Environmental Education Research, Vol. 6, No.

3, 2000

A Way of Visualising Childrens and Young Peoples Thoughts about the Environment: a study of drawings

EVA ALERBY Lulea University of Technology, Lulea, Sweden

This article attempts to visualise the way in which children and young people think about a speci c topic, namely the environment. The aim is to make the thinking of children and young people available and to interpret the meaning of their thoughts about our environment. The theoretical roots of the study are to be found within the phenomenology of the lifeworld. The study is based on empirical material consisting of drawings produced by 109 children and young people, combined with subsequent oral comments. During the drawing analysis different structures and patterns gradually crystallised, and eventually four different themes emerged, consisting of thoughts which focus on the following: the good world, the bad world, the dialectics between the good and the bad world, and symbols and actions protecting the environment. It can be stated that the results which emerged, in the form of the thoughts of the children and young people on the environment, re ect a thinking characterised by many nuances, such as clean and unspoilt nature in different manifestations, the need for human beings to use nature for recreation and well-being, environmental destruction in different forms, and direct or indirect ways of taking care of the prevailing environmental situation.
SUMMARY

Introduction This article attempts to visualise the thoughts formed in the minds of children and young people when they re ect on our environment, taking their experiences as the starting point. The focus is solely on thoughts and speci cally the contents of the thoughts. Our thoughts in turn interact with our experiences. It is through our perceptions that we experience things, and it is through our experience that they become something for us, which in turn has an effect on our thinking.
1350-4622 (print)/1469-5871 (online)/00/030205-18 2000 Taylor & Francis Ltd

206

E. Alerby

The theoretical roots of the study are to be found within the phenomenology of the lifeworld (see for example Bengtsson, 1998;Van Manen, 1990). The article provides a revised overview of one part of a doctoral thesis (Alerby, 1998). This part is based on empirical material consisting of drawings produced by children and young people, combined with subsequent oral comments. The other part of the thesis is based on empirical material consisting of interviews and has been presented in a second article (Alerby, forthcoming).

Background The thoughts analysed by this article are the thoughts of children and young people focused on a specially selected topic, namely our environment. Why speci cally should the environment have been chosen? Over the past few decades interest in and awareness of environmental issues have increased, seen both from a national (in this case a Swedish) and an international perspective. In an effort to broaden and deepen this awareness among mankind, education and training are stressed to a great extent, which is in turn intended to increase the level of knowledge and in this way also the level of awareness (see for example the UNCED library, 1993). In the Swedish educational system this effort is re ected in the text of the schools management documents: educational legislation, curricula and municipal school planning documents. These documents stress the importance of education and training for increasing knowledge and awareness with regard to environmental questions (The Ministry of Education, 1994; The National Agency for Education, 1996; SFS, 1995). It is therefore evident that the environment is an area that is stressed clearly and frequently in the Swedish management documents for schools at all levels. The environment should therefore be a topic that most children and young people within the school system re ect upon at least from time to time. Consequently, this thinking should be of interest to schools with regard to their efforts to create good teaching-and-learning situations. It must here be emphasised that `teaching-and-learning (joined with hyphens) is considered as a uni ed phenomenon. Teaching-and-learning (larande in Swedish) as a phenomenon em braces both teaching- and learning-situations, and includes the process in these situations, as well as the outcomes. It can also be stated that the phenomenon of teaching-and-learning occurs in both formal and informal situations, and irrespective of the awareness in these situations. Teaching-and-learning as a phenomenon is therefore to be regarded as multi-dimensional (Alerby, 2000).

Aim The overall aim of this study is to make apparent the thinking of children and young people and to interpret the meaning of their thoughts. The study focuses on the thinking of children and young people about a specially selected subject the environment. To develop an understanding of thinking on the subject of the environment, the thinking is made apparent with the aid of creative activity in the form of the production of drawings, combined with subsequent oral comments.

Thoughts about the Environment Theoretical Starting Points

207

Several of the dimensions which are present in being-in-the-world existence pervade the thoughts of children and young people. How the individual thinks, feels, experiences, fantasises, hopes, believes, acts, dreams, fears, etc. are elements in this lifeworld. These dimensions of awareness become apparent by giving children and young people the opportunity to think and re ect on them, so that afterwards they can give expression to their thoughts with the help of drawings and words. Ontology, the theory of being, re ects assumptions about reality and therefore forms the foundations of present research (Bengtsson, 1991). According to the different assumptions of different researchers about reality, `reality looks different. It is therefore an advantage if the ontological assumptions are made apparent within a research project, since they determine the methods one chooses to use. These methods are in turn based on epistemological assumptions. It is evident from this line of reasoning that ontology precedes epistemology, or, to put it more simply, reality controls the methods. Taking what one wishes to know as a starting point, the method is chosen and, depending on the choice of method, the procedure for the analysis is evident within certain limits. This in turn leads to the fact that the results that become evident are a consequence of the ontological assumptions which the researcher starts out from (see Fig. 1). Therefore, it appears to be a fact that reality is constituted in the encounter with the individual, at the same time as the individual is constituted in the world.

