Emergent Ocean Literacy Report
How can our engagement and collaboration with children, staff, and artists enrich early childhood education? For three years, researchers at BARNkunne have studied this.
What happens when children and adults explore the biotope between land and sea together? What meaning is created? What sparks the children's interest and engagement? What characterizes the exploration when we emphasize sensory and aesthetic experiences, follow curiosity, and interest to find out and express oneself? What happens when we create intergenerational meetings?
The perspective is relational, and the design is interdisciplinary and co-creative. The vision is to elevate the youngest children's voices in a hopeful climate perspective. The broader context is the UN's Decade of Ocean Science. The smaller context is the local biotopes and coastal culture.
Together with Kunstpilotene, children and staff from four kindergartens within walking distance of a beach on the west coast, and a local coastal culture association, the researchers have studied this. In this report, you can read about children's meaning-making and a theoretical expansion of the concept of ‘Ocean Literacy.’
In this report, you can read about children's meaning-making and a theoretical extension of the term 'Ocean Literacy'. We propose the term 'Emergent Ocean Literacy' to show how the youngest children develop a beginning understanding and sense of the ocean and its biotopes. They sense, explore, and express themselves in relation to landscapes, biotopes, and other people. The concept can inform further positive action on a child level.
The vision of the project was to elevate the voices of the youngest children in a hopeful climate perspective. The larger context is the UN's Decade of Ocean Science. The smaller context is the kindergarten's practices in the local biotopes and coastal culture.
The report describes activities we have conducted together with children, artists, and staff in kindergartens in Bergen and Øygarden.