Understanding the Danish Forest School Approach

Early Years Education in Practice

Jane Williams-Siegfredsen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781134887347
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This fully revised edition of Understanding the Danish Forest School Approach is a much needed source of information for those wishing to extend and consolidate their understanding of the Danish Forest School Approach. It enables analysis of the essential elements of this particular approach to early childhood teaching and the relationship it holds with quality early years practice.

Describing the key principles of the Forest School Approach to early childhood, and heavily supported with practical examples and case studies, each chapter ends with highlighted key points, followed by reflections on practice to aid discussion and reflection on own practice. Including a new chapter on the curriculum, this text explores all aspects of the approach including:

• The geographical, historical, social and cultural influences that have shaped the philosophy and pedagogy of the early years setting in Denmark.
• The people and theories that have influenced and supported the practices of using the outdoors with children.
• An analysis of the learning environments, their risks and challenges and what a learning environment is made up of.
• The Danish early years curriculum; the areas of learning and the way pedagogues facilitate the learning processes.
• Parental, political and research perspectives on the approach and the sustainability of its future.

Understanding the Danish Forest School Approach highlights the key ideas that practitioners should consider when reviewing and reflecting on their own practice, and outlines the national appraisals and evaluations of the curriculum. Providing students and practitioners with key information about a major pedagogical influence on early years practice, this is a vital text for students, early years and childcare practitioners, teachers, early years professionals, children's centre professionals, lecturers, advisory teachers and setting managers.

1
The context

This chapter looks at the geographical, social, cultural and general historical backgrounds that have shaped and influenced the use of the outdoors by the Forest School Approach in Denmark. The key features of the Danish Approach – the theory and practice; the training and roles of the pedagogues; the environment; the Danish early years curriculum; the organisation of early years settings; and the research and future of the Danish Approach – are outlined. Each of these key features is developed in more detail in subsequent chapters.

Geography

Denmark is a small country of only 43,000 km² with approximately five and a half million inhabitants. It has an interesting geographical landscape with over 7,300 km of coastline and 407 islands; its highest point is only 170 m and apart from the four major cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense, two thirds of its area is rural farmland. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and is bordered to the south by Germany.

Historically, from the early Viking times (800–1100 AD) to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Denmark’s kingdom included: Norway, part of Sweden, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and, for a time, England (King Canute 1016–1035). It now consists of Denmark and the self-governing countries of Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Social and cultural context

Denmark has the oldest constitutional monarchy with a multi-party parliamentary system, which means that no single political party holds an absolute majority (there are currently seven parties represented in the Danish Parliament). Danes are heavily taxed (ranging from 42 per cent to 63 per cent) but have financial security and excellent social benefits. They are proud of their democratic rights, mutual trust and freedom of speech, and they favour an informal working atmosphere and clean environment. Surveys show that Danes are the happiest in the world – based on standards of health, welfare and education (Visit Denmark 2016).

There is a generally high employment rate which means that parents need a childcare system that allows them to carry out their work. In 1976 local authorities were obliged to offer a full-time childcare place for all children between three months and school age. Most early years settings open at 6.30 a.m. and close at 5 p.m. and most schools have out-of-school centres for children before and after school times. These are usually open from 6.30 to 8 each morning and from 12 noon to 5 p.m. each afternoon (and in the school holidays these centres offer full day care).

Generally there are four types of early years care that parents can choose from:

• Day nurseries, catering for children from 26 weeks to three years of age.
• Kindergartens, catering for children from three to six years of age.
• Age-integrated nurseries, catering for children from three months to six years.
• Childminders, catering for children from three months to three years.

The settings vary according to the geographical area they are situated in, the physical size of the setting, and the pedagogues, children and parents using the setting.

Historical background to using the outdoors

Using the outdoors for health, leisure and education has developed from an informal part of society to an area that has both a pedagogical and political meaning. In Danish it is called friluftsliv, which translates as ‘fresh air life’, and can be seen as following three distinct phases through its history:

Phase one

During the 1700s a change in thinking about being outdoors occurred, from one of a feeling of ‘battling’ with the elements for survival, to one of it being a positive aesthetic experience (Eichberg and Jespersen 2001: 28). Rousseau’s thinking on nature and child upbringing also inspired people to understand the benefits of being outdoors (see Chapter Two). Literature, poems and songs were written eulogizing the beauty of nature and, especially for rich people, leisure activities such as walking and horse riding became popular.

Phase two

By the end of the 1800s many more people were living in urban environments, an effect stemming from the industrial revolution and the need for more workers in the cities. Long working hours meant that while people had plenty of physical exercise, they had very little time to be outdoors. Many factory owners, rich landowners and trade unions arranged annual day trips for workers and their families to spend time in natural surroundings and found that these visits relieved the everyday stresses and strains of long working hours indoors. Health experts began to use the outdoors to help alleviate the illnesses brought on by an increasingly industrialised ‘indoor’ society. Outdoor sanatoriums and kindergartens were established so that patients and young children could have fresh air, peace in nature, and enjoy more hygienic living conditions.

Froebel’s first kindergarten in Germany in 1840 inspired Danish headmaster Søren Sørensen to open a ‘play and preparatory’ school in 1854. He wrote: ‘Children at the ages of four and five should not be imprisoned in a dirty airless schoolroom, at such a young age they should have play and movement, especially in the fresh air’ (Sigsgaard 1978: 40).

In 1901 Sofus Bagger, together with his wife Hedevig, started the first folkebørnehave (public kindergarten for ‘ordinary working people’). Bagger was very interested in school playgrounds and school gardens, and the folkebørnehave had hens, geese, ducks and large digging areas for the children to work and play in, as he felt these things gave city children more experiences of nature and natural things.