FIG. 1. Model of the relationship between ontology, epistemology, methods, analysis and results. This model was developed by Alerby (1998).

This study limits itself ontologically to one concrete area, namely the thinking of children and young people about the environment, and one cannot do full justice to this within the framework of the ontological assumptions of dualism and monism. An examination of the basic assumptions of dualism and monism shows that these `isms involve some sort of reduction and generalisation within which everything is to be accommodated. These `isms also separate the spiritual

208

E. Alerby

and the physical, and consequently the basic categories of dualism and monism become insuf cient. A basis must therefore be sought in another direction, a direction that leads towards the phenomenological tradition. This tradition, which devised the concept of phenomena, has taken a step on the path towards an ontology that combines the spiritual and the physical (Husserl, 1995; Merleau-Ponty, 1996). Moreover, this means that the objective and subjective sides of a phenomenon are understood not as mutually excluding one another or con icting with one another, but as correlating with one another (Bengtsson, 1997). The starting point for the present studys ontological assumptions is the fact that reality has many nuances and one experiences the world from the world itself, a world which is changeable. Moreover, it is not a matter of separating body and soul, which are intimately intertwined in the world of existence. It follows from this that a phenomenon is also dependent on its context, namely the lifeworld in which the phenomenon emerges. A combination of body and soul entails the concept of a thinking body and bodily thoughts (Bengtsson, 1997). The Central Concepts of the Study: thoughts, thinking and the environment The central concepts of the study thoughts, thinking and the environment are made explicit and de ned by stipulative de nitions. Thoughts and thinking shall be viewed, within the context of this study, on the basis of their meaning in the philosophical tradition (Husserl, 1995). As a result of this the philosophical concept of thought is given further scope than the psychological concept. In the discipline of psychology, especially cognitive psychology, thoughts are considered to be part of the cognitive awareness (see for example Eysenck & Keane, 1992), and therefore the conceptual limits of the meaning of thoughts have become more narrow. This is contrary to the philosophical tradition, which allows all forms of awareness, including the things and courses of events that manifest themselves as awareness, to be contained within the scope of the meaning of the concept. From this it follows that human awareness contains a number of different dimensions. Through their place in the world human beings have experiences, experiences which appear in their awareness. These experiences are in turn requirements for thinking, and therefore it can be stated that thinking is a process connected with being-in-the-world. The concept of the environment that the thinking of children and young people was focused on in the present study limits itself to the natural world, including people. This world comprises both nature in its original form and things and courses of events created by humans. An unequal relationship of dependence exists between the individual and the world. The individual is dependent on the world in different ways, just as the individual plays a role in the in uencing processes to which the world is exposed (Alerby, 1998). The Methodological Basis Since the intention of this study is to clarify the thinking of children and young people on the environment, the focus is on qualitative school education, and, to be more precise, qualitative school education as viewed within the phenomenol-

Thoughts about the Environment

209

ogy of the lifeworld (Merleau-Ponty, 1996; Van Manen, 1990). The methodological basis of the study largely consists of two parts: one part that concerns the methods used to collect the empirical material and another part that concerns the method of analysis. The empirical material consists of drawings produced by children and young people. Vygotsky (1971) argues that art and thinking are closely connected, and that art constitutes an advanced way of thinking. Arnheim (1969) expresses the opinion that visual arts are a source of visual thinking, because thinking calls for images, and images contain thoughts. The use of empirical material consisting of drawings on different topics has been adopted by several researchers (see for example Alerby, 1996; Aronsson & Andersson, 1996; Palmberg & Kuru, 1998; Wenestam & Wass, 1987). According to Van Manen (1990) an object of art can be seen as a text. The text does not consist of a verbal language, but nevertheless it is a language and it has its own grammar. That is why drawings have to be seen as one methodological implement when attempting to catch the thoughts of children and young people concerning environmental issues. It can also be stressed once more that our thoughts interact with our experiences, and according to Van Manen (1990) the products of art can, in a sense, be seen as lived experiences that are transformed into transcended con gurations. Thus a drawing can tell us something, which is going to be demonstrated in the following sections of this article. Data Collection The data of the study comprise empirical material consisting of drawings produced by children and young people, combined with subsequent oral comments. The empirical material was collected during ordinary school activities, in autumn 1996. The children and young people who were included in the study all live within the municipal area of Lulea in the County of Norrbotten in northern Sweden, and they attend four different schools spread across the municipality. The municipal area of Lulea has approximately 80,000 inhabitants and includes the city of Lulea , which can be considered a medium-sized city in Sweden. In addition to being an industrial city with a steelworks and engineering companies, for example, Lulea is the central administrative city of the region. For example, the County Council and the County Administration of Norrbotten have their head of ces in the city. Moreover, Lulea University of Technology, which has its main campus in Lulea City, gives Lulea the status of a university city. A total of 109 children and young people took part in the drawing study, spread over four different classes within forms 1, 4 and 7 of the compulsory school, and form 1 of the upper secondary school. Their ages vary between seven and sixteen years (see Table 1). This age spread includes a large number of the different age groups within the school system and re ects variations in age structures. Participation in the study was voluntary, and all the children and young people who participated had volunteered to do so. The drawings were made during ordinary school activities, and to avoid the pupils in uencing each other when making their drawings, they were divided up into smaller groups and spread out over the classroom. It

