alerby eva - a way of visualising children's thoughts about environnement

8/2/2019 ALERBY Eva - A Way of Visualising Children's Thoughts About Environnement

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Environmental Education Research, Vol. 6, No. 3, 2000

A Way of Visualising Childrens and YoungPeoples Thoughts about the Environment:

a study of drawings

EVA ALERBY Lulea University of Technology, Lulea, Sweden

SUMMARY This article attempts to visualise the way in which children and young

people think about a specic topic, namely the environment. The aim is to make thethinking of children and young people available and to interpret the meaning of theirthoughts about our environment. The theoretical roots of the study are to be foundwithin the phenomenology of the lifeworld. The study is based on empirical materialconsisting of drawings produced by 109 children and young people, combined withsubsequent oral comments. During the drawing analysis different structures andpatterns gradually crystallised, and eventually four different themes emerged, consistingof thoughts which focus on the following: the good world, the bad world, the dialecticsbetween the good and the bad world, and symbols and actions protecting the environ-

ment. It can be stated that the results which emerged, in the form of the thoughts of thechildren and young people on the environment, reect a thinking characterised by manynuances, such as clean and unspoilt nature in different manifestations, the need forhuman beings to use nature for recreation and well-being, environmental destructionin different forms, and direct or indirect ways of taking care of the prevailingenvironmental situation.

Introduction

This article attempts to visualise the thoughts formed in the minds of childrenand young people when they reect on our environment, taking their experi-ences as the starting point. The focus is solely on thoughts and specically thecontents of the thoughts. Our thoughts in turn interact with our experiences. Itis through our perceptions that we experience things, and it is through ourexperience that they become something for us, which in turn has an effect on ourthinking.

1350-4622 (print)/1469-5871 (online)/00/030205-18 2000 Taylor & Francis Ltd


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The theoretical roots of the study are to be found within the phenomenologyof 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 drawingsproduced by children and young people, combined with subsequent oral com-ments. The other part of the thesis is based on empirical material consisting ofinterviews and has been presented in a second article (Alerby, forthcoming).

Background

The thoughts analysed by this article are the thoughts of children and youngpeople focused on a specially selected topic, namely our environment. Whyspecically should the environment have been chosen? Over the past fewdecades interest in and awareness of environmental issues have increased, seenboth from a national (in this case a Swedish) and an international perspective.In an effort to broaden and deepen this awareness among mankind, educationand training are stressed to a great extent, which is in turn intended to increasethe level of knowledge and in this way also the level of awareness (see forexample the UNCED library, 1993). In the Swedish educational system this effortis reected in the text of the schools management documents: educationallegislation, curricula and municipal school planning documents. These docu-

ments stress the importance of education and training for increasing knowledgeand awareness with regard to environmental questions (The Ministry of Edu-cation, 1994; The National Agency for Education, 1996; SFS, 1995).

It is therefore evident that the environment is an area that is stressed clearlyand frequently in the Swedish management documents for schools at all levels.The environment should therefore be a topic that most children and youngpeople within the school system reect upon at least from time to time.Consequently, this thinking should be of interest to schools with regard to theirefforts to create good teaching-and-learning situations. It must here be empha-

sised that `teaching-and-learning (joined with hyphens) is considered as a uniedphenomenon. Teaching-and-learning (larande in Swedish) as a phenomenon em-braces both teaching- and learning-situations, and includes the process in thesesituations, as well as the outcomes. It can also be stated that the phenomenon ofteaching-and-learning occurs in both formal and informal situations, and irre-spective of the awareness in these situations. Teaching-and-learning as aphenomenon 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 andyoung people and to interpret the meaning of their thoughts. The study focuseson the thinking of children and young people about a specially selectedsubjectthe 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 theproduction of drawings, combined with subsequent oral comments.


