Field visiting attentively with the wisdom of Pooh Bear (and friends)
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Field visiting attentively with the wisdom of Pooh Bear… (and friends)
@Attention2Place
#GAConf21
#fieldvisiting
Or … A lively workshop, in which
Helen Clarke, Sharon Witt and some of their friends go
‘visiting’ the Geographical Association E–Conference … April 2021
Welcome …
Entrances should
entrance. From
garden gates to
opening lines in a
book, openings
should take
readers … into new
worlds. They draw
us in and take us
on new journeys of
the mind’
(Aalto, 2015: 94).
On this journey, in our virtual space, we aim to: • attend to and with the everyday • propose a shift FROM fieldwork TO field visiting as curious practice • explore how to respond with the more-than-human world • demonstrate compassionate field visiting • share enquiry ideas for place, landscapes, and belonging • be guided by Winnie the Pooh and his friends.
Come along with us for an Adventure…
‘Christopher Robin was
putting on his Big Boots.
When he saw the Big
Boots, Pooh knew that an
Adventure was going to
happen, and he brushed
the honey off his nose with
the back of his paw and
spruced himself up so as to
look Ready for Anything.’ Winnie the Pooh
Written by A.A.Milne and illustrated by E.H. Shepherd
A Curriculum Adventure! With a focus on the everyday
local:
The National Curriculum for England:
Geography (DfE 2013) • Locational knowledge –
characteristics of place,
A high-quality geography features, contextual
education should inspire in information
pupils a curiosity and • Place knowledge – real and
fascination about the world special places
and its people that will • Human/Physical Geography
remain with them for the rest – features and vocabulary
of their lives (DfE, 2013). (river, forest, soil, weather,
house…)
• Fieldwork and geographical
skills - maps & photos,
directions, skills of
observe/measure/record/pr
Curiosity always leads its practitioners a bit too far off esent, response,
the path, and that way lie stories (Haraway, 2015: 5-6). stewardship
‘More-than’ the Wisdom is more than the product of
accumulated knowledge,
National Curriculum it is ‘an activity of knowing’
Experiences that open fieldwork spaces, (Hart,2001:7)
where children come into relations with
the world, deepen understanding and
develop intimate connections with the
everyday local.
Winnie the Pooh … Imaginative tales in real places The stories started close to home – with a walnut tree in Milnes’s garden (Aalto, 2015:95). • 1924 When We Were Very Young • 1926 Winnie the Pooh • 1927 Now We Are Six • 1928 The House at Pooh Corner • 1966 Disney … • 2020 Dolan, A. Winnie the Pooh: inspiration for geographical and outdoor learning, In Touch April 2020, 49-50
In the company of
characters
Characters:
• connect children &
teachers with the intricacies
of their local place
• animate children’s real
world geographic
encounters
• inspire opportunities for
lively, spirited enquiry
• develop alternative
perspectives and offer
different views ‘From beloved blankets to threadbare stuffed animals,
• extend observation skills. children – in Western cultures especially –carry and caress
soft objects for comfort and for play’ (Aalto, 2015: 112).
Characterful, imaginative geographical learning Children’s geographers should acknowledge the importance of play and be more playful in academic work themselves (Woodyer, 2012). Playfulness involves paying attention, deepening understanding, strengthening geographical awareness and fostering ethics and care (Pyyry, 2013). Cuddly toys are examples of material and popular cultures which are not written about by children’s geographers … yet have importance in the everyday lives of children (Horton, 2015; Woodyer, 2018).
Location: Ashdown Forest, East Sussex.
A map of
Hundred Acre
Wood
Use directional,
locational and place
specific vocabulary
Winnie the Pooh Written by A.A.Milne and illustrated by E.H. ShepherdWhere in your local area? Create a map inspired by E. H. Shepherd • The North (Pole) • Bees? • Big stones and Rox! • Friends’ houses (real or imagined)? • Raletions houses ! • A floody place ? • Boggy places • A nice place for picknicks? • A gloomy place • A river ? A wood? • A place to play? • A trap for Heffalumps? • A place where the Woozle wasn’t!
OWL
EEYORE MAPS AND PATHS
SPECIAL PLACES Maps , directions
Is a place-maker of dens, aerial views
he loves corners and
gloomy places
PIGLET
POOH SMALL WORLDS
HUNTING GATHERING Finds small worlds to
Loves collecting, play in, curates tiny
foraging, helping, sharing things
RABBIT TIGGER
ANIMAL ALLIES ADVENTURE
Has many relations and Moving around- jump
friends, he understands scamper balance, climb
communities slide
KANGA & ROO
Sobel’s 7 Design Principles for Children and Nature FANTASY AND IMAGINATION
… adapted for Winnie the Pooh (Clarke & Witt 2021) Places to play, childhood, stories and
puppetsPooh loves adventures… Piglet is curious …
Eeyore loves place-making…
Tigger likes to bounce and
take a bird’s eye view ….Kanga keeps her feet on the
ground for baby Roo
Rabbit digs and burrows
underground …And you? Owl takes a different view
Triangulation pillars are always fun … just because!
