Children’s Experiences in a Botanical Garden: Nature of Risk and the Risk of Nature

Abstract

This chapter reports subjective experiences in nature of five children aged 6–10 years collected during a 5-day camp in a botanical garden. Creative expressive visual methods and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Inductive analysis produced three themes: (1) caring, children being positioned to take care of nature and to be taken care of by nature; (2) protecting, nature needing protection from children and children needing protection from nature; and (3) the roles of gatekeepers in mediating attraction to and repulsion from nature were also highlighted. We examine these in the context of sociocultural constraints and invitations that children experience in developing these relationships. These themes are discussed using a theoretical framework that blends Vygotsky’s sociocultural development theory with Gibson’s theory of affordances. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model is used to highlight, in a layered format, complexities of influence that can impact a child’s experiencing of nature and risk. We argue that children seek out and benefit from manageable experiences with risk. This chapter reconceptualizes children’s experiences with nature as being socially and culturally mediated and situates the natural environment in a key position to affect developmental outcomes in children. This integrated understanding of how children relate with their natural environment supports a reconceptualization of development as a series of experiences where children engage in a transactional relationship with their physical and sociocultural environments. We argue that practitioners occupy a valuable position because they interact with all three: children, nature, and the sociocultural environment. We conclude by identifying the need for a greater foundation of interdisciplinary research such as this that draws from areas such as geography, psychology, and social theory.