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Thoughts about the Environment 207

Theoretical Starting Points

Several of the dimensions which are present in being-in-the-world existencepervade the thoughts of children and young people. How the individual thinks,feels, experiences, fantasises, hopes, believes, acts, dreams, fears, etc. are ele-

ments in this lifeworld. These dimensions of awareness become apparent bygiving children and young people the opportunity to think and reect on them,so that afterwards they can give expression to their thoughts with the help ofdrawings and words.

Ontology, the theory of being, reects assumptions about reality and thereforeforms the foundations of present research (Bengtsson, 1991). According to thedifferent assumptions of different researchers about reality, `reality looks differ-ent. It is therefore an advantage if the ontological assumptions are madeapparent within a research project, since they determine the methods one

chooses to use. These methods are in turn based on epistemological assump-tions. It is evident from this line of reasoning that ontology precedes epistemol-ogy, or, to put it more simply, reality controls the methods. Taking what onewishes to know as a starting point, the method is chosen and, depending on thechoice 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 aconsequence 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 theencounter with the individual, at the same time as the individual is constituted

in the world.

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

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


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and the physical, and consequently the basic categories of dualism and monismbecome insufcient. A basis must therefore be sought in another direction, adirection that leads towards the phenomenological tradition. This tradition,which devised the concept of phenomena, has taken a step on the path towardsan ontology that combines the spiritual and the physical (Husserl, 1995; Mer-leau-Ponty, 1996). Moreover, this means that the objective and subjective sidesof a phenomenon are understood not as mutually excluding one another orconicting with one another, but as correlating with one another (Bengtsson,1997).

The starting point for the present studys ontological assumptions is the factthat reality has many nuances and one experiences the world from the worlditself, a world which is changeable. Moreover, it is not a matter of separatingbody and soul, which are intimately intertwined in the world of existence. Itfollows from this that a phenomenon is also dependent on its context, namelythe lifeworld in which the phenomenon emerges. A combination of body andsoul 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 studythoughts, thinking and the environment aremade explicit and dened by stipulative denitions. Thoughts and thinking

shall be viewed, within the context of this study, on the basis of their meaningin the philosophical tradition (Husserl, 1995). As a result of this the philosophi-cal concept of thought is given further scope than the psychological concept. Inthe discipline of psychology, especially cognitive psychology, thoughts areconsidered to be part of the cognitive awareness (see for example Eysenck &Keane, 1992), and therefore the conceptual limits of the meaning of thoughtshave become more narrow. This is contrary to the philosophical tradition, whichallows all forms of awareness, including the things and courses of events thatmanifest themselves as awareness, to be contained within the scope of the

meaning of the concept. From this it follows that human awareness contains anumber of different dimensions. Through their place in the world human beingshave experiences, experiences which appear in their awareness. These experi-ences are in turn requirements for thinking, and therefore it can be stated thatthinking is a process connected with being-in-the-world.

The concept of the environment that the thinking of children and youngpeople was focused on in the present study limits itself to the natural world,including people. This world comprises both nature in its original form andthings and courses of events created by humans. An unequal relationship of

dependence exists between the individual and the world. The individual isdependent on the world in different ways, just as the individual plays a role inthe inuencing 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 youngpeople on the environment, the focus is on qualitative school education, and, tobe more precise, qualitative school education as viewed within the phenomenol-


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ogy of the lifeworld (Merleau-Ponty, 1996; Van Manen, 1990). The methodolog-ical basis of the study largely consists of two parts: one part that concerns themethods used to collect the empirical material and another part that concernsthe method of analysis.

