Investigating our ecological identity, invited us to explore nature from a perspective, that can lead to the discovery, recognition, and reinvention of natural subjects. The process depended on our diverse cultural perspectives as well as our ability to create new and different visions of the original subject through the use of both analogue and digital tools. Interpretations of nature do not reflect reality, rather, it unveils children’s perception, offering us new ways of recognising and interpreting the world. Ultimately, our understanding of reality is always the result of a construction process, a detail merging from our unique point of view.
For example, we used digital cameras to explore and extend our youngest children’s interest in a tree in their garden. We noticed the children focused on the tree trunk and bark, touching and pointing out particular patterns. When we offered the camera, one child, intentionally placed the camera closely onto the bark and looked at the screen. He placed it on many different spots of the trunk, changing the angles of the camera as well as the format from vertical to horizontal and back. He directly looked high up at the trunk, lifted the camera (perhaps took a photo) and looked back at the screen. Throughout his encounter he continued his rhythm of looking at the tree directly and through the screen.
The use of cameras not only empowered children to determine and document their own learning but also provided us as teachers with valuable insights into their perspectives and thought processes.
This approach deepened the children’s understanding and use of technology, allowing them to observe, capture, and share their unique perspectives. Our understanding of nature is mediated by our ability to listen, not just with our ears, but with our whole selves. Utilising digital tools allows children to deepen and enhance their perception.
In te Ao Māori worldview everything—living and non-living—is interconnected Central to this understanding is the concept of tūhononga, or connection, which underscores the relationship between all elements of the natural world and our place within it. These principles guide us to approach the environment with respect and responsibility, ensuring that our investigations are conducted thoughtfully and with a deep sense of care.
When we seek a subject for our investigations, we often invite children to engage with nature within their immediate surroundings. This engagement allows children to explore, discover, and observe their chosen subject in its natural context. One such environment, rich in potential, is our “Rainbow Garden,” our vibrant kitchen garden.
One morning, during an investigation in the Rainbow Garden, the discovery of some snow peas generated metaphorical imagination and thinking. As the children manipulated the snow peas with their hands, they consistently interpreted what they saw, creating new images through touch and movement. This process was a playful exercise in creative thinking, blending transformation, imagination, and symbolic language.
The philosopher Paul Ricoeur once noted that;
“Only poetic and symbolic language values the process of polysemy (the co exsistance of many possible meanings) and its remarkable creative capacities to the utmost.
In it, metaphor becomes a privileged language strategy.”
Metaphor and symbolic play require not only creativity but also the ability to interpret visual or sensory signs, enabling the children to develop a deeper connection with the natural world.
Another example of this connection is seen through the children’s repeated encounters with flowers in the garden. As they observed and drew these flowers, their drawings began to show more variations and details, reflecting an expanded perception and knowledge of the diversity of flowers and their anatomies.
The children’s observations merged with their personal interpretations, leading to the invention of new flower varieties and the imagination of empathetic contexts. These experiences extended into multimedia explorations, where drawing, clay and digital tools combined to form a new, authentic, and creative landscape. The children created parts of the natural world in clay and used technology to invent new organic structures and formations. They used photos of their drawings and clay work from previous weeks in a simple graphic programme on an iPad. By using their fingers directly on the screen, the children could choose, cut, paste, move, scale, delete, and multiply their images. This experience expanded representational possibilities and allowed for trial and error, generating a unique approach and original images.
The iPad enabled the children to compose and transform images of their collective work, offering new ways to represent their ideas, thoughts, memories, and theories.
The introduction of projection further extended the possibilities for creating innovative landscapes. By projecting their compositions on a large screen, the children could share their process and experiment with different images. In this context, technology acted not just as a functional tool but as a connector of languages, merging representation, abstraction, three-dimensionality, and theatrical elements. Through playful interactions with the projection, the children explored the relationships between two-dimensional images and the surrounding three-dimensional environment, including themselves.
These creative processes reflect the deeper understanding that comes from engaging with nature in a meaningful way, honouring the connections that exist between all living things. By fostering this connection, we not only deepen our understanding of the natural world but also nurture the children’s ability to think creatively, empathetically, and critically about the environment and their place within it.
The interpretation of nature is more than a mere observation; it is a profound journey of knowledge and connection that invites us and the children into a deeper relationship with the natural world. This process is not just about acquiring information, but about entering into a dimension of empathy with the natural subjects we observe and therefore deepening our ecological identity.
Written by Katja Keene, Bear Park Remuera.
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