Fostering Children's Connections to Natural Places through Cultural and Natural History Storytelling

From the Abstract of this article published in Children, Youth and Environments, Vol. 17 (No. 4), pp. 171-206: "This investigation explored the effects of storytelling on the development of children’s sense of place development in a formerly inhabited forest. Six groups of elementary children visited a ten-acre wooded site twice. During their first visit, students explored and wrote about their experiences. On their second trip, two groups first heard stories about site history, two others heard about the site’s geology and ecology, and two others (controls) were not told stories. Data - field notes, solicited writings, and interview transcripts - were coded to yield place meanings and evidence of place attachment development. Children’s initial meanings reflected site features and their activities there. Historical stories led children to express place meanings that were anthropocentric, mediated and bounded by historical conditions. Natural history stories enhanced direct engagement, promoting place meanings that were biocentric, creative, and less restricted by site boundaries. Place attachment development was evident after first visits, suggesting it began upon children’s arrival at the site."

This 36-page article describes a study of children's development of a relationship with a natural or undeveloped environment in the context of building recognition that "children’s direct contact with nature may be valuable, or perhaps even critical, for both the future protection and management of natural environments and for the children themselves....According to the biophilia hypothesis of E. O. Wilson (1984), human beings have an innate tendency to affiliate emotionally with other living things. Nabhan and St. Antoine (1993), building upon this concept, have suggested that direct experiences with nature during childhood may be a prerequisite for the full development of biophilic tendencies in adulthood." [Ed. note: The literal meaning of "biophilia" is "love of life or living systems."] This research, intended for environmental educators, attempts "first, to explore how sense of place was initiated and then developed among elementary schoolchildren in a ...forest setting; and second, to explore the ways in which stories told about the forest’s past human inhabitants or its natural history could affect how the children engaged with the setting and invested it with meaning."


The study concludes that "place meanings fostered through natural history stories are more dynamic and encourage children to actively create meanings and apply them to other settings, while cultural history fostered meanings that are more static....Educators striving to foster children’s sense of place should consider employing a core of natural history stories, augmented with a smaller number of cultural history stories. Too great an emphasis on human history may lead children to recognize a natural area as a potential historic site, rather than as habitat for plants and animals. Natural history stories may encourage children to engage with places creatively, constructing place meanings based upon their discoveries." Because researchers discovered that most of the children in the study had already spent extensive unstructured time in natural wooded areas, they recommend repeating this study with children from a more suburban or urban setting. They also suggest investigating the effects of using different storytelling processes.