The empirical material consists of drawings produced by children and youngpeople. Vygotsky (1971) argues that art and thinking are closely connected, andthat art constitutes an advanced way of thinking. Arnheim (1969) expresses theopinion that visual arts are a source of visual thinking, because thinking calls forimages, and images contain thoughts. The use of empirical material consisting ofdrawings on different topics has been adopted by several researchers (see forexample Alerby, 1996; Aronsson & Andersson, 1996; Palmberg & Kuru, 1998;Wenestam & Wass, 1987). According to Van Manen (1990) an object of art canbe seen as a text. The text does not consist of a verbal language, but neverthelessit is a language and it has its own grammar. That is why drawings have to beseen as one methodological implement when attempting to catch the thoughts ofchildren and young people concerning environmental issues. It can also bestressed once more that our thoughts interact with our experiences, and accord-ing to Van Manen (1990) the products of art can, in a sense, be seen as livedexperiences that are transformed into transcended congurations. Thus a draw-ing can tell us something, which is going to be demonstrated in the followingsections of this article.

Data Collection

The data of the study comprise empirical material consisting of drawingsproduced by children and young people, combined with subsequent oral com-ments.

The empirical material was collected during ordinary school activities, inautumn 1996. The children and young people who were included in the studyall live within the municipal area of Lulea in the County of Norrbotten innorthern Sweden, and they attend four different schools spread across the

municipality. The municipal area of Lulea has approximately 80,000 inhabitantsand includes the city of Lulea, which can be considered a medium-sized city inSweden. In addition to being an industrial city with a steelworks and engineer-ing companies, for example, Lulea is the central administrative city of the region.For example, the County Council and the County Administration of Norrbottenhave their head ofces in the city. Moreover, Lulea University of Technology,which has its main campus in Lulea City, gives Lulea the status of a universitycity.

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 compulsoryschool, and form 1 of the upper secondary school. Their ages vary betweenseven and sixteen years (see Table 1).

This age spread includes a large number of the different age groups within theschool system and reects variations in age structures. Participation in the studywas voluntary, and all the children and young people who participated hadvolunteered to do so. The drawings were made during ordinary school activities,and to avoid the pupils inuencing each other when making their drawings,they were divided up into smaller groups and spread out over the classroom. It


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TABLE 1. Numbers of children and young people in the studied groups distributed by age andgender.

Age

Gender 7 years old 10 years old 13 years old 16 years old Total

Girl 14 15 8 10 47Boy 9 19 13 21 62

Total 23 34 21 31 109

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 youthink about when you hear the word environment? Instead of putting theirthoughts into words they had to make a drawing depicting what came to theirminds. The children and young people were also told that it was not importanthow skilful they were at making drawings. The important issue was to visualisetheir thoughts. To do this they could use paper and pencils, crayons orwater-colours.

Directly in connection with producing the drawings, the children and young

people also had to reect on their own thinking, when I asked each person whathe or she was thinking about when making the drawing. Thus the children andyoung people had the opportunity to give oral comments on the thoughts thatthey had shaped in the drawing. It is important here to observe that the questionwas not what they had drawn,but what they were thinking about when the drawingswere being made.

Method of Analysing the Empirical Material

The analysis of the drawings tried to catch the meaning of the thoughts mouldedby the children and young people. The study was not interested in the level ofknowledge, but instead aimed at nding the meaning of the childrens andyoung peoples thoughts. During the analysis the drawings and the subsequentoral comment were viewed as a whole.

According to the analytical procedure, all the drawings were analysed in arepeated and thorough manner, viewing each drawing as a unit and noticingqualitative similarities and differences, and patterns and structures in the

drawings. These patterns and structures were then combined in differentthemes, taking the common and central characteristics of the patterns andstructures as the point of departure. For different reasons, for example languagedifculties, four of the drawings could not be placed in any theme, so they wereexcluded from the study. Thus 105 drawings remained in the study.

The themes that emerged consist in turn of internal variations in the form ofdifferent aspects. These aspects reect the great variety of thought withinthe respective themes and therefore make each theme what it is. Consequently,it is the different dominant themes that make the phenomenon what it is


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(Van Manen, 1990). The phenomenon in this case is the thinking of children andyoung 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 asbeing governed by certain predetermined rules, but instead should be dealt withby allowing the phenomenon to appear as it is.

