“Are these girl ladybugs or boy ladybugs?”: An exploratory study on gender in nature-based education

Abstract

In this exploratory study, we examined the ways gender is communicated, experienced, and constructed in nature-based education (NBE), which involved 30 h of fieldwork at one private outdoor preschool and two public elementary school garden clubs. In our analysis of the data, we found four sites where gender socialization happens in NBE: materials, spaces, conversations, and educators. While gender may be communicated, experienced, and constructed differently outside because there tends to be fewer gender-coded human-made objects, we argue that environmental educators must be intentional and explicit about curating and maintaining a gender decoded learning space. To decode gender, environmental educators must realize that gender is being constructed by and for children as well as the ways in which it is communicated and experienced. Moreover, they must be able to foster healthy understandings of gender beyond the binary. Ultimately, environmental educators must sustain a culture of gender inclusivity and affirmation long-term.