Coe, (2016) in her article looks how four children are risk taking and how they deal with risk at an early year’s program that is nature located in Canada Ontario. Her research work is pegged on the inherent drive and natural curiosity in children to explore their immediate surroundings. Furthermore, the scarcity of information on risk and nature based learning in Canada forms the basis of this study. However, the major undoing of the research work is that the small number of study participants in the conducted study together with the sampling methodology used predisposes the study to bias. With a small sample size, the study cannot offer a true representation on risk and nature based learning for Canada. Additionally, by using emergent sampling as the sampling technique, children who have a natural inclination to nature are selected to take part in the study thereby creating room for bias in the findings. The methodology used in the study by Coe, (2016) also involved the students coming to the nature school 1 or 2days a week only. Consequentially, making a true analysis on their risk taking capacity when in a natural environment is limited. However, the forest Kindergarten being the first of its kind in Canada makes the study a novel study, one that forms the basis for similar studies in future. Based on the findings also, the students at the kindergarten took part in more risk taking and risky play experiences compared to other schools.
Forest school forms the basis of analysis in the study by Connoly and Haughton, (2015) who seek to establish how the teacher’s professional identity, pedagogy and their understanding of childhood shapes their perception of risk. The article, however, falls short of presenting an empirically founded socio cultural understanding of the teachers who seek to introduce the children to risk taking in their formative years. A major gap in the study lies in the fact that it falls short of drawing links between the influence in the teachers’ perception of risk and its source. Beyond the social and cultural influences, institutional influences such as the teacher’s occupational identity may have been considered on how it affects their perception of risk. Additionally, the researchers being foundation phase (FP) leaders, conducting the research on fellow FP teachers presents bias in the analysis of the results. Alternative methods of carrying out the research other than the conducted focus group discussions may thus be warranted in order to eliminate potential influence by the researchers. Methods such as personal interviews could have been useful in such as study as Ensor, et al., (2009) observes.
Bibliography
Coe, H.A., 2016. Embracing risk in the Canadian woodlands Four children’s risky play and risk- taking experiences in a Canadian Forest Kindergarten. Journal of Early Childhood Research, p.1476718X15614042.
Connolly, M. and Haughton, C., 2015. The perception, management and performance of risk amongst Forest School educators. British Journal of Sociology of Education, pp.1-20.
Ensor, P., Hoadley, U., Jacklin, H., Kuhne, C., Schmitt, E., Lombard, A. and Van den Heuvel- Panhuizen, M., 2009. Specialising pedagogic text and time in Foundation Phase numeracy classrooms. Journal of Education, 47(2009), pp.5-30.
