Emotion map making. Discovering Teachers’ Relationships with Nature

Outdoor education means increasing the opportunity to encounter and experiment with nature, but above all it means rethinking one’s own relationship with nature. Professionals working in the field of education cannot transmit to children what they do not know or share, therefore to foster education in nature with pedagogical skill it is important for each practitioner to become aware of their own way of thinking and be willing to undergo an authentic noological revolution, reviewing their own relationship with the environment in an educational key. Starting from these premises, the participatory research presented here focuses on the role of the early childhood practitioner, the emotions they feel and the meanings they give to the outdoor spaces of the educational facility they inhabit in on a daily basis and share with the children. Placing the focus on the adult’s viewpoint meant investigating their experiences and how these can condition the children's relations with more natural, destructured spaces, and to what extent this implicit feeling can translate into restrictions to their use. The results gathered using two different types of tools, heart maps and lived-experience descriptions, reveal the perception of a profound discomfort and a concrete difficulty in managing outdoor spaces, times and relationships.