210

E. Alerby

TABLE 1. Numbers of children and young people in the studied groups distributed by age and gender. Age Gender Girl Boy Total 7 years old 14 9 23 10 years old 15 19 34 13 years old 8 13 21 16 years old 10 21 31 Total 47 62 109

was my task as the researcher to collect the empirical material in the form of the drawings, combined with subsequent oral comments. The children and young people had to answer the question, `What do you think about when you hear the word environment? Instead of putting their thoughts into words they had to make a drawing depicting what came to their minds. The children and young people were also told that it was not important how skilful they were at making drawings. The important issue was to visualise their thoughts. To do this they could use paper and pencils, crayons or water-colours. Directly in connection with producing the drawings, the children and young people also had to re ect on their own thinking, when I asked each person what he or she was thinking about when making the drawing. Thus the children and young people had the opportunity to give oral comments on the thoughts that they had shaped in the drawing. It is important here to observe that the question was not what they had drawn, but what they were thinking about when the drawings were being made.

Method of Analysing the Empirical Material The analysis of the drawings tried to catch the meaning of the thoughts moulded by the children and young people. The study was not interested in the level of knowledge, but instead aimed at nding the meaning of the childrens and young people s thoughts. During the analysis the drawings and the subsequent oral comment were viewed as a whole. According to the analytical procedure, all the drawings were analysed in a repeated and thorough manner, viewing each drawing as a unit and noticing qualitative similarities and differences, and patterns and structures in the drawings. These patterns and structures were then combined in different themes, taking the common and central characteristics of the patterns and structures as the point of departure. For different reasons, for example language dif culties, four of the drawings could not be placed in any theme, so they were excluded from the study. Thus 105 drawings remained in the study. The themes that emerged consist in turn of internal variations in the form of different aspects. These aspects re ect the great variety of thought within the respective themes and therefore make each theme what it is. Consequently, it is the different dominant themes that make the phenomenon what it is

Thoughts about the Environment

211

(Van Manen, 1990). The phenomenon in this case is the thinking of children and young people about the environment. It is therefore a matter of forming themes of the thoughts in the analysis. However, it is important to stress that this process should not be regarded as being governed by certain predetermined rules, but instead should be dealt with by allowing the phenomenon to appear as it is. The themes that gradually crystallised are made up of the thoughts moulded by the children and young people concerned. These thoughts are in constant contact with and are affected by experiences (Van Manen, 1990). Consequently, our thinking is constituted by our place in the world. Results of the Drawing Analysis During the drawing analysis different structures and patterns gradually crystallised, which were investigated in detail, and eventually four different themes emerged which are described in detail below, without any relative order of precedence. Thoughts which Thoughts which Thoughts which bad world. Thoughts which environment. focus on the good world. focus on the bad world. focus on the dialectics between the good and the focus on symbols and actions protecting the

It can here be stressed that the themes that emerged were not then regarded as self-contained and independent categories, which were qualitatively separate. On the contrary there are connections within and between the different themes. As an example of a connection between the different themes, the connection between the two themes `the good world and `symbols and actions protecting the environment can be mentioned, in that measures to prevent environmental destruction and to promote a better environment are preconditions for clean and beautiful countryside. An example of a link between all four themes is human in uence, which occurs in some form in all of the themes. In certain themes, such as in `the good world, this in uence can be very marginal, compared with others, for example in `the bad world, where human in uence dominates almost completely. In the following sections, these themes will also be described by showing some of the drawings, as well as some of the oral comments, which represent each different theme. The theme of `the good world comprises approximately 50% of all the drawings, which is why this theme is represented in this article by three drawings. The other themes comprise approximately 16% each and are therefore represented by two drawings each. Thoughts which Focus on the Good World This theme comprises drawings that depict clean and unspoilt nature in different manifestations. The common feature of the nature pictures is that they portray the environment as clean, beautiful and idyllic natural landscape. The drawings represent, for example, a forest, a owery meadow, a mountain, and a sunset, as

