Wolves in the Amazon? Child perceptions of a distant natural environment in an English primary school

Abstract

By analysing an academic exhibition on the Amazon region made by Year 5 children from an Oxford-based primary school, this qualitative study explores the ways that children perceive a representation of a natural environment geographically distant from their home context. The phenomenographic analysis of written and visual documentary sources focuses on incorporated biophysical and socio-cultural elements. Three hierarchically inclusive ways of perceiving the Amazon were identified: (1) Nature as species of wild fauna and their habitat; (2) Nature as political economy; and (3) Nature as an imaginative world. Correspondingly, findings highlighted: (1) children’s affiliation to other living organisms; (2) children’s stereotypical constructs in relation to developing countries; and (3) nature as a concept that is actively constructed by children, including the conjuring of imagined ‘natural’ worlds. The findings have implications for interdisciplinary approaches to Environmental Education in primary contexts.

Keywords:

• Culture
• nature
• perception
• phenomenography
• primary education

Acknowledgements

We express our gratitude to the senior staff and teachers from the research school, for the approval in conducting this research. Special thanks go to Georgina Glenny for the constant support and advice throughout the development of this project. Our sincere thanks also go to the participant group for expressing fascinating perceptions of the Amazon rainforest. To all the people who supported JARG’s participation in the MA in Education: Childhood and Youth Studies programme (Oxford Brookes University) through her YouCaring crowdfunding initiative, thank you so much for your generosity.

Disclosure statement

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