Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

'My wood isn’t one of those dark and scary ones': children’s experience and knowledge of woodland in the English rural landscape

Lisewski-Hobson, Vivyan; Watkins, Charles

'My wood isn’t one of those dark and scary ones': children’s experience and knowledge of woodland in the English rural landscape Thumbnail


Authors

Vivyan Lisewski-Hobson



Abstract

Recent studies of children have argued that children are suffering from a deficiency in nature experience. Some argue that a lack of experience leads to poor affective relations which for wooded environments may be manifested as fear. This study investigates a geographical knowledge gap in understanding children’s relationships with woodland. This interactive qualitative study included 21 junior age children living in a rural setting in Derbyshire, England, UK. Most were found to visit local woodlands regularly, though unsupervised visits were usually limited to woods adjacent to housing. The children demonstrated good levels of practical knowledge though explicit knowledge, such as tree names, was generally poor. The majority children had positive attitudes towards woodland, especially those with the greatest experience. Adventure, calm and freedom were identified as major themes. Fear was widespread but rarely dominated and was often associated with exhilaration linked to cultural imaginaries such as computer games and films.

Citation

Lisewski-Hobson, V., & Watkins, C. (2019). 'My wood isn’t one of those dark and scary ones': children’s experience and knowledge of woodland in the English rural landscape. Landscape Research, 44(5), 507-525. https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2018.1493444

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 11, 2017
Online Publication Date Aug 10, 2018
Publication Date 2019
Deposit Date Apr 17, 2018
Publicly Available Date Feb 11, 2020
Journal Landscape Research
Print ISSN 0142-6397
Electronic ISSN 1469-9710
Publisher Routledge
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 44
Issue 5
Pages 507-525
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2018.1493444
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/899685
Publisher URL https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01426397.2018.1493444
Additional Information This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Landscape Research on 10 August 2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01426397.2018.1493444
Contract Date Apr 17, 2018

Files






You might also like



Downloadable Citations