The themes that gradually crystallised are made up of the thoughts mouldedby the children and young people concerned. These thoughts are in constantcontact 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 crys-tallised, which were investigated in detail, and eventually four different themesemerged which are described in detail below, without any relative order ofprecedence.

Thoughts which focus on the good world. Thoughts which focus on the bad world. Thoughts which focus on the dialectics between the good and the

bad world. Thoughts which focus on symbols and actions protecting the

environment.

It can here be stressed that the themes that emerged were not then regarded asself-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 connectionbetween the two themes `the good world and `symbols and actions protectingthe environment can be mentioned, in that measures to prevent environmentaldestruction and to promote a better environment are preconditions for clean and

beautiful countryside. An example of a link between all four themes is humaninuence, which occurs in some form in all of the themes. In certain themes,such as in `the good world, this inuence can be very marginal, compared withothers, for example in `the bad world, where human inuence dominates almostcompletely.

In the following sections, these themes will also be described by showingsome of the drawings, as well as some of the oral comments, which representeach different theme. The theme of `the good world comprises approximately50% 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 aretherefore represented by two drawings each.

Thoughts which Focus on the Good World

This theme comprises drawings that depict clean and unspoilt nature in differentmanifestations. The common feature of the nature pictures is that they portraythe environment as clean, beautiful and idyllic natural landscape. The drawingsrepresent, for example, a forest, a owery meadow, a mountain, and a sunset, as


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

This drawing (Fig. 2) represents the environment as clean, nice and unspoiledcountryside, with some trees, plants and a river.

Fig. 3 is an example of a human being using nature for pleasure andrecreation.

Fig. 4 is an example of a drawing depicting a cultivated landscapea plot ofvegetables.

The girls expressed thoughts focusing on the good world to a greater extent thanthe boys did. The results also showed that these thoughts are as common withinthe three youngest groups, with a good 50% in each group expressing such

FIG. 2. This is thefuture it is bright I thinkthe environment is going to be better (boy, 16 years

old.

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


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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 approximately30% expressed thoughts on this theme.

Thoughts which Focus on the Bad World

Within this theme the drawings depict various types of environmental destruc-tion. Environmental destruction is represented by car exhaust fumes, factorydischarges and litter spread over land and sea. In addition, environmentaldestruction is depicted by the death of forests and the devastation of forest land.These drawings then depict the environment only from the aspects of destruc-tion, which is therefore the common feature within this theme. There followssome drawings within the theme of the bad world.

The drawing below (Fig. 5) depicts environmental destruction, in the form ofpollution from a car and a factory.

The following drawing (Fig. 6) is another example of environmental destruc-tion, namely devastation of forest land.

There are not any major differences within the theme of the bad world thatdepend on age. One divergence occurs in the age group consisting of 13

FIG. 5. Im thinking of destruction cars and factories (boy, 13 years old).


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FIG. 6. Im thinkingabout a lot of people in theforest, cutting down a lot of trees. Then both human

beings and animals would die I think because trees give oxygen specially the tropicalrainforest (girl, 7 years old).

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

Thoughts which Focus on the Dialectics Between the Good and the Bad World

The third theme consists of drawings that depict both clean and unspoiltnature and environmental destruction. It is thus evident that this themecontains both of the previous themes, in that the drawings here depict boththemes combined. These drawings depict therefore the good and the badworld and the relationship between these two. This in turn indicates that thecommon feature of this theme is dialectical thinking on the good and the bad

world.The childrens and young peoples drawings representing this theme are oftendivided up into two parts on the same sheet of paper. One part of the sheetdepicts the good world and the other part the bad world. But there are alsodrawings that are drawn as a whole, illustrating a clean and pleasant environ-ment, but with elements of destruction and pollution. There follows below someexamples of drawings within the theme of the dialectics between the good andthe 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 ofthe sheet, the bad side, there is a motorcycle, and on the right part, the goodside, there is a bicycle. On the bad side the trash is littering the ground and onthe good side the trash is in the trashcan, and so on.