In which Pooh and friends
visit the South Downs…
Adapt deep mapping ideas for your location, for your contexts
and for the everyday experiences of your childrenIn which Pooh and friends stay local and find everyday
curiosities in … Knowle VillageIn which Pooh and friends visit…
Lee-on-Solent
and they ponder seascapesIn which Pooh and friends visit someone else’s forest …
and compare what’s differentIn which Pooh and friends discover what’s under their feet and explore geology
In which Pooh and friends watch as a river flows by … …
In which Pooh and friends make connections between
local and global eventsIn which Pooh and friends share an
Expotition to the North Pole … with
student teachers
• Getting our bearings and using maps
• Thinking about why every primary child should climb a hill
(Jeremy Krause)
• Coming to know the features of chalk landscapes
• Playing Pooh Sticks to observe river flow
• Place-making - finding Eeyore's gloomy place
• Getting to know each other with a picnic and honey biscuitsTo be compassionate is to feel deeply for
other beings (and more than human kin)
… resilience, wellbeing
To be compassionate is not just to care,
but to show that you care (about and with
the world)
Compassionate … reciprocity, gratitude, non-colonising,
geographies… non-exploitative
AND To be compassionate is to be empathetic
compassionate (in relation with the world)
geographers … tolerance, individuality, uniqueness
Piglet: ‘The things that make me different
are the things that make me’ (Milne)Response-ability
re-tuning one’s ability to sense
and respond
Responsible,
responsive, we are all response-able in
AND different ways
response-able
response-abilities are
geographers strengthened in stories
after Haraway (2015)From
curriculum fieldwork
To
Field-visiting
Field-visiting –
Compassionate, expansive, generative, curious
practices
response-able
geographers ... • Attending & attuning
• Thinking-with, in collective relations
• Slowing down, being polite
Field-visiting • Being open to possibilities
• Asking interesting questions
• Responding and creating stories
after Haraway (2015)
with placeRabbit stopped and listened …‘and
everything stopped and listened with
him..’
‘And Tigger, who had been hiding behind
trees and jumping out on Pooh’s shadow
when it wasn’t looking …’
Field-visiting with
Pooh and friends ‘The wind had dropped, and the snow,
tired of rushing round in circles trying to
catch itself up, now fluttered gently down
until it found a place on which to rest…’
A.A. MilneLandscape Wisdom:
Attending &
attuningEmbodied knowing… moving through a landscape Can you spot: • Owl flying? • Tigger bouncing? • Kanga jumping? • Winnie the Pooh ambling and looking up for honey?
Landscape Wisdom: Thinking-with, in collective relations
finding, curating, the fascinating in the mundane #fortheloveoftinythings
• Noticing the material elements of a place • getting to know whose company you keep • curating museums of found objects
Landscape Wisdom:
Slowing down, being polite
‘Don’t underestimate the value
of Doing Nothing, of just going
along, listening to all the things
you can’t hear, and not
bothering’ (Milne).
‘Rivers know this: there is no hurry.
We shall get there some day’ (Milne).Place meditations S-L-O-W-I-N-G D-O-W-N Soulful geography – well-being
Downland Meditation
Landscape Wisdom:
Meditative, Soulful Geography
Value quiet moments as:
• an opportunity to be with the
natural world
• a chance to wait… to see what
reveals
• a moment to listen
• a time to be still
• a spiritual space to ponder
‘ …a hide-and-seek landscape, with
woods and treehouses providing
refuges and places to be small’
(Aalto, 2015: 154)Landscape Wisdom: Being open, to possibilities ‘A slow and intimate way to navigate a new place, walking adventures, as we also see with Christopher Robin, connect children with nature in wonderful ways’ (Aalto, 2015:13).
Drifting
with characters …
Experimental walking practices
• encourage children’s noticing
• offer invitations and prompts
• stimulate enquiry, to investigate the school
grounds, a familiar area in the locality or an
unknown location
• provide opportunities for voyages of discovery
in a spirit of playfulness
• develop children’s skills as ‘living geographers’
(Mitchell, 2009)Drifting:
letting the landscape lead
#lookingupLandscape Wisdom: Thoughtful spots…
Asking interesting questions ‘Often when Pooh visits his Thoughtful
Spot, he sits down, taps his head, closes
one eye, and says, "Think, think, think."
