007;
Cheng and Monroe, 2012).
The aim of this paper is to increase our understanding about
if,how and by which means children’s affective relationships with
nature change by taking part in a nature conservation project
during school hours, and if such a shift persists 2 years post-
participation. Does participating in the Salamander Project at
school strengthen children’s connection to nature? If so, how do
children learn to create affective relations with nature? Which
specific situations might encourage or enable stronger affective
relationships with nature? Do affective relations persist 2 years
after the project? This paper studies fourth graders (age 10–11)
who, during an 8-week period, took part in saving salamanders
near their school in Stockholm. It started with a master’s thesis
study (Belton, 2016), which then transformed into a longitudinal
study to explore whether changes in affective relationships with
nature detected in these children persisted long after their actual
hands-on engagement.
Theory on Learning, Behavior and
Change
Our work is firmly rooted in evolutionary thinking and framed by
a social-ecological systems approach that assumes that learning
emanates from human behavior in interplay with features of both
the biophysical and social environment. It views human beings
like other creatures in the web of life with which they have co-
evolved, claiming that people, like other organisms, encounter the
physical world directly with all senses, with the ability to perceive
qualities of the world that are really there rather than merely
mental constructions about the world (Chawla, 2006). At the
same time it does not deny the powerful influence of socialization
and culture (Wenger, 1998;Clark and Uzzell, 2002). Instead the
frame views socio-cultural influences to shape, rather than to
prevent, how we select and use the information that we receive
about the world’s true qualities. Affordance theory (Gibson, 1979;
Kaaronen, 2017) and situated learning (Lave and Wenger, 1991),
specifically fit well with such a social-ecological approach.
An Affordance Approach to
Environmental Behavior and Learning
Affordance theory is grounded in ecological psychology and
interprets human behavior from a dynamic and coupled systems
approach (Gibson, 1979). Ecological psychology is interested
in environmental learning and action in every setting, and is
particularly well adapted to describe what happens when children
learn through autonomous movement and exploration, such
as children at play outdoors (Kyttä, 2004;Chawla, 2006). An
affordance, in its simplest understanding, refers to the action
possibilities provided by objects or environments. However, a
more nuanced understanding of affordances does not consider
affordances as properties of objects or environments, but rather
in terms of whole situations (Chemero, 2003, 2009). Affordances
are defined as the ‘relations between abilities to perceive and act
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Barthel et al. Saving Salamanders at School
and features of the environment’ (Chemero, 2009, p. 150). For
actualisation to occur different characteristics of the individual,
such as his/her physical abilities, emotions and intentions must
be matched with properties of the physical environment (Kyttä,
2004;Chemero, 2009;Roe and Aspinall, 2011;Withagen et al.,
2012).
Children are most likely to stay attentive and engaged
when perceiving affordances that provide them with immediate,
pleasurable experiential feedback about the effects of their actions
(Heft and Chawla, 2006;Beery and Jørgensen, 2016). Such
feedback may be perceived if children are allowed, and are able,
to shape features of the physical environment and experience
with all five senses changes in their environment as a result of
their actions, such as when building a dam with small rocks in
a stream (Chawla, 2006), or when saving the life of an animal
that is trapped. Kyttä (2004) notes that these situations are
characterized by positive interactive cycles: the more widely that
children move through and experience their world, the more
satisfying encounters they have with engaging affordances, which
motivates them to explore them even further. Even if the socio-
cultural aspects of the environment always have been present
in affordance theory (Gibson, 1979), it has of late been brought
more to the foreground (Raymond et al., 2017). Affordances are
dynamic and coupled human-environment relations (Kaaronen,
2017), where behavior is probabilistic and actualisation of
affordances may occur when the right social circumstances are
present (Clark and Uzzell, 2002;Kyttä, 2004). A situated learning
approach is used below to explore how affordances are related to
connection to nature and learning about nature.
A Situated Approach to Learning
Several well-established theories and disciplines are nested under
a situated (ecological) approach to learning (Lave and Wenger,
1991;Barab and Roth, 2006;Durning and Artino, 2011). In
brief, situated learning understands all learning and thinking
as inevitably located in activity (in doing) and, therefore,
inseparable from experience (Brown et al., 1989;Lave and Wenger,
1991;Barab and Roth, 2006;Bendt et al., 2013). Many of the
skills required in everyday settings are learned mainly through
behavior, or through practice (Lave, 1988;Saxe, 1991), whether
tacit and unconscious or explicit and codified (Leonard-Barton
and Sensiper, 1998). Skills are not always articulated, it is simply
what we do, or ‘what changes our ability to engage in practice,
the understanding of why we engage in it, and the resources
we have at our disposal to do so’ (Wenger, 1998, p. 97). If the
concept of culture can be defined as a system that gives meaning
and significance (Geertz, 1993), learning from a situated view is
innately connected to the production of identity and meaning
(Lawrence, 2009).
Learning can therefore be viewed as a product of people’s
enculturation, in turn related to the accepted norms and
values of groups, within which the individual acts (such as a
stewardship group) (Lave and Wenger, 1991;Wenger, 1998,
2000). If environmental values of a participator are also reflected
in the shared norms of the group, pro-environmental behavior is
supported by positive feedback mechanisms provided by other
group members, for instance, by way of comments, bodily
postures or rewards. The social norms of the group form part
of the individual member’s choice architecture, in combination
with properties of the physical environment. The more authentic
a situation is experienced to be (i.e., the closer the situation
is to resembling real life), the better a learning opportunity it
provides (Reed, 1996;Boyer and Roth, 2006;Durning and Artino,
2011). As far as ‘real life’ situations go, scholars of environmental
education and child development point to nature experiences as
being particularly rich in opportunities for meaningful learning
activities (Kyttä, 2002;Chawla, 2007;Moore, 2014;Beery and
Jørgensen, 2016). This theory increasingly acknowledges socio-
material features to shape situations for learning (Godden and
Baddeley, 1975;Smith and Vela, 2001;Barab and Roth, 2006;
Muro and Jeffrey, 2008). Hence, urban environmental education
is one means by which children actualize the affordances offered
by nature in cities (Chawla, 2006;Delia and Krasny, 2018).