In 1943 John Bertelsen, one of the first trained male kindergarten pedagogues, started an adventure playground in Emdrup Banke in Copenhagen. He called this a ‘junk’ playground, full of old wood, tools and recycled materials for the children to construct and play with. Bertelsen laid the first foundations for ‘playground pedagogy’ that has been copied and developed around the world (Sigsgaard 1978: 115).

In 1952 a pedagogue named Ella Flatau started a vandrebørnehave (wandering kindergarten), where the children assembled at a meeting point each morning and would go off into the woods and fields for the day. At the end of the day they would assemble again at the meeting point for the parents to collect them. Later, a cabin structure was built as a meeting point and became the first nature kindergarten (Bentsen, Andkjær and Ejbye-Ernst 2009: 30).

Phase three

The 1970s energy crisis increased people’s interest in nature, firstly in the natural and political forces affecting the supply of, and demand for oil, and, secondly, a realisation of man’s dependency on nature. These factors led to the recognition of the need to be more environmentally aware.

From the 1970s to the present day there has been even more focus upon nature and the environment. Through changes in patterns of work and working conditions, together with the knowledge we have about the health and educational benefits of being active outdoors, people have started using natural environments to a greater extent. Denmark takes a progressive stance on environmental preservation and rates highly in the world for ‘green living’.

The Danish Forest School Approach

The term ‘Forest School’ was created to describe the Danish practice of children in early years settings using the outdoors every day, all year round, as part of their pre-school education.

This practice of using the outdoors as a part of the education (and allround child development) process is not a new phenomenon in Denmark, it has been the general practice for many years, but it is only recently that an interest has been taken in understanding the benefits to children of being and learning outdoors.

The Danish Forest School Approach came about through a number of influences, notably:

• The pedagogical theories that have influenced present-day practice.
• The training and role of pedagogues working in early years settings.
• The physical environment of settings.
• The organisation of early years settings.
• The research that has started to highlight the long-term benefits of children being outdoors.

Theory and practice

The Danish early years pedagogical practice of using the outdoors has been influenced and supported by a number of theories and theorists from around the world including Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Dewey, Montessori, Piaget, Vygotsky, Goleman, Gardner and Csikszentmihalyi. The theories have led to the following seven pedagogical principles of practice:

1. A holistic approach to children’s learning and development.
2. Each child is unique and competent.
3. Children are active and interactive learners.
4. Children need real-life, first-hand experiences.
5. Children thrive in child-centred environments.
6. Children need time to experiment and develop independent thinking. 7 Learning comes from social interactions.

These theories and practice are elaborated in Chapter Two.

The Danish pedagogue

The first training of pedagogues started in the early 1900s and was designed for people working with babies and young children. The present-day training has developed and now trains people to work with all age groups (cradle to grave), in a wide variety of settings. The type of training of pedagogues and the work they do is unique to Denmark; while other countries have ‘pedagogues’, their work is different, particularly for those working with young children. In Sweden and Norway for example, those working with children before compulsory school age are teachers and have a teacher-training background, whereas in Denmark there is a distinction between teachers and pedagogues, their training and the work they do. Pedagogy in Denmark adopts a holistic approach and works with the whole person, ‘head, hands and hearts’. Childcare and education are seen as intertwined and involve learning, health, and social and emotional well-being. There is a high employment rate, with around 90 per cent of parents working outside the home, therefore a reliable and well-trained workforce is needed for pre-school age groups and for after-school care. Pedagogues are highly regarded professionals and parents view them as an essential part of their child’s care and development.

A pedagogue has four main roles: firstly, to create a safe environment where children can thrive and develop in creative and stimulating surroundings; secondly, to be a role model; thirdly to support children’s social and emotional development; and fourthly, to work in partnership with parents.

The training and role of Danish pedagogues is elaborated on in Chapter Three.

The environment

The learning environment includes the indoors and outdoors. It is the interactions between the pedagogical aims, the children and adults involved, and the physical space they are in that construct the learning environment. The child’s learning environment is seen holistically and includes their physical, psychological and aesthetic well-being. The learning environment is an integral part of the Danish early years curri culum, and, as part of society’s democratic beliefs, children must be included in evaluating their learning environments.

Indoor environments are child-centred and uncluttered, with activities arranged on easily accessible shelves and tables. There are quiet areas with a sofa and blanket so children can snuggle up and relax. There are large cloakrooms to accommodate all the outdoor clothing for the children – each child has an area, usually with a picture of them and their name, where they can keep their clothing, footwear, etc. The cloakrooms have large drying cabinets for wet clothing and underfloor heating so that wet footwear can dry easily.

Outdoor environments have large digging areas with either sand or soil (or both) accessible, outdoor storage sheds for equipment and tools, and a large number of milk crates for the children to build with. Bikes and go-carts are usually kept to a particular area for the safety of non-bike-using children. There is a large fire pit, sometimes with a roof to keep the children dry in wet weather: during winter the fire is lit every day and usually the children and pedagogues cook on the fire at least once a week through out the year.

Risk and challenge are a part of children’s learning environments. It is seen as an important part of the Danish Approach that children learn how to assess risks and take challenges because these are vital life s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 The context
• 2 Theory and practice
• 3 The Danish pedagogue
• 4 The learning environment
• 5 The Danish early years curriculum
• 6 Organisation of Danish early years settings
• 7 The future of the Danish Forest School Approach
• Glossary
• Index