212

E. Alerby

well as seas, lakes and rivers. But there are also some drawings that represent cultivated landscapes, for example a park or a plot of vegetables. Some of the drawings also depict animals or human beings. The drawings that contain human beings depict people using nature for their recreation and well-being. Aspects of this theme are included in drawings which represent different types of clean, natural pictures, and these all convey a feeling of unspoiled and idyllic nature, i.e. the ideal. There follows some of the drawings in the themes of the good world.

FIG. 2. This is the future

it is bright

I think the environment is going to be better (boy, 16 years old.

This drawing (Fig. 2) represents the environment as clean, nice and unspoiled countryside, with some trees, plants and a river. Fig. 3 is an example of a human being using nature for pleasure and recreation.

FIG. 3. Im thinking about a life out of doors. Im a boy scout, so I usually spend a lot of time outdoors (boy, 10 years old).

Fig. 4 is an example of a drawing depicting a cultivated landscape a plot of vegetables. The girls expressed thoughts focusing on the good world to a greater extent than the boys did. The results also showed that these thoughts are as common within the three youngest groups, with a good 50% in each group expressing such

Thoughts about the Environment

213

FIG. 4. Well

I dont remember what you call it hm vegetables, in a plot of vegetables (girl, 7 years old).

thoughts. This can be compared with the oldest age group, where approximately 30% expressed thoughts on this theme. Thoughts which Focus on the Bad World Within this theme the drawings depict various types of environmental destruction. Environmental destruction is represented by car exhaust fumes, factory discharges and litter spread over land and sea. In addition, environmental destruction is depicted by the death of forests and the devastation of forest land. These drawings then depict the environment only from the aspects of destruction, which is therefore the common feature within this theme. There follows some drawings within the theme of the bad world. The drawing below (Fig. 5) depicts environmental destruction, in the form of pollution from a car and a factory.

FIG. 5. Im thinking of destruction

cars and factories (boy, 13 years old).

The following drawing (Fig. 6) is another example of environmental destruction, namely devastation of forest land. There are not any major differences within the theme of the bad world that depend on age. One divergence occurs in the age group consisting of 13

214

E. Alerby

FIG. 6. Im thinking about a lot of people in the forest, cutting down a lot of trees. Then both human beings and animals would die I think because trees give oxygen specially the tropical rainforest (girl, 7 years old).

year-olds, in that only one person, a boy, was placed in this theme. It can also be stated that there are some differences between the genders. The results showed that rather more boys than girls have thoughts that focus on the bad world.

Thoughts which Focus on the Dialectics Between the Good and the Bad World The third theme consists of drawings that depict both clean and unspoilt nature and environmental destruction. It is thus evident that this theme contains both of the previous themes, in that the drawings here depict both themes combined. These drawings depict therefore the good and the bad world and the relationship between these two. This in turn indicates that the common feature of this theme is dialectical thinking on the good and the bad world. The childrens and young people s drawings representing this theme are often divided up into two parts on the same sheet of paper. One part of the sheet depicts the good world and the other part the bad world. But there are also drawings that are drawn as a whole, illustrating a clean and pleasant environment, but with elements of destruction and pollution. There follows below some examples of drawings within the theme of the dialectics between the good and the bad world. Fig. 7 is an example of a drawing that is divided into two parts, with one side representing the good world and the other side the bad world. In this drawing (Fig. 7) it is especially worth observing the fact that this boy has contrasted every small detail of the drawing. For example on the left part of the sheet, the bad side, there is a motorcycle, and on the right part, the good side, there is a bicycle. On the bad side the trash is littering the ground and on the good side the trash is in the trashcan, and so on. Fig. 8 also represents the dialectics between the good and the bad, but this drawing was done as a whole. It represents a beautiful environment, but has one element of pollution, in this case in the form of pollution from a factory.

Thoughts about the Environment

215

FIG. 7. Im thinking of a good and a bad environment (boy, 13 years old).

FIG. 8. Im thinking of nature and colour. This is much smaller [pointing at the factory on the mountain] than nature, but still the smoke from the factory can block the sun (girl, 13 years old).

