Playing with mud- becoming stuck, becoming free? … The negotiation of gendered/class identities when learning outdoors

ABSTRACT

In recent years there has been a growth in outdoor learning opportunities for children of primary school age in part due to concerns that children spend less time outdoors and have become disconnected from nature. This paper draws upon ethnographic fieldwork conducted during the school year 2014–2015 in a school garden and two forest schools with children aged 3–11 years old. This paper explores how mud is used to form gendered and class-based identities through its management and social construction as dirt. The empirical research finds that the mud kitchen and wearing of waterproofs worked in part as assemblages to govern individuals and their experiences through the creation of cuts between bodies and mud. Yet, there were times when children’s encounters with materials exceeded their intended pedagogical function and resistances emerged.

KEYWORDS:

• Class
• gender
• governance
• forest school
• outdoor learning
• mud kitchen

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the children, educators and schools for taking part in this research. Also thanks to Professor Clare Holdsworth, Professor Peter Kraftl and two anoyonmous referees for their insightful and supportive comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Katherine Mycock http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5860-8073

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Keele University [Keele University Studentship].