The Salamander Project
A pond in Olovslunds Park in Bromma (a suburb of Stockholm)
is one of the most important breeding habitats within the greater
Stockholm region for the two species of salamander found in
Sweden1, the common newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) and the great
crested newt (Triturus cristatus). The pond, being shallow,
relatively warm and free from aquatic predators, provides an ideal
habitat for these amphibians to reproduce. However, salamanders
often fall in a concrete wading pool (located adjacent to the pond)
during their annual migration to spawn in the pond in spring
(Figure 2). The salamanders are unable to escape the wading
pool because it is drained of water at that time of the year, and
therefore dry out and die.
In 2007 the local authorities, realizing how serious an issue
this was, developed a pond management plan. Both salamander
species are protected under national law (Länsstyrelsen, 2015)
and the great crested newt (Figure 1) is listed in both the
Bern Convention and Annex IV of the EU Habitats Directive
requiring a ‘strict protection regime by member states (Lundberg
and Kiibus, 2014;European Commission, 2015). Under the
pond management plan, a number of technical strategies
were implemented in an attempt to solve the trap problem.
These, however, were not sufficiently effective, leading the local
authorities to ask for help from a nearby school in 2008 (Kiibus,
2011). Bromma, where the school is located and the project takes
place, is 8 km west of Stockholm. This predominantly middle to
high-income residential area has a population of 70,000 (Belton,
2016).
Every year since 2008, the fourth grade students of Olovslund
School participate in the Salamander Project (60–70 students
yearly). The aim is to save salamanders and simultaneously to
teach the students about conservation issues. Every school lunch
break of the salamander breeding season (April/May), a small
group of children carefully search through piles of leaves scattered
around the wading pool with sticks and place any salamanders
found in a bucket of water. The piles of leaves are placed inside the
concrete wading pool with its sharp edges to provide habitat for
1Salamander is the common name for the order of Caudata, which includes newts
and sirens.
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Barthel et al. Saving Salamanders at School
FIGURE 1 | The protected great crested newt (Triturus cristatus). Photo of
postcard, Source: ArtDatabanken.
the salamanders to hide and escape the sun, but they ultimately
dry out, or are cleared as the pool season starts, making the
pool a kind of death trap. Before releasing them into the nearby
pond, the children document the number, species and sex of the
salamanders found, as well as from which pile of leaves each
was found. These daily reports are then communicated by the
teacher to a biologist enabling the tracking of migration trends,
the number of salamanders trapped and saved and monitoring
the effectiveness of the project.
Over the 10 years that the project has been running,
1204 great crested newts and 3715 common newts have been
rescued by Olovslund School (personal communication, 2017),
allowing the local salamander population to remain stable in
a time when urbanization and habitat loss pose a threat to
many urban amphibian species (Lundberg and Kiibus, 2014).
Another measure of success from an ecological perspective is
the successful re-introduction of the great crested newt species
from this pond into a nearby pond in 2009, leading to the set-
up of an identical operation in 2015 (Kiibus, 2011;Lundberg
and Kiibus, 2014). This meant an extra task for the participants:
taking the ‘saved great crested newts back to school (instead
of releasing them into the pond). In order to do this, the
school was granted special permission by the county authorities
(Länsstyrelsen, 2015), it otherwise being illegal to collect this
species in Sweden.
METHOD: QUALITATIVE AND
LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH DESIGN
Given the ample room for improving theory and understanding
about children’s connection to nature over time, we decided
upon a qualitative and longitudinal research design (Beery
and Wolf-Watz, 2014;Chawla, 2015;Beery and Jørgensen,
2016). Qualitative data was collated through semi-structured
interview questions and open-ended questions included in
a questionnaire administered to the school children. Our
attempt was to elicit experiences of the participants both by
listening to, and analyzing, their own words, which helped
FIGURE 2 | Olovslund Park with the pond on the right and the paddling pool
to its left. The school is just a short walk away (source: Google Maps).
us gain a more in-depth, ‘inside’ understanding of the how
and why lines of inquiry (Patton, 2002;Yin, 2009). We
also consistently observed their behavior and activities in the
field.
The theoretical starting point for this study was Chawla’s
(1998,2006) framework on children’s development of affective
relationships with nature. This framework includes how humans
acquire affective relationships with nature most easily during
childhood in situations that trigger behavior and immediate
feedback, which are experienced to be of significance. In
recognition that connection to nature is still a contested
concept in the environmental psychology and environmental
management literatures (Ives et al., 2017), we explore multiple
facets of affective relationships with nature and its change over
time. To support a rich and deep understanding of aspects
of affective relationships with nature, we sought in part for
themes to emerge from the open-ended interview and survey
responses. The interview script consisted of sections that sought
to explore how such relationships may be shaped by aspects both
of the biophysical environment and also by the social context.
Follow-up open-ended and ordinal level survey questions on
the same topic enabled these patterns to be examined in further
depth.
The interviews and questionnaires were administered across
two waves of data collection conducted 2 years apart (2015
and 2017) in order to study if changes in children’s affective
relationships with nature persisted 2 years after participation
in the Salamander Project (see Table 1). In accordance with
triangulation in qualitative research, we employ a range of data
sources to explore and explain themes that cut across several
sources (Creswell, 2014).
Contact with the school had been established prior to this
study in the form of a pilot study in 2014. Alongside consent from
the school principal and concerned teachers, full written parental
consent was obtained for all participating students. Furthermore,
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Barthel et al. Saving Salamanders at School
TABLE 1 | Temporal phases of the empirical field study.
Month April May Early June Late June
Wave 1 2015 Method Field observations
of the children participating
in the project, classroom
lesson and Salamander
Evening (9)
Questionnaire
Mostly open-ended
questions about
participants’ views on the
project, post-participation
(n= 57)
Face to face
semi-structured
individual interviews
With children just after
participating in the project
(n= 25)
Month March May
Wave 2 2017 Method Face to face
semi-structured
individual interviews
With children 2 years after
participating in the project
(n= 24)
Questionnaire
Mostly open-ended
questions about
participants’ memories and
views of the project 2 years
after participation (n= 49)
Two waves of data collection 2 years apart (2015 and 2017).
the research design was approved in an ethical review process
conducted by a Swedish university.