Within this theme there is a plain difference between the age groups. Thoughts that focus on the dialectics between the good and the bad world are much more common in the two oldest age groups, compared with the two youngest age groups. In the latter two groups this thinking is only represented by two boys, one a 7 year-old and the other a 10 year-old. Within the two oldest age groups this thinking is represented by four girls and 11 boys. This fact also shows that the thoughts on this theme are more than twice as many within the group of boys, compared with the group of girls. Thoughts which Focus on Symbols and Actions Protecting the Environment The environment is portrayed within this theme through direct and indirect ways of taking care of the prevailing environmental situation, which includes destruction. For example, these drawings depict not only different types of recycling stations, but also different types of eco-labelled products. All in all the drawings within this theme represent different forms of action, the ultimate objective of which is to improve or not to worsen the environmental situation, which also constitutes the common feature within this theme. Some examples of drawings within this theme are shown below.

216

E. Alerby

FIG. 9. Im thinking about recycling. To use things over and over again, so you dont have to make new things all the time (boy, 7 years old).

The drawing below (Fig. 9) represents the recycling of bottles. The following drawing (Fig. 10) is another example of this theme and it represents solid waste separation.

FIG. 10. I thought sometimes people throw things all over the place. It is no good to throwing trash in the countryside. You have to throw it in a waste-container. It is like a box where you separate the trash before you throw it away and then they take it to another place and they make new things of the trash (girl, 7 years old).

There are no major differences between the age and gender groups within the theme of symbols and actions protecting the environment. Discussion It can be stated that the results that emerge, in the form of the thoughts of children and young people on the environment, re ect a thinking that is characterised by many nuances. If these multi-faceted thoughts are to be taken seriously, it is necessary in the teaching-and-learning situation to take the thinking of young citizens into account. To be more concrete, it can be stated that focusing thoughts on the good world constitutes the most common way of moulding thoughts on the environment.

Thoughts about the Environment

217

Approximately 50% of all the drawings were placed in this theme. The results also show that this thinking was more common within the three youngest age groups compared with the oldest age group. This difference might be explained by the fact that the thinking process of the youngest children derives from their own concrete reality, while that of the oldest age group also derives from a comprehensive global view. Thinking focused on the good world is also more common within the group of girls, compared with the group of boys. Moreover, with regard to the children and young people whose thinking has been placed within this theme, one can detect a dividing line between those who think about the environment from a biocentric perspective and those who instead take an anthropocentric perspective as their point of departure. The latter perspective, i.e. placing man in a central position as `the master of nature originates in our Jewish-Christian cultural heritage. Anthropocentrism is a fundamental component of Western thought (Sorlin, 1991; Von Wright, 1995). Within the theme of the bad world the results show that the thoughts of the youngest children focused on their own concrete reality. In this case they were related to the environmental destruction that they had experienced in a concrete way. The people in the oldest age group also focused their thinking on aspects of environmental destruction that they did not have in their own neighbourhoods. They also referred to the effect of environmental destruction, for example the greenhouse effect, ozone holes, etc. However, there are also some exceptional cases, one of which was presented earlier (see Fig. 6). In this case a 7 year-old girl expressed thoughts that can be interpreted as comprehensive global thinking, in the form of the consequences of tropical rainforest destruction. This girl also expressed the idea that it was the material needs and aims of human beings that were causing the devastation of the rainforests. Similar results have also been reported by Palmer (1996). In agreement with Palmers study, the children and young people who participated in this study also expressed thoughts that focused on the effects of the devastation of rainforests, in the form of the consequences for animals. The results also show another difference between the different age groups within this theme. The children in the two youngest age groups expressed thoughts that focused on a `now perspective, while the pupils in the two oldest age groups expressed thoughts that also focused on a future perspective. The nding that young children live in the `here and now is completely in line with earlier research (see for example Piaget, 1951). Thoughts that focus on the dialectics between the good and the bad world are represented to a greater extent in the two oldest age groups, compared with the two youngest age groups. In contrast to the youngest age group, where only two drawings represent this theme, the thinking of the older age group can take several dimensions into consideration. One can also detect a difference between the sexes, even if it is not as distinct as the difference between the age groups. However, it is evident that the boys, roughly twice as often as the girls, have thoughts that give expression to the dialectics between an environment characterised by clean, ne, beautiful, unspoiled nature, on the one hand, and environmental destruction, on the other hand. Concerning the fourth theme, i.e. thoughts that focus on symbols and actions protecting the environment, no difference appears between the age groups or gender groups as a whole. However, it appears that the youngest age group

