Browsing by Subject "ympäristövastuullisuus"

The purpose of this study was to describe kindergarten teachers’ views on supporting the development of relationship with nature and the significance of it. Previous studies have shown that the early experiences have special effect on the development of relationship with nature. Teachers have a notable impact on the development of child’s environmental responsibility. The research questions were how children’s relationship with nature can be supported in early childhood education according to kindergarten teachers and what kind of benefits do kindergarten teachers see in development of environmental responsibility. The research data was collected with online questionnaire in the spring of 2019 and 36 people answered the questionnaire. The questionnaire was answered by kindergarten teachers and kindergarten teacher students who will graduate in 2018-2019. The questionnaire included both closed-ended questions and open-ended questions. The answers of the closed-ended questions were analysed with SPSS program and the open-ended questions were analysed using theory-guided content analysis. As a result of the analysis two tables were formed. In one table the main category was supporting the relationship with nature and in the other table the main category was the significance of the relationship with nature. These categories were divided further into generic categories, subcategories and codes. The results show that according to the kindergarten teachers there are several ways to support children’s relationship with nature in early childhood education. In the answers of the kindergarten teachers, time spent in natural environments was emphasized. The important conclusion in the study was that to support the positive relationship with nature in early childhood education children’s’ participation must be evolved and the ecological values of kindergarten must be upfronted. The results show that kindergarten teachers find the development