Fig. 8 also represents the dialectics between the good and the bad, but thisdrawing was done as a whole. It represents a beautiful environment, but has oneelement of pollution, in this case in the form of pollution from a factory.


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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 themountain] 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 muchmore common in the two oldest age groups, compared with the two youngestage groups. In the latter two groups this thinking is only represented by twoboys, one a 7 year-old and the other a 10 year-old. Within the two oldest agegroups this thinking is represented by four girls and 11 boys. This fact alsoshows that the thoughts on this theme are more than twice as many within thegroup 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 indirectways of taking care of the prevailing environmental situation, which includesdestruction. For example, these drawings depict not only different types ofrecycling stations, but also different types of eco-labelled products. All in all thedrawings within this theme represent different forms of action, the ultimateobjective of which is to improve or not to worsen the environmental situation,which also constitutes the common feature within this theme. Some examples ofdrawings within this theme are shown below.


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FIG. 9. Im thinkingabout 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 followingdrawing (Fig. 10) is another example of this theme and it represents solid wasteseparation.

There are no major differences between the age and gender groups within thetheme of symbols and actions protecting the environment.

Discussion

It can be stated that the results that emerge, in the form of the thoughts ofchildren and young people on the environment, reect a thinking that ischaracterised by many nuances. If these multi-faceted thoughts are to be takenseriously, it is necessary in the teaching-and-learning situation to take thethinking of young citizens into account.

To be more concrete, it can be stated that focusing thoughts on the good worldconstitutes the most common way of moulding thoughts on the environment.

FIG. 10. I thought sometimes people throw things all over the place. It is no good to throwingtrash in the countryside. You have to throw it in a waste-container. It is like a box where youseparate 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).


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Approximately 50% of all the drawings were placed in this theme. The resultsalso show that this thinking was more common within the three youngest agegroups compared with the oldest age group. This difference might be explainedby the fact that the thinking process of the youngest children derives from theirown concrete reality, while that of the oldest age group also derives from acomprehensive global view. Thinking focused on the good world is also morecommon within the group of girls, compared with the group of boys. Moreover,with regard to the children and young people whose thinking has been placedwithin this theme, one can detect a dividing line between those who think aboutthe environment from a biocentric perspective and those who instead take ananthropocentric perspective as their point of departure. The latter perspective,i.e. placing man in a central position as `the master of nature originates in ourJewish-Christian cultural heritage. Anthropocentrism is a fundamental compo-nent of Western thought (Sorlin, 1991; Von Wright, 1995).

Within the theme of the bad world the results show that the thoughts of theyoungest children focused on their own concrete reality. In this case they wererelated to the environmental destruction that they had experienced in a concreteway. The people in the oldest age group also focused their thinking on aspectsof environmental destruction that they did not have in their own neighbour-hoods. They also referred to the effect of environmental destruction, for examplethe greenhouse effect, ozone holes, etc. However, there are also some exceptionalcases, 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 think-ing, in the form of the consequences of tropical rainforest destruction. This girlalso expressed the idea that it was the material needs and aims of human beingsthat were causing the devastation of the rainforests. Similar results have alsobeen reported by Palmer (1996). In agreement with Palmers study, the childrenand young people who participated in this study also expressed thoughts thatfocused on the effects of the devastation of rainforests, in the form of theconsequences for animals.

The results also show another difference between the different age groups

within this theme. The children in the two youngest age groups expressedthoughts that focused on a `now perspective, while the pupils in the two oldestage groups expressed thoughts that also focused on a future perspective. Thending that young children live in the `here and now is completely in line withearlier research (see for example Piaget, 1951).

Thoughts that focus on the dialectics between the good and the bad world arerepresented to a greater extent in the two oldest age groups, compared with thetwo youngest age groups. In contrast to the youngest age group, where only twodrawings represent this theme, the thinking of the older age group can take

several dimensions into consideration. One can also detect a difference betweenthe 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, havethoughts that give expression to the dialectics between an environment charac-terised by clean, ne, beautiful, unspoiled nature, on the one hand, and environ-mental destruction, on the other hand.

