The Possibilities of Topography: Visiting Community Spaces With Swedish Preschoolers
Jale Aldemir, New Jersey City University
As an early childhood education (ECE) professional, I have been fascinated by the child-centered ECE structure in Sweden. During my visits to Swedish preschools in inner-city Stockholm, I realized that the children in those programs are always visible in their communities and accommodated in public places. Such visibility and access helps them build deep and meaningful connections with the social and natural topography surrounding them.
In the summer of 2018, Egalia Preschool in Stockholm welcomed me to their program and allowed me to observe the program’s efforts to connect children with the community. I accompanied a group of preschoolers and two teachers on a day field trip. Together, we explored and experienced the complex intertwining of human-made metropolitan life and serene nature in Stockholm.
Possibilities in Human-Made Topography
Egalia Preschool opens to a path closed to vehicle traffic, which leads to a main street shared by cars, public transportation, and pedestrians. The children demonstrated a definite sense of direction as they walked through this urban design to reach the bus stop. It was clear that the experience developed their skills for finding their way and observing the traffic and its rules. At the bus stop, one of the teachers showed them which bus line they will take, where to get off, and which path to follow on the bus route. He also pointed out the digital display so children could read the minutes left until the bus would arrive.
Upon arrival at our destination, the children expanded their experience in other human-made physical structures as they walked through a community park, crossed a bridge, walked by a marina, and observed bikers, different types of vehicles, shops, and apartments. In the meantime, they did not forget to have fun. For example, they turned the access ramp at the bridge stairs into a slide. At every stage, teachers supported students’ sense of autonomy within their environment by patiently waiting for them to take in the experience. Walking by the marina, we saw kayaks, boats, and people mending boat masts; the teachers and children discussed the differences in boat size, shape, and other features.
The Egalia students have numerous opportunities to develop a natural and authentic connection to their environment. These experiences provide a sense of security and safety as they acquire common knowledge about and proficiency in using public spaces.
Possibilities in Natural Topography
Even though Egalia’s playground is decorated with colorful flowers and shaded by large trees, the children do not have direct access to natural places. Therefore, the program makes an extra effort to provide children with a sense of nature by renting the “Garden House,” which is located in a forested area of Stockholm. As we traveled through the city to reach Garden House, we passed a park with green lawns, trees, and flowers and walked by the river. The road by the river is raw and sided with a hill, creating a natural division between the apartments and the river. As the children climbed up on the small hills, going through little nooks and holes, they were building their upper and lower body strength while developing a sense of belonging to the geography in which they live.
While walking to the Garden House, one of the teachers warned the children about a poisonous weed they saw, providing simple yet crucial information about survival in nature similar to information that has been passed on for generations. Unfortunately, many young children around the world do not have frequent opportunities for such encounters with nature, as they are often confined to child care buildings. Consequently, these children do not have opportunities to learn such valuable generational knowledge, and miss out on many chances to develop an appreciation for nature.
The children climbed through a rock structure, which they called a “cave” and pretended that it was a “witch’s castle.” The teachers mentioned that this place is one of their favorite play spots and they stop here every time they visit the Garden House. This encounter demonstrated how children build a strong attachment to special places in their physical topography through repeated episodes of play.
The Garden House has an adjacent natural lot with untrimmed trees, bushes, grass, rough ground, and a human-made rock wall leading to the forest. Here, the children had various opportunities to experience nature, such as climbing trees, swinging on rope swings, and searching for small bugs and talking about them. The teachers suggested a walk to the edge of the forest, where they could see Stockholm from a hilltop. The children climbed up the hills and went down the narrow pathways through the branches and trees, demonstrating expertise in walking in a forest as they carefully avoided tree branches and kept their balance on wet ground as they went down the muddy pathways. When we arrived at the hilltop, our group enjoyed the view of the forest and the river.
The walk lasted about 30 minutes, with the children observing and maneuvering through nature all the while. Such experiences support children’s physical development as well as their emotional state, which kept their stress levels low and helped them maintain a calm manner.
Social Possibilities in Surrounding Topography
When the children had left their program building, they held hands and walked in a line without any prompting from their teachers. At the bus stop, I was amazed by their patience as they waited for the bus, and their familiarity with the rules for using Stockholm’s wide-access public transportation. They chatted with two seniors sitting at the bus stop with great ease. Because the program immerses children in the everyday life of the community through frequent field trips, the children have opportunities to see and interact with people of different ages and from diverse backgrounds walking on the streets and in the parks; they see shop keepers, street vendors, bus drivers, people rushing to their jobs, and people doing recreational activities, fixing their boats, using the public transportation, etc.
As they group neared the Garden House, the teachers asked the children which path they would like to take and the children voted to take the road with the “cave.” The teachers explain that they use such moments to help children experience democratic citizenship. As the children climbed up the rocky structure, they instantly resumed the pretend play they had developed during previous trips. Teachers joined in the play, sharing the same space as social beings. Natural structures in the topography support open-ended activities and children’s creative thinking; the children often reconstruct their experience through repeated encounters and play.
A clear sense of enjoyment was evident among the children as they moved and acted together, exploring the possibilities presented by the natural topography. Such experiences create a sustained sense of wonder and curiosity as friends shared their discoveries. This reminded me of a comment Michael Moore made in his work Childhood Domain: Play and Place in Child Development: “Neighborhood friends, classmates and cousins provide a social ingredient as important as any physical resource, and yet, if children also have access to a diversity of physical settings positive social interaction can be greatly enhanced, deepened and extended” (p. 16).
At the Garden House, three children would play on a seesaw, with one sitting in the middle, while a fourth child observed as he waited for his turn. They welcomed each friend to their play, helped each other climb the swing, and modeled skills for their friends. Involvement in natural and human-made topography provided problem-solving opportunities for children and encouraged scaffolding for peers. During the meal time at the picnic table, everybody assumed a spot and waited patiently for the teachers to distribute the food. They seemed very relaxed, conversing with each other and showing a sense of community as they shared the food and talked about it.
When the day ended, I strolled back to my hotel feeling dazzled by the rich childhood experiences I was a part of on that day. I now believe more strongly than ever in advocating for public policymakers to consider the “complex ecological relationships” that children start building in the early years of life. Children’s constant contact with outside topography will keep them in public sight; therefore, it is important to push policymakers to consider children’s needs when designing community spaces.
References
Moore, R. C. (1986). Childhood’s domain: Play and place in child development. Routledge.
*The author extends sincere thanks to Egalia Preschool staff and children for this special experience.
