Forest schools as a family choice: a narrative study

ABSTRACT

The study aims to understand the story underlying parents’ preference for forest schools in Turkey and determine the reasons for the choice. This study was conducted according to the narrative study model, one of the qualitative research designs. Within the context of this study, the opinions of parents of five children receiving their education in the forest school during their preschool period were elicited. As a result of the analysis of the interviews conducted, three super themes and seven different codes gathered under these themes were obtained. In conclusion, the reasons for the parents’ choice of forest school instead of a formal education institution were found to be ‘Inconsistency between the parents’ expectations and what is offered by the education system, adverse effects of formal education on the child, family ideal, school experiences, educational philosophy, through recommendation and developmental reasons/concerns.

KEYWORDS:

• Forest schools
• school choices
• preschool period
• parents’ reasons

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Berat Ahi

Berat Ahi is an early childhood education associate professor at Kastamonu University and has a Ph.D. in early childhood education (2014). His research interest is centred on environmental education in the early years, early childhood education for sustainability and qualitative research.

Gökhan Kaya

Gökhan Kaya is a science education associate professor at Kastamonu University and has a Ph.D. in science education (2017). His research interest is focused on inquiry-based learning, classroom interaction, STEM education and teacher training.

Deniz Kahriman-Pamuk

Deniz Kahriman Pamuk currently works at the Department of Early Childhood Education, Mersin University as an associate professor. Deniz does research in Teacher Education, Pre-school Education and Quantitative Social Research.