If you go down in the woods today.... How does forest school influence children's wellbeing? Parents' perspectives.

Abstract

This study explores parents’ subjective views of how forest school influences children’s wellbeing. Forest school is a child-centered learning process, utilizing trained practitioners to develop children’s self-esteem and confidence through hands-on experience in nature. It offers opportunities for holistic growth through supporting play, risk taking, independence, teamwork, exploration and inspiring curiosity. Literature on wellbeing is substantial yet often contradictory and inconsistent, with no simple definition of the concept. Parents’ understanding of how forest school influences children’s wellbeing may offer enhancement of the current vision of wellbeing in schools. Eighteen parents with children at a local forest school were asked to consider and rank-order statements through a Q-sorting procedure. Analysis revealed three factors. Interpretation was conducted through careful consideration of individual rankings and the configuration of statements captured in each factor array to gain an understanding of these parents’ perspectives. These three main positions were “nurturing growth,” “connectivity through nature” and “communicate to engage.” The findings suggest parents’ views are often contradictory and polarizing with differing opinions of how forest school influences children’s wellbeing. Furthermore, the results underscore how a lack of theory underpinning forest school and inconsistent contextual meaning of the notion of wellbeing may be a contributing factor to these results.