Early childhood educator perceptions of children’s physical activity and the outdoors

The importance of young children's physical activity, movement development and outdoor experience has been highlighted in recent years in the context of worldwide trends of sedentary living, reduced nature contact and risk minimisation. It is understood that early childhood educators can be influential in young children being physically active, outdoors and connected to the natural world. This paper explores early childhood educator perceptions of the importance of children's movement development in naturalised outdoor learning environments. More specifically, this paper investigates how early childhood educators perceive the natural features outdoors influencing children's movement development and physical activity. Six early childhood educators were interviewed as participants in a qualitative doctoral research study. The data were analysed and coded thematically using a perspective taking framework based on Wilber's All Quadrants All Levels (AQAL) integral theory model (Esbjo rn-Hargens, 2010; Wilber, 1998). An analysis of the results of the study revealed a spectrum of views of physical activity and the outdoors of lesser to greater complexity, highlighting differences in how educators' perceive associations between children's movement development, physical activity and outdoor environments