Concerning the fourth theme, i.e. thoughts that focus on symbols and actionsprotecting the environment, no difference appears between the age groups orgender groups as a whole. However, it appears that the youngest age group


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depicted their thoughts by drawing, for example, the recycling of bottles, whichrepresents a direct and concrete action that they can do by themselves. It alsoappears that to the youngest children such concrete actions are very importantto protect animals from harm. The fact that children, in this case a 6 year-oldchild, call attention to the situation of animals when litter is spread over thecountryside has also been shown by a study by Palmer (1995). It can be stressedhere that not only the younger children, but also the teenagers between 13 and16 place a greater emphasis on the well-being of animals than on the well-beingof human beings (see for example Alerby, 1996; 1998; forthcoming).

Within this theme, the older age group also depicted different types ofeco-labels and eco-labelled products, which represents a thinking that focuses onindirect actions. Common for all the children and young people within thistheme is that they all have thoughts that aim at actions. Moreover, thesethoughts contain normative features in that they focus on what people can doand 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 onthe thinking of children and young people on the environment show that thethinking of a great majority of the participants focuses on a positive view of theenvironmentthe good world. The results also show that there are somedifferences in the thoughts, differences that are related to both age and genderand 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 caseshad 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 beendirected at Piagets theory on the stages of development (see for exampleDonaldson, 1978; Wylie et al., 1998).

With regard to the differences that have emerged between boys and girlsconcerning their thinking, it can be noted that previous research has shown thatthinking typical of each sex is found in all the stages of development (see forexample 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 inthe minds of children and young people when they reect on environmentalissues. In an attempt to visualise the thoughts, an analysis of drawings has beenperformed. One question of research worth noting for discussion is, How wellcan a drawing visualise a thought? It may seem obvious that there is a limitationin the real ability of a person to reproduce through a drawing what that personis really thinking about. This could be an evident risk, but in this case it was notthe 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 itwas this meaning which the analysis tried to catch.

Here is an invented example, a paradigm case, to illustrate this line ofreasoning. Consider Lisa, who is 10 years old and is instructed to draw what sheis thinking about when she hears the word `environment. Lisa immediatelythinks about an idyllic owery meadow that has run wild, and there are a greatnumber of owers and herbs growing on the meadow. She can see exactly whatit looks like in the countryside, where her grandmother lives. She can even smellthe owers, and hear the singing of birds and the bumble-bees buzzing in the


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air over a wild rose bush. Inside her head she can also see a stream and hear itmurmuring through a grove. The sky is blue and the sun is shining. How arethese thoughts going to be visualised by means of a white sheet of paper of twodimensions and some pencils, crayons or water-colours? Lisa is thinking andthen she starts to make a drawing.

She draws green grass at the very bottom of the sheet of paper, three owersin the grass, two trees on the left side, and between the two trees she draws ablue streak representing the stream. Then she draws a bush on the right side ofthe sheet. She also draws some wavy lines representing the birds, and nally shedraws a big yellow sun and a blue sky. Now Lisa is readythis is what herthinking looks like.

At rst glance it can seem that many dimensions are missing. This simplieddrawing 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 awealth of details, with an absolute exactitude. Instead the drawing has to be seenas a symbolic language. Even if it looks as if dimensions are missing, thissymbolic language conveys the meaning of Lisas thinking. A meaning that, inthis case, focuses on clean, idyllic and unspoiled naturethe good world. Agreat number of examples can be given, but the conclusion is still the same. Adrawing can in a specic way convey the meaning of a persons thinking, evenif 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 forexample never reproduce smells or sounds, which, of course, is also impossiblefor a drawing to achieve.

