Fostering relationships between elementary students and the more-than-human world using movement and stillness

Abstract

We join scholars who criticize the Western separation of humans and the more-than-human (MtH) and believe that an emphasis on the MtH within students’ local community is supported by repeated exposure. We take an ethnographic approach to study a collaborative program between a university, a local nonprofit, and a US public elementary school that organizes field trips to a local arboretum three times per year, over students’ elementary career. We share longitudinal ethnographic data over four years, following the first cohort from K-4th grade, describing ways in which students appear to connect with the MtH. We propose a construct for building connection to the MtH that includes a balance between aspects and activities we call “Movement” and those we call “Stillness.” We suggest that shifting between movement and stillness requires scaffolded, embodied practice. We propose that including movement and stillness aspects in EE, when scaffolded over time, can help foster children’s connections to the MtH in their community.

Keywords:

• elementary
• longitudinal
• more-than-human
• outdoor education
• public schools