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An investigation into adolescents’ perceptions and experiences with nature revealed that some urban youth view nature as a threatening place. A place where crimes occur and where trees hide the activities of criminals.

Sound extreme?

Read on.

Arjen E. J. Wals provides extensive background into this observation and others in Nobody Planted it, it Just Grew! Young Adolescents’ Perceptions and Experiences of Nature in the Context of Urban Environmental Education.

The perception that nature is a threatening place was uncovered when Wals interviewed students from four classes at four different middle schools in and around Detroit, Michigan. Wals’ study included students from four different communities. The communities represented in this study include upper-class families whose children attend private schools, middle- and working-class families whose children attend suburban schools, and working-class and “out of work” families whose children attend schools in Detroit (Wals, 1994). The student populations at these schools ranged from almost all-white in the suburban schools to almost all-African-American in the Detroit schools. The locations of the schools ranged from a park-like setting for the private school to “a bunker in an urban war zone” (Wals, 1994) for one of the Detroit schools. The schools shared the same curriculum, however the Detroit schools were not as well equipped, had to spend time on safety issues, had to spend time performing tasks normally completed by parents and guardians and had to spend time teaching basic skills before students dropped out of school (Wals, 1994). This study included students who considered themselves fortunate to be living in safe neighborhoods and students who mostly used the outdoors “to get from one place to another” (Wals, 1994). For more information about the students and the urban environments involved in this project, read Wals (1994).

Arjen Wals created his study to investigate the following:

• Did nature have a place in the lives of students?
• How did students interact with nature?
• Where did students experience nature in their respective urban environments?

Before we get too far along, I need to explain that Wals (1994) is an ethnographic-phenomenological study, not a statistical study. Phenomenological research investigates perceptions and experiences. While students from all four classes participated in the study, interviewed only 32 students. He chose eight students from each class and explains his sampling procedure in his paper.

Throughout the study, Wals was an active participant in classroom events. He observed student reactions to nature experiences, kept a research journal, interviewed students and reviewed their reflective journals (Wals, 1994).

What did he learn about students and their relationship with nature?

Wals (1994) found that students managed to build relationships with nature, regardless of their environment. He found that two themes emerged from student interviews and journals — how students define nature and how they experience nature.

Wals observed that students define nature as: flowers, animals, trees, alive, pure, peaceful, not human-made, freedom, solitude, self-supporting, wild, spontaneous (Wals, 1994).

He also observed that students experience nature as: entertainment, a challenging place, a place where time stands still, a threatening place, a background to other activities, a place for learning, a place to reflect, and as
a threatened place (Wals, 1994).

Excerpts from student interviews supporting the observations above can be reviewed in Wals (1994). Environmental education (EE) teachers will also be interested in the author’s comments about EE programs. Wals discusses his findings and the implications they have on environmental education. At the close of his paper, he suggests nature experiences teachers might want to try in their programs.

Nobody Planted it, it Just Grew! can be read online for free.

Literature Cited
Wals, Arjen E.J. 1994. Nobody planted it, it just grew! Young adolescents’ perceptions and experiences of nature in the context of urban environmental education. Children’s Environments. 11(3): 177-193

Also See

• How do children respond to nature?
• What do textbooks teach us about plants?
• How to connect students to plants through writing.

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