Play in Nature

challenges and benefits for global citizenship

Abstract

In a society where routines are always hectic and development, technology, and work are the center of human experiences, calm, leisure, and playing are common and often even seem impossible. If in the past, it was easy for a child to create moments of leisure and adventures on the street, with friends, and on the way to school, today such activities seem like another world. While we protect them so that they can achieve a participating and active future in society, we reduce their freedom, independence, mobility, and their potential. Children have a real passion for nature, they want the street, the grass, the sun, the sand, the mud puddles. It is not up to the adult to take away all these possibilities, due to fears that often belong to them. In this sense, this study seeks to understand the perception of adults about the contributions of playing freely in nature to the development of children and to the process of constructing the subject as a global citizen.

The analysis focuses on presenting the perspective of parents and teachers on playing freely in nature and its contributions to the child's education. This study was carried out in Leiria region, in the coastal center of Portugal, with a sample of 39 parents and 16 teachers, it is framed as a qualitative investigation, with the semi-structured interview being the main data collection instrument.

The study concludes that parents and teachers identify playing freely in nature as a way of bringing children closer to their natural selves, thus being able to awaken environmental awareness and sensitivity to perceive and modify the impacts of human actions on nature.