Outdoor play in preschools in England and South Korea: learning from polyvocal methods

Abstract

This paper discusses a cross-cultural and collaborative project, in preschools in England and South Korea. The aim of the project is to investigate the pedagogy of outdoor play and learning in two different cultural contexts, from the perspectives of the practitioners. Although there has been a growing academic interest in the use of outdoor spaces for play by children, there is limited scientific evidence of how children may benefit from their outdoor experiences. In particular, pedagogy in relation to outdoor play has not been fully articulated or critiqued in research literature. The project reported in this paper represents a systematic and detailed programme designed to begin to address the current gap in research on outdoor pedagogy. The project adapts the polyvocal methods used by Tobin, Wu, and Davidson [(1989). Preschool in three cultures: Japan, China and United States. London: Yale University Press] and Tobin, Hsueh, and Karasawa [(2009). Preschool in three cultures revisited: China, Japan and the United States. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press] in order to elicit practitioners’ perspectives on pedagogy in outdoor environments by sharing and reflecting on a range of visual data, including video and photographic images recorded by practitioners and researchers. The paper will discuss and critique cross-cultural perceptions of outdoor pedagogy in early childhood in relation to interaction, management and safety.