“All the places I’ve been to [in the tropics] are not really a special place”: Investigating Children’s Place Attachments through Collage and Stories

Abstract

At the end of his book, ‘Last Child in the Woods’, Louv (2005, cited in Kellert, Heerwagen & Mador, 2008, p.154) stated “it is evident that we are at a turning point in history where opportunities for children to explore the natural world, until recently taken for granted, must now be intentionally created”. This statement was intended to communicate to the general public a disturbing reality – the growing disconnect between children and their local, natural environments. Sorin (2004) explains that children, particularly young children do not always have the words to describe what they see think or feel. Collage, an arts-based methodology has been found to reflect the ways in which our worlds are experienced (Butler-Kisber & Poldma, 2009). This paper explores a researcher’s investigation of young children’s (7-9 years) ‘special places’- better known as place attachments, using a qualitative, arts-based methodology. Methods of data collection and analysis will be discussed, as well as results that highlight the potential of the Arts to be used as research tools.