Children's early engagement in design of outdoor spaces can form the basis of later attitudes and responsible action for sustainability. The present study is part of a participatory action research project in an urban multi-ethnic preschool in Sweden, involving children, parents, preschool staff and management with a focus on improving the…

We investigate the importance of spatial, material, and organisational factors to gendered peer relations on the school football pitch. The study is part of an ethnographic research project exploring the relations between school bullying and the institutional context of schooling, focusing on the perspectives of teachers and pupils from preschool…

Take a selection of balls and marbles along to a nearby playground slide and let students investigate factors that may influence how balls accelerate down an inclined plane. Students can make hypotheses in small groups, plan investigations to test multiple possible explanations and draw conclusions about the importance of different variables. The…

This study was carried out within a project to promote health and ecosystem services, 'the benefits people obtain from ecosystems', in preschools in Sweden. The paper applies the concept 'affordance' to capture the functional meaning that children assign to different material aspects of their schoolyards before and after the installation of…

The present chapter examines early modern schooling in Sweden and more precisely how spatial conceptualizations of the outdoors (with regard to the use of it for recess, physical activity, recreational play, and other educational activities) were accumulated in formal curricula. The chapter draws attention to the introduction and origins of ideas…

Approximately 36,000 Swedish children seek medical care annually because of injuries during school time. The purpose of this field study is to investigate risky outdoor play at the school yard and to describe teachers' perceptions of risk and safety in relation to learning and development. The study includes observations of children (6-12 years…

This article advocates a holistic approach to education concerning literacy and ecological literacy development and builds on data from two different case studies in compulsory school classes in Sweden. The study is built on action-based research and the data material was analysed through directed qualitative content analysis. We argue that place…

This article examines how the preschool child is enabled to withdraw from the peer group and create a private, individual space within the institutional collective. The question under consideration is, "What factors are necessary to enable a child to create and maintain a withdrawal space in the preschool?" Data were collected through…

Starting from theoretical issues concerning places for children and from historical studies of childhood and education, the present article deals with the history of the school playground in a Swedish context. The focus is on a school playground debate in the 1970s, in which school playgrounds were the subject of lively discussion and the object…

This monograph, interdisciplinary in scope, is a narrative and photographic account of some seventeen facilities existing for child care in Europe. It presents prototype plans, diagrams and pictures of playrooms and playgrounds in day nurseries, nursery schools, playgrounds, and recreation centers in London, England; Copenhagen, Denmark; Stockholm…

Neighborhood parks and playgrounds are included in the planning of residential areas in Sweden, but the specific requirements and needs of children are seldom considered. In a pilot study in the town of Eslov, a focus group of seven teachers and planners identified outdoor places which they thought were preferred by children, and four boys and…

This article describes aspects of the environment for children in Sweden and discusses some of the measures taken or planned for improvement. The significance of the residential environment is explored, and the nature of the child care system in a country where over 80 percent of women with small children work outside the home is described. Also…

Articles contained in this first issue of the journal "Child Resource World Review" present information from a worldwide network of day care professionals. Specifically, Alice Honig compares child care in different countries. Sherrie K. Akinsanya reports on stressful aspects of early schooling for children in Nigeria. Sue Owen discusses…