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There is a tendency in European education policy to emphasise more and better deliberate learning outcomes. The tendency is criticised for taking an instrumental view of education [Biesta, G. (2010). Good education in an age of measurement: Ethics, politics, democracy. Routledge,; van Manen, M. (2008). Pedagogical sensitivity and teachers practical knowing-in-action. Peking University Education Review, 6(1), 2–20. ] and threatening children's self-governed play opportunities [Pettersvold, M., & Østrem, S. (2019). Problembarna: Metoder og manualer i barnehage, skole og barnevern. Cappelen Damm akademisk]. However, self-governed play outdoors is perceived as educationally important, notably within Nordic early childhood education. This paper aims to contribute to the international debate on what constitutes good education by investigating an outdoor education culture framed within the context of Nordic early childhood education. We investigate the research question of what characterises teachers' outdoor didactics in self-governed play and growth as these appear in a Norwegian nature kindergarten? The theoretical framework builds on (1) perspectives on Bildung as playful self-formation [Løvlie, L. (2002). The promise of bildung. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 36(3), 467–486. ; Steinsholt, K. (2010). Vi må miste oss selv for å finne oss selv igjen. Lek, erfaring og danning hos Hans-Georg Gadamer. In K. Steinsholt, & K. P. Gurholt (Eds.), Aktive liv (pp. 101–119). Tapir Akademiske Forlag] and (2) a relational perspective on children's self-governed outdoor play as a way of integrated dwelling and growth through intimate correspondence with environments [Ingold, T. (2000). The perception of the environment: Essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill. Routledge, (2018). Anthropology and/as education: Anthropology, art, architecture and design. Routledge]. Data were generated through ethnographic fieldwork in a public Norwegian nature kindergarten that emphasises children's outdoor play as educationally important. Nineteen children aged 4–6 participated. The fieldwork drew on participant observation, including playing with the children and on-site conversations. Using the theoretical framework as a lens, the educational culture is conceptualised as didactic sensitivity, which entails the teachers' delicate sensitivity and responsiveness towards children and place. The teachers act professionally by creating unique, thoughtful, responsive, and situated conditions for children's autonomous growth in natural environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many children living in Northern and mountainous regions of the world, playing in snow is enticing and connotes childhood for many adults. Even so, researchers have paid little attention to children's play in/with snow and ice. This paper aims to contribute to the growing knowledge on children's competencies and child-nature relationships by exploring how a group of children build their understanding of themselves and their environment during playful explorations in demanding winter landscapes. The study is framed by (1) a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach, (2) an analysis of selected evocative empirical examples of ways children play in/with winter materials, and (3) perspectives on 'Bildung' as dialectical processes of being-and-becoming. Data were generated through ethnographically inspired fieldwork, including 20 children aged four to six, in a Norwegian Nature Kindergarten, emphasizing children's self-initiated outdoor play as educationally important. The fieldwork was conducted in 2018 during the coldest time of the year and draws on participant observation, children's photographs and on-site conversations. The study is inspired by the work of [Ingold, T. (2011). Being alive. Oxon: Routledge], [Merleau-Ponty, M. (2012). Phenomenology of perception. London: Routledge], [Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates], and the Continental European philosophy of Bildung [Biesta, G. (2002). Bildung and modernity: The future of Bildung in a world of difference. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 21(4–5), 343–351] and applies Ingold's concepts of 'lines', 'knots' and 'dwelling', to explore children's playful movements and experiences along lines in an ever-evolving meshwork. Three themes are analyzed. First, the ever-transforming qualities of snow and ice are discussed as existential materials and cultural conditions in the children's dialectical process of being-and-becoming. Second, the kindergarten's snow-covered playground is seen as attractive and challenging from the children's perspective. Third, as the children increase their competence in the dynamic winter environment through movement, they embody existential knowledge and skills about the socio-material context of which they are a part. Thus, they familiarize themselves with their environment as being-and-becoming winter children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concept 'mutual experiences' to highlight how a researcher's sensory experiences may contribute to producing knowledge concerning children's bodily play in a natural environment. The article also demonstrates how photo-interviews can give a researcher virtual access to places and events where s/he cannot be present. The inspiration for the concept of 'mutual experiences' emerged from three sources: (1) The premise that human experiences and knowledge are embodied and develop interactively from environments, (2) the literature on sensory ethnography and (3) ethnographically inspired studies of children playing in a natural environment. The concept is illustrated through an analysis of empirical examples. It is argued that applying this concept could contribute to a more open, enriched and intersubjective understanding of children's interactive play in a natural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the concept of ‘curious play’ as a theoretical framework to understand and communicate children’s experiences of free play in nature. The concept emerged interactively from three sources of inspiration: an ethnographically inspired study of children playing in nature; as a critique of the concept of ‘risky play’ being the dominant discourse on children’s play in natural environments; and from phenomenological and cultural-historical theories of children’s play and play environments. The article illustrates this interplay through an analysis of two empirical examples, and argues that curious play offers a comprehensive and existential approach to understanding the interplay of children playing in nature and children’s growth. Thus, children are conceptualized as active explorers and playful agents whilst embodying and creating knowledge, skills and understandings of themselves and their life-worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Children's outdoor play and experience with nature, or the lack there of, have gained increased attention among researchers in Western countries. To understand the attraction of nature in children, one dominant discourse is expressed by the concept of risky play. By employing a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach and a triple-angled methodology consisting of participant observation, auto-photography and photo-elicitation during a family mountain-camp run by a national volunteer association, this article intends to contribute to the understanding of children's own perspectives of nature, which have so far only received modest attention. Inspired by the core concepts affordances, inhabitation, curiosity, and 'Rildung, the article investigates children's lived play experiences in nature as a way of exploring their own bodily abilities, while at the same inhabiting and experiencing the natural surroundings in ways that can be conceptualized as (self-) formation through curious play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]