Abstract
The Nature Schools movement in Iran commenced in 2014 and expanded steadily for half a decade, growing to almost 100 schools. Emulating similar educational inititives in Europe and North America, Nature Schools offered outdoor educational experiences for pre-school and primary school years, spreading across both metropolitan and regional Iran. Before the first Nature Schools were started, detailed initial planning between academics and the government Environment Department and Education Ministry was undertaken which projected the roll-out of many more Nature Schools. The results of this study demonstrated that the establishment and growth pattern of the Iranian Nature Schools had different causes stimulating its commencement, how these schools released a new pedagogical practice for teachers, children and their families and how this movement offered an alternative curriculum in nature with school children outdoors. Thus, despite the eclipse of the Nature School movement, a longer time-frame indicates positive aspects, including the establishment of green or eco-schools and the institutionalization of the environmental focus in pre-school education. Many educators saw Nature Schools benefitting students’ personal learning and academic development. Political concerns after several years of growth led to some closures and slowing down of the growth of Nature Schools in 2018-19. At the same time, a new national environmental curriculum was being embedded across all age-levels of schooling in Iran.
Highlights
Traditional cities of Iran developed organically and were adapted in architectural style to climate, nature and culture (Gharahbeiglu, 2007)
Results are presented and discussed under the following themes: founding of the Nature Schools in Iran, how the Nature Schools released a new educational impetus for innovative teachers, children and their families, the careful government consultation and design setting up the nature schools in cooperation with both Ministry of Education and Department of Environment support, the alternative curriculum in nature and school children outdoors, and the growth pattern of the Nature Schools in the period 2014-19
The present article has provided a brief outline of the Iranian Nature Schools movement
Summary
Traditional cities of Iran developed organically and were adapted in architectural style to climate, nature and culture (Gharahbeiglu, 2007). Iran’s traditional urban settings had no specific spaces for children, young people could play with their peers in local neighborhoods, learn social skills, enjoy new experiences and have contact with nature (Behroozfar, 2001; Gharahbeiglu, 2007). With the advent of modernity and destruction of the traditional texture of towns, especially high-rise buildings and densely populated neighborhoods in major cities, children’s place in urban spaces is limited. This study aims to investigate the motivations and reasons of establishing Nature Schools in Iran and its growth pattern over the period of 2014-2019, and the confrontation of this movement with traditional approaches in education and alternative curriculum in the area of children’s relationship with nature and outdoor space. The transformation of the living environment from traditional to modern, and the institutionalization of new urban patterns of life, have confined children to apartments and domestic spaces. A study by Hedayati (2018) confirmed this trend concerning the relation
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