'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

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