Conclusions

This study has been based on an analysis of drawings produced by children andyoung people on the subject of the environment. It has been shown that the

thoughts of the children and young people who participated in the studyare well worth noting and making use of. The dimensions of human awarenesscontain thoughts, and these thoughts are shaped by experience. Does theeducational system (in this case the Swedish educational system) provide amilieu where childrens and young peoples experiences and thoughts aregiven 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 developin different teaching-and-learning situations, and here situations diverge fromone another. However, one question that we can ask ourselves is how one can

dene a teaching-and-learning situation that pays attention to childrens andyoung peoples thoughts. As a starting point, the school should considerwhether teaching-and-learning situations are geared to the lifeworld or not. Inorder that knowledge might emanate from the roots of a subject, teaching-and-learning situations should start out from the lifeworld which the pupils inhabit.From this follows the need to try to `catch thoughts, thoughts which can formthe basis of teaching-and-learning situations, all with a view to promotinglearning.

What then is the current situation in Swedish schools? Evaluations of the


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knowledge and achievement of Swedish schoolchildren regarding the environ-ment show that they have shortcomings concerning the formation of fundamen-tal concepts in science subjects (see for example National Agency for Education,1992a, 1992b, 1992c; Truedsson, 1993). Consequently, according to these evalua-tions, pupils can encounter difculties in understanding new situations, andenvironmental problems are cited as an example of `new situations. Moreover,the evaluations call attention to the fact that the pupils exhibit an `everydaythinking which is difcult to replace by the formation of scientic concepts andwhich is considered to be an obstacle to learning. This line of reasoning is notat all unique to Swedish conditions, but rather something that several researchstudies call attention to all over the world (see for example Driver et al., 1994).Hellden (1992), who has reviewed both national and international studies withregard to the thinking of pupils in the natural sciences, is of the opinion that theeveryday thinking of pupils is both robust and deep-rooted, and it is oftendifcult to inuence their everyday thinking through teaching. Truedsson(1993), who has summarised the results of a Swedish evaluation, also expressesthe opinion that pupils exhibit serious shortcomings in their knowledge of thenatural sciences, and, among other failings, that they have a tendency to useeveryday thinking instead of scientic forms of thinking. The consequence ofthis, according to Truedsson, is that the pupils everyday ideas sometimessupersede the scientic approach that the school is trying to teach and thushinder understanding.

From the above it can be ascertained that the school as an institution has thepreferential right of interpretation concerning the communication of the `rightand `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 phenomenain the world.

Saljo (1995a) adopts a critical view of this line of reasoning in that he poses thequestion of whether scientic tools of thought are absolutely necessary tounderstand environmental problems, for example. Moreover, Sa ljo (1995b) is ofthe opinion that an alternative interpretation of the results of the evaluation is

that the problems are to be found in the confrontation between two communica-tive patterns, i.e. people are talking at cross-purposes. Saljo considers that peopledevelop concepts through communicative challenges, and, consequently, theschool ought to nd methods for developing communicative patterns so thatscientic concepts may become both functional and essential. It is thereforeapparent that all subject teachers should cease campaigning against everydaythinking, which is not something to be eradicated (Saljo , 1995b).

It is my personal opinion that, from the general scientic perspective, there isequal justication 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 undeniablyregard the thinking of pupils as a very important factor for learning. Should weat all costs change the `robust and `deep-rooted thinking of children and youngpeople to please those who think `better? Or should we create conditions wherethe genuine thinking of children and young people may obtain the opportunityto develop, starting out from their current intellectual capacity? In this connec-tion I mean conditions that would be allowed to emanate from the facticity oftheir thinking.


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Acknowledgements

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

Notes on Contributor

EVA ALERBY is a Senior Lecturer of Teaching-and-Learning at the Departmentof Teachers Education, Centre for Research in Teaching and Learning at LuleaUniversity of Technology. Correspondence: Centre for Research in Teaching andLearning, Lulea University of Technology, SE971 87 Lulea , Sweden. E-mail:[email protected]

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alerby eva - a way of visualising children's thoughts about environnement

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