Data Collection Wave One Spring 2015
Field Observations of the Salamander Project
During the first round of data collection, nine field observations
of the conservation project took place over a 2-month period
(Appendix A). The first of these was of an initial information
lesson given in the classroom by the teacher in charge of
the project, explaining and preparing the students for their
involvement in the project.
Seven field observations involved meeting the group of
children and the teacher at the school and walking with them
to the park to observe them partake in the project (about
45 min each time). These observations were spread out over
the length of the project in order to capture differences across
time and in differing conditions (such as weather and number
of salamanders found). The same groups of children were
observed at different points in time enabling us to note changes
between children’s first, second, and third (final) participation.
While the first of these observations was a general observation
of the learning environment, the following were participant
observations allowing us to experience the hands-on work,
mingle with the children and ask informal questions. This
participant observation was helpful because it allowed the
children to become familiar with us before being interviewed.
Detailed notes were taken after each observation in order to have
a written record to refer back to.
Lastly, we attended the local ‘Salamander Evening’ as
participant observers (see Table 1). This is an annual community
event at the pond in Olovslunds Park where Stockholm biologists
give an informal talk about the project, thank the school for their
work, and proceed, with the help of all people present (children
and adults), to count the salamanders in the pond.
The general aim of these observations was to witness the
unfolding of the conservation project in its fullness to better
understand what it embodied from the point of view of
the participants (DeWalt and DeWalt, 2011). We took note
of what the children did, how they did it (e.g., with what
level of engagement/concentration and what type of body
language), what they talked about while participating, what the
atmosphere was, and how these attributes changed over time.
The observations acted as springboards for developing interview
questions as well as a means to verify themes and/or insights that
emerged from interview and questionnaire data (Patton, 2002).
Salamander Project Questionnaire
Students completed a short questionnaire after completion of the
Salamander Project (June 2015) during regular class time (see
Table 1). Questions were designed to mostly collect information
on nominal level data (e.g., ‘Pick three words that best describe
the Salamander project for you’), mixed with certain questions
of more closed’ character (e.g., ‘How many salamanders did you
find in total?’) (Appendix B). As mentioned above, questionnaires
enabled a larger sample size for us than the interviews (n= 57
vs. 25 in 2015 and n= 49 vs. 24 in 2017), which was
helpful in determining whether emergent interview patterns were
consistent across data sources.
Semi-Structured Face-to-Face
Interviews
During the final days of the project, 25 children who had
participated in the project were interviewed (see Table 1).
Selection criteria for the interviews (Appendix C) were based on:
(1) full parental consent to interview, record and use their child’s
quotes; (2) an even spread of students across the three classes so as
to account for the possibility of a teacher’s pedagogical influence
on children’s views about nature/the project; (3) equal gender
representation; and (4) a variety in the number of times children
had participated in the project (two to five times).
The purpose of the interviews was to uncover the experience of
participating in the project from the children’s perspective, and to
understand whether it strengthened their affective relationships
with nature. The focus was on how it felt to be part of the
project, what changes (if any) they had experienced during the
course of the project (changes in feelings toward salamanders and
nature as well as changes in themselves) and what they had learnt
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from it. Interviews were conducted in an informal manner in a
comfortable setting (one-on-one, in Swedish, at school during
school time) and, given the age of the participants, were kept
short (10 min). Interviews were semi-structured following an
interview guide (Appendix D), at the same time allowing the
conversation to follow its natural course and for new questions
to arise spontaneously (Kvale, 1996;Patton, 2002).
Data Collection Wave 2 Spring 2017
The second wave of data collection occurred exactly 2 years
later, in spring 2017, when the participants were in sixth grade
and their final months of Olovslund School (see Table 1). This
round of data collection consisted in 24 interviews (of the same
nature as in 2015: short, one-on-one, at school and during
school time, see Appendix F) and a questionnaire. The focus
for both the interviews and questionnaire was on: (1) what
the children remembered/retained and what they had learnt
from their participation in the Salamander project in 2015; (2)
whether their view of salamanders, other animals and nature had
changed/shifted with the project and if so, how; and (3) whether
or not they feel their connection to nature had changed with their
time in the project and, if so, how.
The questionnaire was a combination of open-ended and
box-checking questions (Appendix E). The 24 interviewees were
selected evenly across the three classrooms, and were a mixture
of children that had previously been interviewed in 2015 and
those that hadn’t (Appendix C). Hence, a mixture of children
researched on both waves of data collection and those only
partaking 1 year formed part of our unit of analysis. This unit
was chosen because we wanted our unit of analysis to represent
a fair gender balance and simply for practical reasons (voluntary
to participate), and also to explore a wide range of views. In 2017
no observations took place, as the participants did not take part
in the Salamander Project (a fourth-grade activity only).
Analysis of Data
Interviews from both waves of data collections were transcribed
verbatim and coded for emerging themes, using the software
program Dedoose (version 6.2.17). Quotes were then translated
into English. Coding was done in two ways. Firstly, in terms
of exploring qualitative aspects of affective relationships with
nature, we coded the interview data for three of the four sub-
constructs of connection to nature as developed by Cheng and
Monroe (2012): enjoyment of nature, empathy for creatures
and sense of responsibility. The fourth sub-construct (sense of
oneness) did not work well for this age group in our opinion.
Secondly, we were interested in exploring the conservation
project’s specific features that appeared to have facilitated the
development of affective relationships. Here, coding was done
in terms of emergent themes that surface from analysis of
the interview data—an iterative process that required several
rounds of analysis. The written texts from the children in
the questionnaire data were first translated into English and
then analyzed looking for recurring themes with the help of
the software program NVivo (version 11) and the website
Woodle. Themes that emerged from any of the data sources
were compared with our other data sources whenever feasible.
For example, interview codes were considered when analyzing
questionnaire data and vice versa, leading to code/theme refining.