That is a sign that he is thinking hard’.
From the V and A Museum
Winnie the Pooh Exhibition 2017-18In Which
Piglet Is entirely surrounded by water …
Enquiry :
How can Pooh and his friends
save Piglet from the flood?In Which
Pooh spies bees high in a tree …
Winnie the Pooh’s favourite food is honey. When Pooh
hears a loud buzzing noise coming from the top of a
large oak tree, he decides to take a closer look. He
climbs and he climbs, and he climbs when CRACK! –
the branch breaks. But there is more than one way to
reach the top of the tree… If he had a balloon,
perhaps he could drift up and fool the bees into
thinking he is a cloud, floating in the blue…
A.A. Milne
Enquiry :
How can Pooh reach the honey?In Which
Pooh goes visiting and gets stuck in a
tight place
So he started to climb out of the hole. He
pulled with his front paws, and pushed with
his back paws, and in a little while his nose
was out in the open again … and then his
ears … and then his front paws …and then his
shoulders… and then – "Oh help!” said Pooh.
A.A. Milne
Enquiry :
How
…… can Pooh escape from this tricky spot?In Which
Pooh thinks with other beings
We wonder what enquiries there would be in the beach, in
the park, in the town, in the city…?Landscape Wisdom: responding and creating stories with place narrating field encounters
Landscape Wisdom:
responding and
creating stories with place
creating
narratives of
response-bility
“Tracks” said Piglet. “Paw marks.” He gave a
little squeak of excitement. “Oh Pooh. Do you
think it’s a – a – a Woozle?” A. A. MilneLandscape Wisdom:
responding and
creating stories with place
narrating
imagination
‘Simply, promoting imagination about
our edgy and othered relationships with
various versions of natures – our own,
others and the others ‘out there’ is, I
argue, a pedagogical key to becoming
something other beyond our rationally
assumed and narrow sense of self.’
(Payne, 2010: 296).From
curriculum fieldwork
to
Field-visiting –
as
expansive generative curious practice
Field-visiting
Cultivating curious practices:
❖ Attending & attuning
❖ Thinking-with, in collective relations
❖ Slowing down, being polite
❖ Being open, to possibilities
❖ Asking interesting questions
❖ Responding and creating stories with
placeField-visiting:
You are never alone in a
more-than-human
world .
(Clarke and Witt,2020)Field-visiting:
with a geography rucksack
Attend, Attune, Respond
‘… it matters what stories we tell to
tell other stories with … that’s how
worlding gets on …’
(Haraway in Le Guin,2019:3)Every child deserves to visit enchanted
places in the company of friends.
The Hundred Acre Wood is a
storybook landscape…
Any landscape can be your
story …
‘The real and imagines places of the Hundred Acre Wood are tender
touchstones for the precious time of childhood. Milne’s books remind
us that aimless wandering and doing Nothing is actually a very big
Something for little ones’ (Aalto1215: 15).Contact:
sharonwitt@btinternet.com
helenclarkewin@gmail.com
@Attention2Place
#GAConf21
#fieldvisitingIllustrations from the V and A Museum Winnie the Pooh Exhibition 2017-18
Illustrations from the V and A Museum Winnie the Pooh Exhibition 2017-18
Please use a QR reader to access the files
from the session :
Please let us know if you use any of these ideas in school. We would love to know.
@attention2placeReferences • Aalto, K. (2015) The Natural World of Winnie the Pooh. Portland: Timber Press • DFE (2013) National Curriculum for England: Geography https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239044/PRIMARY_ national_curriculum_-_Geography.pdf • Dolan, A. (2020) Winnie the Pooh: inspiration for geographical and outdoor learning, In Touch April 2020, 49-50 • Le Guin, U. (2019) The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Ignota Books • Haraway, D. (2015) A Curious Practice . ANGELAKI - Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 20(2) http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2015.1039817 • Haraway, D. (2016) Staying with the Trouble. Durham: Duke University Press • Horton, J. (2018) For the love of cuddly toys. Children’s Geographies https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2018.1457735 • Milne, A.A. (1926) Winnie-the-Pooh London: Methuen & Co. • Mitchell, D. (2009) Living Geography. Cambridge: Chris Kington Publishers • Payne, P. (2010) Remarkable-tracking, experiential education of the ecological imagination. Environmental Education Research, Vol.16, Nos.3-4, 295-310 • Pyyry, N. (2016) Learning with the city via enchantment: photo-walks as creative encounters. Discourse – Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37:1, 102-115 • Sobel, D. (2008) Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators. Portland: Stenhouse • Woodyer, T. (2018) The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers. Children’s Geographies, 16:4 465-469
You can also read
