Rethinking Infants’ Relationship with the Outdoor Environment. Reconfiguring Our Understanding of Agentic Assemblage Intra-Action and Place.

In the context of challenges posed by climate change, and the increased attention upon sustainable education, this thesis draws attention to the missing voices of both Infants and the-more-than-human-world. Through diffractive engagement this thesis stabilises binary thinking as it highlights the significance of recognition of the entangled nature of relationships between Infants and the-more-than-human-world. It argues for the necessity to deconstruct the Infant and shift our thinking from the current human-centric developmental approach. In doing so this thesis challenges current anthropocene ideologies to bring about epistemological change. The theoretical framework is situated within a critical post-human ethnography, allowing the thesis to offer rich descriptive accounts presented in the form of what are termed ’events’. The ‘events’ through thinking-with, explore and document the intra-action between Infants and the-more-than-human-world. The research design of ethnographical naturalistic observation supports an ethical and inclusive research framework, it also enables the continuation of critical and boundary pushing thinking (Hamilton & Taylor, 2017) therefore, moving away from the more traditional interpretivist approaches. Post-humanist research has enabled me to look beyond the usual humanist approaches to coding and themed analysis and thus, my thesis blurs the boundaries between human/and more-than-human-world acknowledging that other views hold value in understanding the world in which we reside (Taylor & Fairchild, 2020). As such it acknowledges the voices of those who have been silenced and is deeply situated within responsive ethics. Seven events were chosen from a total of 15 filmed at two outdoor nurseries settings. The age of Infants ranged from 6-18 months. The findings explore specific excerpts from continuous intra-action and that these go unnoticed, thus, warranting further research. Further, the findings offer sites to challenge current policy directions and practice to offer an ethical eco-pedagogical based approach.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Jones, Dawn

• LC Agweddau arbenning ar addysg
• QH Hanes naturiol

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:4278