Adult perspectives on children’s risk-taking: Outdoor provision in England and Denmark

Megan McGee

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the perspectives of parents, undergraduate students and Early Childhood and Care (ECEC) practitioners on primary age children’s risk-taking in outdoor provision. An international comparison was undertaken between the participants’ perspectives in England and Denmark. In recent years, it can be seen
that there has been an increase in the protection of children and the process of shielding them from any form of harm. Yet, in doing so we may be hindering the development of children’s key skills and influencing their own ideas on risk and risk-taking. Sixteen participants completed an online questionnaire including seven Danish and nine English respondents. The responses revealed that the Danish participants were more likely to exhibit a ‘laidback’ attitude in their approaches and beliefs towards allowing children to engage in risk-taking activities in outdoor provision. Whereas the English participants were more likely to generate negative associations with children’s
risk-taking such as a fear of the child getting hurt. The result was that the English participants appeared less likely to allow children to engage in risk-taking activities in outdoor provision. Furthermore, the results gathered showed a greater cautiousness towards children’s risk-taking in English participants compared to Danish participants.

McGee, M. (2024) Adult perspectives on children’s risk-taking: Outdoor provision in England and Denmark. Transformations, [online] Vol. 5(1). Available at: https://educationstudies.org.uk/?p=25332 [Accessed 27 Apr, 2024].

Creative Commons LicensePublished under Creative Commons Attribution, Non Commercial Licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Keywords

Forest Schools, children’s risk-taking, early childhood and care (ECEC), outdoor provision, primary education

Volume

Volume 5(1) 2024

Full Text

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