In this chapter, you are introduced to the concepts of experience, learning, and development as understood in relation to the child and the world. This chapter explores how children shape their world and are shaped by it.
Some of the key ideas in this chapter include:
The environment, or one’s surroundings, holds multiple meanings related to the human-made (built environment), the natural world (un-built environment), and the supernatural. Human-made environments are influenced by time, space, and culture as they are created to meet human needs. Various models theorize where humans are situated in relation to the world. For instance, Indigenous worldviews are characterized by interconnectedness and relation to nature while anthropocentric views place humans in the centre. Supernatural elements are those which cannot be explained by scientific investigation and can be seen in historical approaches to early childhood such as Montessori, Froebel, and Waldorf. When materials are seen as agentic, they speak back to children just as educators, space, and non-human animals do.
The field of early childhood education has been heavily influenced by child development theories, particularly those of western theorists such as Piaget, Erikson, and Gesell. The role of nature (one’s biological or genetic inheritance) and nurture (the environment) has long been debated in relation to children’s development, though both are seen as inseparable. Development involves neurological processes as well as cultural developments. Ecological approaches acknowledge the complex nature of understanding influences on development.
A view of development as nature advances the notion that development unfolds according to a predetermined plan. In the twentieth century, evolutionary theories and the eugenics movement have utilized genetics as a basis for marking people from particular racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic backgrounds as deficient.
In contrast, ecological or contextual theories of development attend to the ways in which biological, familial, sociocultural, economic, and political factors influence children’s development and learning. Cultural beliefs, values, and traditions, for example, influences families’ socialization goals, interactional patterns, instruction, and childrearing practices.
The notion of education for development suggests that the environment must be planned in a specific way; this has been criticized for ignoring issues of power and equity. The Reggio Emilia approach sees development as rooted in culturally based values, reflecting Dewey’s idea that learning arises from real-world experiences.
In terms of relationships with the human world, in a developmental approach, materials, people, and space are placed in specific ways to focus the learners’ attention. Cognitive scientists explain attention in relation to voluntary attention and self-regulation.
In terms of relationships with the non-human world, nature-based approaches prioritize human and nonhuman relationships as essential for development. Materials might be derived from nature. A humanist orientation emphasizes developing children’s eco-consciousness and responsibility for the natural environment. Post humanist perspectives contend that humanist perspectives are developmental in nature and universal notions of child nature do not fit with many Indigenous perspectives.
