The Nordic forest garden : An educational opportunity for learning about ecological and emotional relationships between organisms

Ecosystem services as a perspective on ecological processes is highlighted in the new curriculum for Biology in years 4-9 in Sweden. The ecosystem service-approach implies an anthropocentric perspective in education and an unidirectional view on the purpose and value of other organisms than humans. This study is part of a larger project exploring an educational situation in which 27 seven to eight year-olds participate in creating mini-projects in a forest garden in order to strengthen ecosystem services such as pollination. A forest garden is an edible polyculture landscape with different layers of vegetation. The forest garden is designed to maximise the yield of useful plants while minimizing the input of energy and resources, human labor included (Crawford, 2009). While planning for and establishing a forest garden there is a need to adapt to specific local conditions. The ground must be prepared in a way that makes best use of the solar energy and waterflow through the area and the plants should be placed so that they promote each another. This demands reflection and knowledge about relationships between different kinds of plants but also about relationships between plants and animals. The aim of this substudy is to describe how the children perceive their own relationships to other organisms, as well as how they perceive the relationships between different other organisms. This is investigated in focus group interviews with seven to eight year-olds. Also field notes, video recordings and photos from the children's visits in the forest garden have been collected. The videos and photos have been used for stimulated re-call (Stough, 2001) in a second focus group interview. The data will be analyzed qualitatively (Patton, 2002). In addition to providing insights about the children's perceptions, the project will give examples of how a Nordic forest garden can be used in an educational context. Preliminary findings show cognitive/emotional/moral/ themes describing how children perceive relationships between organisms.