Tanzanian and Canadian children’s valued school experiences: a cross case comparison

ABSTRACT

This study investigates children’s multimodal perspectives on their school experiences in two diverse, international contexts. The research shares data from 45 Canadian and Tanzanian children, and focused on the children’s use of multimodal methods to share what mattered to them at school. The children’s significant interest in their outdoor school spaces was revealed, as well as culturally specific narratives linked to the participants’ local environments and families. In both settings, the majority of the children valued their outdoor experiences at school where they felt a strong sense of autonomy as they engaged in child-initiated play and collaborative games outdoors.

KEYWORDS:

• Multimodality
• play
• pre-primary
• kindergarten
• outdoor education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.