218

E. Alerby

depicted their thoughts by drawing, for example, the recycling of bottles, which represents a direct and concrete action that they can do by themselves. It also appears that to the youngest children such concrete actions are very important to protect animals from harm. The fact that children, in this case a 6 year-old child, call attention to the situation of animals when litter is spread over the countryside has also been shown by a study by Palmer (1995). It can be stressed here that not only the younger children, but also the teenagers between 13 and 16 place a greater emphasis on the well-being of animals than on the well-being of human beings (see for example Alerby, 1996; 1998; forthcoming). Within this theme, the older age group also depicted different types of eco-labels and eco-labelled products, which represents a thinking that focuses on indirect actions. Common for all the children and young people within this theme is that they all have thoughts that aim at actions. Moreover, these thoughts contain normative features in that they focus on what people can do and ought to do to improve our environment or to avoid harming it. Finally it can be stated that the results that emerged from this study on the thinking of children and young people on the environment show that the thinking of a great majority of the participants focuses on a positive view of the environment the good world. The results also show that there are some differences in the thoughts, differences that are related to both age and gender and are in accordance with Piagets theory on the stages of development (Piaget, 1951). However, the results also show differences compared with Piagets theory on the stages of development, in that some of the younger children in some cases had a capacity to think in an abstract way and also engaged in system-thinking. This discrepancy is the same as that referred to in the criticism that has been directed at Piagets theory on the stages of development (see for example Donaldson, 1978; Wylie et al., 1998). With regard to the differences that have emerged between boys and girls concerning their thinking, it can be noted that previous research has shown that thinking typical of each sex is found in all the stages of development (see for example Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974). Therefore, thinking on the subject of the environment does not constitute any exception to this nding. This article has presented some examples of the thoughts that are formed in the minds of children and young people when they re ect on environmental issues. In an attempt to visualise the thoughts, an analysis of drawings has been performed. One question of research worth noting for discussion is, `How well can a drawing visualise a thought? It may seem obvious that there is a limitation in the real ability of a person to reproduce through a drawing what that person is really thinking about. This could be an evident risk, but in this case it was not the subject of the drawings that was the essential thing, or how skilfully the drawing was done. Instead the drawing conveys a message of meaning and it was this meaning which the analysis tried to catch. Here is an invented example, a paradigm case, to illustrate this line of reasoning. Consider Lisa, who is 10 years old and is instructed to draw what she is thinking about when she hears the word `environment. Lisa immediately thinks about an idyllic owery meadow that has run wild, and there are a great number of owers and herbs growing on the meadow. She can see exactly what it looks like in the countryside, where her grandmother lives. She can even smell the owers, and hear the singing of birds and the bumble-bees buzzing in the

Thoughts about the Environment

219

air over a wild rose bush. Inside her head she can also see a stream and hear it murmuring through a grove. The sky is blue and the sun is shining. How are these thoughts going to be visualised by means of a white sheet of paper of two dimensions and some pencils, crayons or water-colours? Lisa is thinking and then she starts to make a drawing. She draws green grass at the very bottom of the sheet of paper, three owers in the grass, two trees on the left side, and between the two trees she draws a blue streak representing the stream. Then she draws a bush on the right side of the sheet. She also draws some wavy lines representing the birds, and nally she draws a big yellow sun and a blue sky. Now Lisa is ready this is what her thinking looks like. At rst glance it can seem that many dimensions are missing. This simpli ed drawing cannot do justice to the nuanced thoughts which are hidden inside Lisa. But what can such a drawing convey when it is the subject of an analysis? Lisa does not have the capacity to reproduce all her thoughts, which are a wealth of details, with an absolute exactitude. Instead the drawing has to be seen as a symbolic language. Even if it looks as if dimensions are missing, this symbolic language conveys the meaning of Lisas thinking. A meaning that, in this case, focuses on clean, idyllic and unspoiled nature the good world. A great number of examples can be given, but the conclusion is still the same. A drawing can in a speci c way convey the meaning of a persons thinking, even if the drawing does not reproduce the thinking like a photo. But here it can be stressed that not even a photo can depict reality `as it is, since a photo can for example never reproduce smells or sounds, which, of course, is also impossible for a drawing to achieve.