Additional gray and scientific literature, informal written and
verbal conversations with the children’s teachers, the local
biologist and the teacher in charge of the project, were equally
analyzed in light of themes that emerged from primary data.
RESULTS
Interview and questionnaire results from 2015 point to a self-
observed change in children’s connection to nature after project
participation. This change was described as a positive one:
increased concern, interest in and/or care for nature. Answering
interview questions about how they had changed with the
project, 16 children (out of 25) expressed increased empathy
toward salamanders (‘feeling’ and caring’ more for them). They
explained that they had developed a better understanding for
salamanders, both in terms of facts about them (e.g., how to
differentiate amongst species and sex), but also how to ‘help’ and
care for’ them. An emergent finding from our empirical material
was that 17 children (out of 25) noted that they had learnt more.
Furthermore, in the questionnaire, 93% of children answered ‘yes’
to caring more about salamanders after the project than before.
When talking about changes in how they felt toward salamanders
and changes in themselves many children talked about going
from not knowing or caring much about these amphibians to
being closer to them, much more aware of them and thinking
more about them:
I have more okay, respect is a big word but I have to use
it because there isn’t another one respect for how they
[salamanders] live because it’s quite. . . I wouldn’t survive if
I were a salamander!. . . Now I see them in a different way.
Before I thought they were like animals. Now it’s like they are
beings that, well, they need help, just like people can need help
sometimes.
(Participant 1)
We got to know them.
(Participant 11)
Shifting experiences of touching the species in question
was an emergent theme from the interviews. In time, several
children got over their initial fear of touching salamanders. Eight
children experienced a change from being scared of, or nervous
about salamanders, or finding them creepy, to feeling more
comfortable with them and daring to hold them as this following
quote depicts:
Interviewer: Do you think that you have changed with the
project?
Participant 4: Umm. . . before, I was a bit scared of
salamanders. They were, like, a bit slimy. I didn’t dare to hold
one and now I can hold one without any problem. . . I have,
like, stopped being scared of them.
This increased connection’ to salamanders was mirrored by
strengthened relationships with nature in a broader, more open-
ended sense. Children typically expressed thinking and caring
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more about other animals as well as about nature (in the wider
meaning of the concept) after the project. The following quotes
exemplify common answers to the question ‘Do you think you
have changed with the project?’
I have learnt to take care of animals. I’m maybe thinking
about doing something like that maybe. . . to fix things so that
everything is good with nature.. . . Yes. . . I have become more
nature-friendly.
(Participant 6)
Yes, well, I have much more of a sense for nature and
salamanders.
(Participant 3)
That’s a hard question!... Well, I have started to think more
about animals and nature. Actually a lot more than what I
did before.
(Participant 25)
Well, it’s like I’m less scared and I feel more... confident in
nature.
(Participant 23)
The main result from 2017 shows that the affective
relationships that formed in 2015 remain. When asked directly
if they cared about salamanders and if they would help a
salamander if they saw someone hurting it, all interviewees
answered ‘yes.’ The vast majority of children expressed that
their feelings toward salamanders had changed with the project,
reflected in an increased empathy toward salamanders (83% of
interviewees), as the following quote from 2017 expresses:
Interviewer: Did your feelings for salamanders change with
your time in the project?
Participant 23: Yes they did actually. I hardly knew what a
salamander was before the project so. . . they have. I know
what a salamander is now and I care more about them!
Even as 12 or 13-year-olds, in 2017, the majority of children
(71%) expressed that the Salamander Project had changed the
way they view other animals: they think and care more about
them as well. Also, the majority of children (75% of interviewees,
54% of questionnaire respondents) confirmed that their view of
nature (in the broader sense) had changed with the Salamander
Project: it had helped them understand how important nature is
and particularly how important it is for animals. Some children
had more place-connected answers, thinking more of nature as a
home for salamanders since the project, or explaining that their
view of nature as a whole hadn’t changed, but that their view of
the specific salamander habitat had.
As the findings above show, the Salamander Project has
helped children relate to salamanders but also to other animals
(albeit to a lesser extent) and even to nature (in a more
theoretical, less concrete way). This is further confirmed by
the answers to the question ‘Do you feel you, as a person,
have changed with the Salamander Project, and, if so, how?’
Out of the 79% of interviewees who answered yes, the vast
majority of answers were salamander-specific (i.e., I care more
about salamanders now), followed by animal-specific answers
(i.e., I think more about animals now), and lastly answers
that were about nature or something broad (i.e., I am more
careful now, I know more about nature now). Indicators of
shared memories include that 75% of interviewees in 2017
had thought about salamanders or the project, and 83%
had talked about salamanders or the project during the last
2 years. When asked to recount their memories, interviewees
spoke fondly about the project and 83% thought that they
would remember it when they are older. An indicator that
emerged from our empirical material of increased sensitivity
toward salamanders is that 91% of interviewees had observed
salamanders in the nearby surroundings during the 2 years that
had passed.
Participating in Something of
Significance With a Sense of
Responsibility
Children highly valued being ‘part of the project, being given the
opportunity to ‘participate’ in or be ‘included in an important
real-world project. For example, the contributing/helping aspect
of the project (the word ‘saving was recurrent in both interviews
and questionnaires) emerged as important for the children not
only in terms of physically helping salamanders, but also with
regards to having a role in the wider community by helping the
municipality with its duty of biodiversity protection. This finding
is supported by situated learning that stresses the importance
of goal-driven activity for meaningful learning (Chawla, 2006;
Durning and Artino, 2011).
Participant 21: I think it’s really nice that we can help out. . ..
The teacher explained that. . . only our school has permission
to take the great crested newts and I think that that’s pretty
cool.
Interviewer: It is!
Participant 21: And we can talk about it later when we are
big, to our children.
Being part of a ‘bigger’ project and community context
(participating in an adult activity, beyond school) gave children
a sense of importance, responsibility and pride. Children clearly
expressed their sense of responsibility toward the Salamander
Project and their appreciation for being given this responsibility.