Conclusions This study has been based on an analysis of drawings produced by children and young people on the subject of the environment. It has been shown that the thoughts of the children and young people who participated in the study are well worth noting and making use of. The dimensions of human awareness contain thoughts, and these thoughts are shaped by experience. Does the educational system (in this case the Swedish educational system) provide a milieu where childrens and young people s experiences and thoughts are given attention? Of course the question cannot be answered by an unequivocal `Yes or `No. Instead it is a matter of which conditions are permitted to develop in different teaching-and-learning situations, and here situations diverge from one another. However, one question that we can ask ourselves is how one can de ne a teaching-and-learning situation that pays attention to childrens and young peoples thoughts. As a starting point, the school should consider whether teaching-and-learning situations are geared to the lifeworld or not. In order that knowledge might emanate from the roots of a subject, teaching-andlearning situations should start out from the lifeworld which the pupils inhabit. From this follows the need to try to `catch thoughts, thoughts which can form the basis of teaching-and-learning situations, all with a view to promoting learning. What then is the current situation in Swedish schools? Evaluations of the

220

E. Alerby

knowledge and achievement of Swedish schoolchildren regarding the environment show that they have shortcomings concerning the formation of fundamental concepts in science subjects (see for example National Agency for Education, 1992a, 1992b, 1992c; Truedsson, 1993). Consequently, according to these evaluations, pupils can encounter dif culties in understanding new situations, and environmental problems are cited as an example of `new situations. Moreover, the evaluations call attention to the fact that the pupils exhibit an `everyday thinking which is dif cult to replace by the formation of scienti c concepts and which is considered to be an obstacle to learning. This line of reasoning is not at all unique to Swedish conditions, but rather something that several research studies call attention to all over the world (see for example Driver et al., 1994). Hellden (1992), who has reviewed both national and international studies with regard to the thinking of pupils in the natural sciences, is of the opinion that the everyday thinking of pupils is both robust and deep-rooted, and it is often dif cult to in uence their everyday thinking through teaching. Truedsson (1993), who has summarised the results of a Swedish evaluation, also expresses the opinion that pupils exhibit serious shortcomings in their knowledge of the natural sciences, and, among other failings, that they have a tendency to use everyday thinking instead of scienti c forms of thinking. The consequence of this, according to Truedsson, is that the pupils everyday ideas sometimes supersede the scienti c approach that the school is trying to teach and thus hinder understanding. From the above it can be ascertained that the school as an institution has the preferential right of interpretation concerning the communication of the `right and `best thoughts, and it is thus apparent that there is a `right or a `wrong, a `better or a `worse way of thinking about and perceiving different phenomena in the world. Saljo (1995a) adopts a critical view of this line of reasoning in that he poses the question of whether scienti c tools of thought are absolutely necessary to understand environmental problems, for example. Moreover, Saljo (1995b) is of the opinion that an alternative interpretation of the results of the evaluation is that the problems are to be found in the confrontation between two communicative patterns, i.e. people are talking at cross-purposes. Saljo considers that people develop concepts through communicative challenges, and, consequently, the school ought to nd methods for developing communicative patterns so that scienti c concepts may become both functional and essential. It is therefore apparent that all subject teachers should cease campaigning against everyday thinking, which is not something to be eradicated (Saljo , 1995b). It is my personal opinion that, from the general scienti c perspective, there is equal justi cation for questioning the primacy of the concept formation of the natural science within the school and for attacking the actual thinking of pupils. However, the common feature of both approaches is that they undeniably regard the thinking of pupils as a very important factor for learning. Should we at all costs change the `robust and `deep-rooted thinking of children and young people to please those who think `better? Or should we create conditions where the genuine thinking of children and young people may obtain the opportunity to develop, starting out from their current intellectual capacity? In this connection I mean conditions that would be allowed to emanate from the facticity of their thinking.

Thoughts about the Environment Acknowledgements

221

This research was supported by Lulea Municipality and Lulea University of Technology in Sweden. The author also acknowledges the help of the children and young people who participated in this study.