This was apparent throughout the interviews but was also
recognized by the teachers who noticed how committed their
students were to the project and the sense of importance that
stemmed from it. This was further confirmed by observations in
the field of children’s careful concentration and thoroughness in
the tasks (Figure 3).
Children talked about how things changed over the course
of the project and how they had an increasing amount of
responsibility, as the teacher trusted them to do the job well.
One student called this ‘freedom with responsibility’ (Participant
25). This increased responsibility, trust and freedom allowed the
children to get closer to and be sensitized to the salamanders in
their own time and manner, and also to gain increased skills by
repeatedly performing the tasks.
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FIGURE 3 | Developing affective relationships with nature by way of significant
experiences when saving the life of an animal, here by handling the species:
carrying a great crested newt in one’s hand. Photo: Martina Kiibus.
Well it was nice that she [the teacher] didn’t come and watch
over us, rather she thought we could do it and we could! We
had to take responsibility but it was, like, fun to have it.
(Participant 9)
Results from 2017, show, just like in 2015, that children valued
‘participating in, ‘being part of,’ and contributing to an activity
they felt was useful and important. Having responsibility in a
bigger-than-school project was still seen in many instances as
something special or different, as exemplified by the following
quote from 2017:
It felt important. It felt like we were helping out and that it
was important.
(Participant 30)
The Project Provided Authentic
Situations
An emergent finding was the importance of the fact that the
project was a real, on-the-ground conservation project. That was
highly appreciated by the children and the teacher in charge also
reported that the children appreciated connecting with living
organisms during authentic situations. Had it been set up as a
normal ‘school’ project, she explained, they would have made sure
to place salamanders in the wading pool daily to be found by the
students. Instead, being an authentic project, located within the
salamander migration corridor, one never knew what one would
find and while most days some salamanders were found, (the
record find was 70 although the usual find was less than 10), there
were also days when none were found (Appendix A).
We found two specific features that illustrate how the
Salamander Project provided authentic situations: its complex
nature and the variability of conditions. Firstly, the Salamander
Project was established as a social-ecological solution to the issue
of a protected species dying because of a socially valued wading
pool. The pool was the ‘death-trap’ located inside the natural
breading ground of the salamanders, but this ‘trap’ also afforded
the conservation of native species by children. Although a more
effective strategy may have been to remove the pool entirely,
authorities were unwilling to do so due to its high recreational
and aesthetic value, resulting in the current solution and its
reliance on Olovslund School. This situation also provided the
children with a rich opportunity to reflect on the pros and cons
of this arrangement. When asked what their preferred solution
to the paddling pool ‘trap’ would be, their answers typically
conveyed a clear understanding of the complexity of the issue:
Well, on the one hand it would be good to take it away so that
no salamanders could fall in it at night but it is still pretty fun
to play in the wading pool in the summer. On the one hand, it
would be good to remove it but on the other hand it’s really fun
for us to keep the project up, that we, Olovslund School, can save
salamanders.
(Participant 9)
Secondly, the different and varying conditions of each
participation in the project (e.g., number of salamanders
found, weather, group dynamics, unexpected events) expanded
opportunities for reflection and meaning-making. This finding
was first identified from field observations and then followed
up in interview questions. An example of this was when the
children found a dead headless salamander. This allowed them
to think about what could have happened to it and, with the help
of the teacher, brainstorm which animals prey on salamanders.
Another example is of finding a juvenile salamander in the
pool. This allowed the children to see for themselves how it is
impossible to identify the sex of a juvenile and provided the
teacher with a good opportunity to explain salamanders’ lifecycle.
These kinds of unique events, with each occurrence depending
entirely on the particular conditions of the day, allowed for
spontaneous opportunities to enrich children’s overall experience
of the project.
Experiencing different and varying conditions was enabled by
the projects’ length (2 months), which may have influenced how
the children became familiar with the salamanders and the tasks
involved in the project. Indeed, when asked about the differences
between the first and last time in the project, 15 children (out of
25) described how they had gotten more used to the project, felt
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more confident in the tasks, and knew more about the scope of
the project as well as about salamanders.
The 2017 interviews revealed, again, the extent to which the
children recalled the project’s authentic situations, as something
very special. Students talked enthusiastically about moments
during the project that were unusual or surprising such as
finding a baby salamander or a dead salamander, or a particular
time when very many salamanders were found. These types
of moments were made possible due to the ever-changing
conditions provided by the conservation project, which also
seemed to have enabled enjoyable and exciting experiences.
Fun and Excitement
All but one of the children interviewed in 2015 considered the
project ‘fun’ and readily expressed the enjoyment they got from
it. The 2015 questionnaire showed that ‘fun’ was chosen by 66% of
children as one of the three words that best described the project
for them. Although the project took place during lunch break
(meaning that children skipped their usual break activities), 91%
of questionnaire respondents said that it didn’t feel like they had
lost a break. Field observations and informal conversations with
the students’ teachers supported interview and questionnaire
results. The teachers noted the joy and enthusiasm their students
got out of the project, particularly evident directly after their turn
participating. This quote captures these findings:
It’s fun to feel that you have done something important.
Something that is actually good for the environment,
something that makes a difference.
(Participant 1)
Children gave several reasons for why the project was ‘fun’
of which the most common were: having responsibility, being
included in something ‘big’ and the fact that the project was ‘real.’
This ‘fun’ element is therefore tightly linked to the other features
described previously. The different descriptions of why the
project was ‘fun’ suggest that this word has a multi-dimensional
meaning for these children, encompassing many positive and
complementary qualities.
In 2017, all children interviewed expressed the enjoyment
that they got from the project, making this the aspect of the
experience that appeared to have stuck most vividly in their
memory. The 2017 questionnaire results confirmed this finding,
as 94% answered that they had liked taking part, and 69% used
the word ‘fun’ to describe their experiences. An emergent finding
was that ‘helping’ was the most common reason for why children
enjoyed the project (51%). It was fun to help/save salamanders
(the most common answer) but also to ‘help out, to help animals
and to help nature. The second most common explanation for it
being fun was because it was interesting (20.4%).