Notes on Contributor EVA ALERBY is a Senior Lecturer of Teaching-and-Learning at the Department of Teachers Education, Centre for Research in Teaching and Learning at Lulea University of Technology. Correspondence: Centre for Research in Teaching and Learning, Lulea University of Technology, SE 971 87 Lulea , Sweden. E-mail: Eva.Alerby@lh.luth.se REFERENCES
ALERBY, E. (1996) Let a thousand owers blossom conceptions of the environment possessed by some seven-year olds [in Swedish], Lararutbildning och forskning i Umea, 1, pp. 5 16. ALERBY, E. (1998) To catch a thought. A phenomenologicalstud y of the thinking of children and young people about the environment [in Swedish] (Lulea, Lulea University of Technology). ALERBY, E (2000) Some re ections on teaching-and-learning as a phenomenon. Paper presented at NFPF congress, mars 9 12, Kristiansand, Norway. ALERBY, E. (forthcoming) Roaming in the landscape of thought: a phenomenological study of the thinking of children and young people about the environment. ARNHEIM , R. (1969) Visual Thinking (Berkeley, University of California Press). ARONSSON , K. & ANDERSSON, S. (1996) Social scaling in childrens drawings of classroom life: a cultural comparative analysis of social scaling in Africa and Sweden, British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 14, pp. 301 314. BENGTSSON , J. (1991) The Phenomenological Movement in Sweden [in Swedish] (Gothenburg, Daidalos). BENGTSSON , J. (1997) Didactical dimensions. Possibilities and limits of an integrated didactics [in Swedish], Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige, 1(4), pp. 241 261. BENGTSSON , J. (1998) Phenomenological Excursions [in Swedish] (Gothenburg, Daidalos). DONALDSON, M. (1978) Childrens Minds (London, Fontana Press). DRIVER, R., SQUIRES, A., RUSHWORTH, P. & WOOD-ROBINSON , V. (1994) Making Sense of Secondary Science. Research into Childrens Ideas (London, Routledge). EYSENCK, M. & KEANE , M. (1992, orig. 1990) Cognitive Psychology (Hove, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd). HELLDEN , G. (1992) Compulsory School Pupils Understanding Of Ecological Processes [in Swedish] (Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell International). HUSSERL , E. (1995) The Idea of Phenomenology [in Swedish] (Gothenburg, Daidalos AB). MACCOBY, E.E. & JACKLIN , C.N. (1974) The Psycology of Sex Differences (Stanford, Stanford University Press). MERLEAU-PONTY, M. (1996) Phenomenology of Perception (London, Routledge). THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (1994) Curriculum for the Compulsory School System and the Voluntary Types of School [in Swedish] (Stockholm Department of Education). NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION (1992a) National Evaluation of the Compulsory School. Science Subjects. Matter. Report No. 18 [in Swedish] (Stockholm, Liber). NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION (1992b) National Evaluation of the Compulsory School. Science Subjects. Ecology and the Human Body. Report No. 19 [in Swedish] (Stockholm, Liber). NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION (1992c) National Evaluation of the Compulsory School. Science Subjects. The Assessments of Teachers and Pupils. Report No. 20 [in Swedish] (Stockholm, Liber). NATIONAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION (1996) The Collective Support for Environmental Education an evaluation [in Swedish] (Stockholm, Liber). PALMBERG, I. & KURU, J. (1998) Outdoor activities as a source of environmental responsibility,

222

E. Alerby

in: J. PALMER (Ed.) Environmental Education in the 21st Century. Theory, Practice, Progress and Promise (London, Routledge). PALMER, J.A. (1995) Environmental thinking in the early years: understanding and misunderstanding of concepts related to waste management, Environmental Education Research, 1, pp. 35 45. PALMER, J.A. (1996) The rst six years matter: childrens ideas about the environment and the implications for early years education. Paper presented at CEEE-conference, 22 27 October, Mid-Sweden University. PIAGET, J. (1951) The Childs Conception of the World (Maryland, Roweman & Little eld Publishers, Inc). SFS (1995) The Swedish Code of Statutes, 1990: 1051 1537 [in Swedish] (Stockholm, Allmanna forlaget). SALJO, R. (1995a) Pictures of knowledge: on the natural sciences as a eld of education [in Swedish], Praxis, 1, pp. 29 36. SALJO, R. (1995b) The formation of concepts as a pedagogic drug [in Swedish], Utbildning och demokrati, 4(1), pp. 5 22. SORLIN, S. (1991) Our Contract with Nature: on the history of ideas in our dealings with nature [in Swedish] (Stockholm, Carlssons Bokforlag). TRUEDSSON, L. (1993) Whats happening in school? The results from the national evaluation of the compulsory school, performed in the spring of 1992 [in Swedish] (Stockholm, Liber). UNCED LIBRARY (1993) Vol. 2: Agenda 21, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro [in Swedish] (Stockholm, Ministry of the Environment and Nature Resources). VAN MANEN, M. (1990) Researching Lived Experience. Human science for an actions sensitive pedagogy (London, State University of New York Press). VON WRIGHT , G.H. (1995) The Myth of Progress [in Swedish] (Stockholm, Albert Bonniers forlag). VYGOTSKY, L.S. (1971) The Psychology of Art (Cambridge, The MIT Press). WENESTAM , C-G. & WASS, H. (1987) Swedish and US childrens thinking about death: a qualitative study and cross-cultural comparison, Death Studies, 11, pp. 99 121. WYLIE , J., SHEEHY, N., MCGUINNESS , C. & ORCHARD, G. (1998) Childrens thinking about air pollution: a system theory analysis. Environmental Education Research, 2, pp. 117 137.