Self-Reflection on Methodological
Approach and Results
Our methodological approach has some important limitations
that need to be mentioned. One significant study limitation
relates to the challenge of children age 10 or 11 having to
translate their experiences into words. We understand if readers
cannot ascertain whether our findings are related more to
changes in skills in for instance handling of salamanders, or
to changes in deep seated emotional components of connection
to nature (Kals et al., 1999;Cheng and Monroe, 2012). To
mitigate this methodological weakness, we tried to verify patterns
that emerged from interview data by using (1) observations of
behavior in the field; (2) questionnaires; and (3) interviewing
the children 2 years later when their verbal skills are more
developed (see Table 1). Participant observations detected change
in children’s feelings toward salamanders, as much as is possible
from an observation (feelings are, of course, deeply internal
and personal and cannot be conveyed entirely ‘outwardly’
through, for example, actions, facial expressions, body language
or verbally). Through examining these characteristics, however,
we did detect that children (1) became more comfortable with
handling salamanders (some children went from being scared
of them and finding them ‘yucky’ to being unafraid and finding
them ‘normal’ or even ‘sweet’); and (2) showed more interest in
and affection toward them. The questionnaire results pointed to a
self-observed positive change in children’s feelings toward (as well
as knowledge of) both salamanders and nature. Patterns from the
first wave of interviews were also apparent in the second wave
of interviews 2 years later. In fact, we observed that, in 2017,
the children (now 12 or 13 years old) expressed themselves in a
considerably more concise way and with greater ability to discuss
and reflect upon their experience in the project, which reaffirms
our findings and increases their credibility.
Here we considered respondents from both waves of data
collection, and those that were interviewed only one of the
years as the same unit of analysis. We analyzed differences in
views and meanings in the empirical material and no deviating
patterns were found in responses from children that were studied
during both 2015 and 2017, and those studied only in 2017. We
acknowledge, however, that not restricting the unit of analysis
to participants that took part in both waves of data collection
limits our evidence concerning changes in affective relationships
with nature at the individual level, compared to a strict ‘within
person research design.’ We also acknowledge that ample room
exists for developing better tools and methods for gathering data
both on learning as embodied in, and produced through, practice
and to capture changes in affective relationships in this age group.
Furthermore, the qualitative nature of the study, in combination
with the limited number of children available for investigation,
means that our findings are not deemed general beyond the
context of this study, which is why we phrase our results as
indicative rather than conclusive.
DISCUSSION
The main finding is that learning through taking part in a local
species conservation project (the Salamander Project) during
school hours was associated with strengthened connection to
nature and, specifically, to the salamander species. We observed
a self-reported new and personal meaning for the children who
expressed both increased empathy for the species in question and
an increased concern for nature. These findings are consistent
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with previous work (Louv, 2005;Chawla, 2006;Beery and
Jørgensen, 2016). However, we build on existing theory by
demonstrating that these new affective relationships with nature
can persist over time. The main result from 2017 shows that
the strengthened affective relations observed in 2015 remain, as
represented by the self-reported change in connection to nature.
This shift was more discernible in 2017 when the participants
were 12–13 years of age: they showed deeper reflection and talked
more about the consequences of their actions, compared with
when they were 10 or 11 years old.
We have no causal evidence, and there may be a plurality
of explanations for why such a shift persisted (Bogner, 1998;
Liddicoat and Krasny, 2013), but previous literature has showed
that the developmental phase of the children likely played a part
in enabling a shift in affective relationships with nature (e.g.,
Liefländer and Bogner, 2018). Sobel (1993) argues that the ages
between 6 and 11 are particularly important for children to
form relationships with nature, and for understanding themselves
in relation to nature. Liefländer and Bogner (2014) found that
children older than 11 years of age tend to experience nature
mainly through social relations, whereas children younger than
11 seem to experience nature mainly through exploration and
direct sensory contact. Indeed, the fourth graders in this study
were at a stage in their developmental process where they also
began to experience the natural world indirectly by participation
in social action. For example, in 2017 the children showed signs
of being closer to puberty and more tuned into ‘the social.’
In the following sections, we discuss our findings with
reference to situated learning and affordance theories. Such a
theoretical frame is used when responding to the how and why
lines of inquiry in this manuscript. We further relate our insights
with challenges in urban sustainability. For this we use three
sub-headings:
Exploration and experience under authentic situations; The
culture of the behavioral setting; Counteracting broad-based
processes toward weaker connection to nature.
Exploration and Experience Under
Authentic Situations
We interpret from our data a dynamic development of
increased competence in stewardship actions. The behavioral
setting of the Salamander Project enabled the children to
move around relatively freely (crawl, walk, and run) and
explore the salamander habitat, which we theoretically link to
interactive cycles of learning-by-doing (cf. Kyttä, 2004). Such
interactive cycles have been characterized by a safe world for
learning constituted of responsive affordances and graduated
challenges that children learn to master. As children move
around and explore affordances and features of the environment,
and as they overcome challenges in their environment, they
build environmental sensitivity and at the same time personal
competence (Kyttä, 2004;Chawla, 2006;Beery and Jørgensen,
2016). We observed positive interactive cycles of exploring
the area while developing abilities over time. Under shifting
situations, children were searching in the piles of leaves with a
stick; finding, discovering, holding the animals in their hands;
carrying and releasing salamanders into the nearby pond, and
watering the piles of leaves before leaving the park, so that the
salamanders falling into the pool during the night would not dry
out (Figure 4).
Interpreted through the lens of situated learning, such
learning-by-doing activities are inseparable from experience
(Brown et al., 1989;Lave and Wenger, 1991;Barab and
Roth, 2006). Significant sensory experiences observed include
overcoming initial feelings of disgust for salamanders, shifting to
emotions of empathy. Experiences of taking part in something
important, and feelings of responsibility, pride and having fun
were also reported. Significant sensory experiences have been
identified as important transformative moments since these
may create long-term effects on environmental commitment
(Chawla, 2001, 2007). In environmental education, it is argued
that children’s connection to nature can become strengthened
as a complex ability that can come about through a series of
situations that generate significant sensory experiences (Chawla,
1998;Beery and Jørgensen, 2016;Giusti et al., 2018).
Unlike a typical school activity, the Salamander Project
afforded first-hand sensory explorations during authentic
situations. Reflective, emotional and physiological experiences
were intertwined with learning about salamanders as a species,
their behavior, their habitat requirements, and how to personally
FIGURE 4 | Illustration of the authentic situation of the Salamander Project.
Fourth graders searching for salamanders in a pile of leaves in the wading
pool during the lunch break on a chilly spring day. Consent received from
parents of the children. Photo: Sophie Belton.
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relate to them. Therefore, the uncertainty inherent in the
project may have been an important factor that engaged
children to create stronger affective relationships with nature
(Chawla et al., 2014;Moore, 2014). Moore (2014) calls the
variation in environmental factors ‘sufficient unpredictability’
and understands this as important in maintaining a child’s
fascination and attention (see also Chawla et al., 2014). The
Salamander Project provides a good example of its unpredictable
nature upholding a child’s excitement for, and interest in,
stewardship practices.
Our rich qualitative data suggest that whole situations of
sufficient unpredictability, triggering free exploration of the area,
direct sensory contact and significant experiences of interacting
with species, had a role in enabling children’s development
of affective relationships with the salamander species and with
nature in an open-ended sense. The sensory interaction was
observed to enrich the children’s immediate experiential feedback
about the effects of their actions. Heft and Chawla (2006) report
that such feedback may be perceived if children are allowed,
and are able, to shape features of the physical environment and
experience with all five senses changes in their environment
as a result of their actions. Here saving the lives of trapped
animals gave them such feedback, which in turned seemed to
have triggered interactive cycles of: direct sensory interaction,
experiential feedback about the effects of actions, increased
understanding, and development of new skills for dynamically
exploring further ways of saving species. These observations
support previous work on links between learning and sensory
experiences in nature-based activity (Kyttä, 2002;Chawla, 2007;
Chawla et al., 2014;Moore, 2014;Giusti et al., 2014;Beery and
Jørgensen, 2016).
The Culture of the Behavioral Setting
Behavioral settings are recurring patterns of behavior in
designated places where people gather to engage in particular
activities at particular times (Barker, 1968). The culture of
stewardship in this school played a part in teaching the children
about the accepted norms and values of the project, which also
seemed to have played a part in the actualisation of affordances
congruent with stewardship behavior. Indeed, most students
participated even though it was not compulsory to do so. The
social interactions that occur within these settings are constituted
by social cues upheld by the communities in question (Lave
and Wenger, 1991). Any individual member of a community
of practice is affected by such social structures (Wenger, 1998),
which form part in the shaping of choices (Linder et al.,
2018), which further may re-constitute the behavioral setting
in question. Indeed, the Salamander Project has been running
for 10 years and has become a part of the school’s culture and
identity, embedded in the school’s routines and engaging not
only the fourth graders, but also teachers. The particular school
values and pride around this project, where the school logo is a
salamander and the project is mentioned on its website, appear
to have encouraged children’s commitment to the project.
The behavioral setting also seemed to have made pupils stay
attuned during the entire 2-month period, despite the fact that
the actual amount of hands-on participation time was relatively
short: on average 2.25 h per child (3 ×45-min sessions). Between
the hands-on engagement, they were, however, involved in social
action that potentially could remind them of the project. They
studied the salamander data records and took part in classroom
teaching about the species and its habitat. Despite the project
running over a 2-month period, the teachers continued to talk
about the project regularly after lunch asking students about
the daily finds. Furthermore, not all children participated at the
same time (one small group of children per day), but even the
days when they did not participate, friends would return to
the schoolyard with their stories to tell about the ‘catch of the
day.’ Such social feedback meant that interest and involvement
(even if by proxy) in the project seemed to have been kept
alive. Also, the Salamander Evening (a ceremony outside school
hours) seemed to have functioned as a sort of ‘memory’ (Barthel
et al., 2010), which potentially reminded them of their part
in the project. The Salamander Evening also seemed to have
played a part in instilling a sense of pride in partaking in a
‘bigger-than-school’ societal activity. Indeed, previous research
suggests that experiences of intimate interaction with nature in
educational behavioral settings provide children with important
learning opportunities, including actions that may help shape
their relations with, and knowledge about, biodiversity (Chawla,
2001;Fjørtoft, 2004;Herbert, 2008;Ernst and Tornabene, 2012;
Beery and Jørgensen, 2016).
Multiple co-benefits of the project became apparent through
observations and conversations with the teachers. These
included: improved science learning, the spread of local species
knowledge (often from child to parent), and increased interest in
the wider community. In this sense, the project can be viewed
as a driver of important processes within, and a component of,
a larger social-ecological system. This finding is supported by
resilience scholars and reinforces their view that environmental
education and learning should not be viewed in isolation from
building resilient social-ecological urban systems but as an
integrated and necessary part of it (Krasny et al., 2010;Russ and
Krasny, 2017).
Counteracting Broad-Based Processes
Toward Weaker Connection to Nature
In terms of practical policy advice, this paper shows that involving
10 and 11-year-old children in authentic stewardship actions as
an activity at school, while urban planners consider potential
for learning in nature environments in close proximity to
schools and kindergartens, may be a promising combination
for societies to counteract broad-based processes toward weaker
connection to nature (Giusti et al., 2014, 2018). Obligatory
stewardship projects during school hours can be implemented
more broadly in a society compared to projects that are
voluntary after school. Such obligatory policy may be a necessary
step if urban civilisation will stay emotionally connected to
the biosphere, while simultaneously fostering social health
and pleasurable feedback cycles between children and nature
(Chawla et al., 2014;Chawla, 2015;Carrus et al., 2015;
Collado and Staats, 2016;Samuelsson et al., 2018). As the
result herein is indicative, more research is needed in order
to generalize whether such policy advice has the potential to
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function as a deep leverage point, by supporting much needed
sustainability transitions of broad-based socio-cultural processes
of self-concept change and social norm formation (Meadows,
2008;Westley et al., 2011;Abson et al., 2017;Görg et al., 2017).
CONCLUSION
Our findings support Cheng and Monroe’s (2012) suggestion
that learning, understanding, and experiencing nature are all
factors that can positively influence the development of a
child’s connection to nature, here operationalized as an affective
connection. This paper also develops, with emphasis put on the
participants’ own views and words, an understanding about how,
and by which means, the participating children’s connection to
nature shifted over time. The study highlights:
The behavioral setting of the bigger-than-school project
instilled a sense of pride and responsibility.
Children’s free exploration of the habitat during situations
characterized by unpredictability enriched their enjoyment.
Contact with species triggered direct sensory feedback of
actions and enabled significant experiences.
Significant experiences when developing sympathy in the
process of going from viewing species as ‘yucky’ to viewing
them as ‘sweet.’
Experiences were intertwined with learning about
endangered species and their habitat.
Sixth graders observed salamanders even 2-years after
participating in the project.
The affective relationships that the children formed with the
salamander species and with nature in an open-ended sense,
seemed to have emanated from whole and authentic situations
that granted the children immediate feedback about the effects
of their actions when saving the lives of trapped animals.
Such situations triggered positive interactive feedback cycles of
direct sensory interaction, experiential feedback as well as social
feedback about the effects of actions, increased understanding,
and development of new skills for dynamically exploring further
ways of saving species—self-reported to generate significant and
fun experiences. These complex and relational dynamics between
mind, body, culture and the environment have been reported
elsewhere (Kyttä, 2002, 2004;Raymond et al., 2017), but not often
in the context of children’s conservation of protected species
inside an urban landscape.
ETHICS STATEMENT
Ethical implications of this study were carefully considered prior
to fieldwork. Although the topic is not deemed to be of a sensitive
nature, the study involved children and therefore followed
specific guidelines relating to researching children (Graue and
Walsh, 1998; The Research Ethics Guidebook, 2014; UNICEF
guidelines for interviewing children, 2014). Furthermore, an
ethical review of the research project was carried out by education
staff of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University as
a requirement. The protocol was approved by them.
All subjects gave written informed consent in accordance with
the Declaration of Helsinki. Firstly, background police checks
were provided to all schools involved once relevant teachers
and/or principals had agreed to participate in the study. Secondly,
an information letter and a consent form were sent out to all 4th
grade students’ and 6th grade students parents/caregivers. The
letter explained what the study involved, the terms of student
confidentiality and anonymity, as well as how the data would be
handled. Consent was asked for their child’s participation in both:
(1) the classroom sessions and (2) recorded interviews where
quotes could be used. Fieldwork commenced only once consent
forms were collected and involved only those students whose
caregivers had given consent.
Participants were met at all times with respect and study
methods were adapted to the specific age groups and chosen so as
to be fun and engaging activities in a familiar atmosphere (their
school). Before being interviewed, students were explained that
their participation was fully voluntary and that they didn’t have
to answers questions if they chose not to. They were encouraged
to ask questions and were explained both prior to the classroom
sessions and interviews that there were no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’
answers but that we were instead interested in their personal
views and feelings.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
SBa was the project leader and the corresponding author. SBe did
most of the field-work and did together with SBa most of the
writing. MG participated in some of the early field work 2015,
and he contributed with discussing the theoretical view-points
together with CR.
FUNDING
This study was supported by ZEUS Spatial and Experiential
Analyzes for Urban Social Sustainability. FORMAS, Dnr: 2016-
01193.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to all children, parents, and teachers of Olovslund
School in Bromma who shared their experiences with us. We
thank the Formas supported project called ZEUS (ref no.: 2016-
01193) of which the results herein are a part. We thank Prof.
Patrik Sörqvist for advice. We would also like to thank the
University of Gävle, the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and the
Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics for funding part of this
work.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found
online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.
2018.00928/full#supplementary-material
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 12 June 2018 | Volume 9 | Article 928
fpsyg-09-00928 June 7, 2018 Time: 18:54 # 13
Barthel et al. Saving Salamanders at School
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Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors declare that the research was
conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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... Previous research suggested that connection to nature begins to develop as early as childhood (Chawla, 2020;Cheng & Monroe, 2012;Hughes et al., 2019) and that direct contact with the outdoors guided by nature programs is instrumental in developing these connections over time (Cleary et al., 2020;Kals et al., 1999;Larson et al., 2019). For example, using salamanders as a focal species in a local conservation program, Barthel et al. (2018) found that hands-on interactions with wildlife, coupled with lessons on conservation issues, helped primary school children build their connection to nature during the program as well as retain positive memories of the experience after two years. These authors emphasized the power of authenticity and firsthand sensory contact with wildlife species to spark learning and deepen connections with amphibians and their habitats. ...
... These results demonstrate that mistnetting birds, which is a commonly used avian ecological research and outreach tool, was effective in forming and stimulating the bonds between children and birds as well as nature more broadly. This finding aligns with previous research on the formative impacts of direct exposure to non-human species (Barthel et al., 2018;Cho & Lee, 2018). The sensory stimuli provided by bird handling likely played a crucial role in fostering affective relationships with birds and nature, which highlights the utility of the mist-netting method for creating hands-on wildlife experiences (Şekercioĝlu, 2012;Trombulak, 2009). ...
... Also, anecdotally, several children challenged themselves in the post-program survey to share newly learned knowledge by offering responses beyond what was already shared during the pre-program survey, which may have affected the cumulative learning outcomes that we observed on site. While our program was beneficial from an educational standpoint in that it encouraged intrinsic motivation for learning about environmental conservation through authentic experiences (Barthel et al., 2018), children's intellectual growth was not illustrated by changes in bird knowledge. Another possible reason children's bird knowledge did not increase was that our program emphasized the kinesthetic benefits of bird handling more than learning avian facts. ...
... Admittedly, our intervention was short, only lasting 2-3 weeks, but it did still have significant impacts on the children's knowledge. It is however important to note that longer interventions could have stronger effects (Barthel et al., 2018). At the same time, longer interventions require more teaching time to be invested and could thus potentially bias the participating classes to schools already interested in nature-based teaching (Beck et al., 2001;Giusti, 2019;White et al., 2018). ...