Chris Speldewinde
Biographic Data
| ID | 82297 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Chris Speldewinde |
| GIVEN NAMES | Chris |
| FAMILY NAME | Speldewinde |
| SIGNATURE | SPELDEWINDE C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Deakin University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9114-0911 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Australia’s professional education ecosystem for out-of-field teachers: Seeking diverse pathways for teacher learning
Teaching out-of-field refers to teachers’ teaching subjects or schooling phases that do not align with their qualifications. Despite calls for professional development for out-of-field teachers, formal programmes are often lacking, poorly attended, or ill-suited to their specific needs. This paper applies an ecological lens to examine how an education system could better support out-of-field teachers by distributing responsibility. Drawing on a l…
The Domain of the Cubby Houses: Gender Inclusive Play in the Bush Kinder
For over a decade, growing numbers of ‘bush kinders’ have provided an important element of the Australian early childhood education experience. Influenced by the European forest school movement, bush kinders connect to elements of curriculum frameworks and have been adapted to suit the Australian context. This research project adopted an ethnographic approach and across time, allowed us to observe the dynamics of children’s nature play. We notice…
Exploring Parent and Teacher Perceptions of Multimodal Educational Games for Engaging Girls in STEM
This study co-designed and developed multimodal educational games in collaboration with parents and teachers to engage girls in STEM from early childhood onward. Recent studies examine the supportive and complementary role of digital educational technology, such as multimodal games, in engaging girls in STEM education during primary and secondary schooling. Different skills, such as computational thinking, mathematical and scientific skills, can …
It’s Not About the Money: STEM Professionals’ Motivations to Become Secondary School Teachers Through Alternative Entry Teacher Education Pathways
Teacher shortage is a global problem. One strategy adopted in several countries to help address the shortfall of teachers is to employ career-change teachers, sometimes through alternative entry pathways, which allow aspiring teachers to teach in a school, while simultaneously working towards their teacher qualification. Teachers of STEM subjects, including mathematics, technology, physics, chemistry, biology, and generalist science, are in short…
Beach Kinders: The Blue Spaces that Support Early Childhood Learners to Build Mathematical Habits of Mind
In the UK and Europe, the forest kindergarten approach to early childhood education and care (ECEC) has been an important learning context for over 50 years. Nature-based ECEC approaches are in a growth phase. This paper focusses on ‘blue spaces’, a learning context that incorporates beaches and coastal hinterlands that provides rich opportunities for early childhood mathematics education. One example of a nature-based ECEC approach is the Austra…
Facilitated Play in Nature Playgroups: An Opportunity for Early Childhood Science Education
Advocates for playful nature-based learning espouse the benefits of children’s self-directed play; however, past research has questioned whether this form of activity is beneficial to children of all ages, particularly the very young. In Australia, there are rapidly growing numbers of nature playgroups and bush kindergartens in which young children’s self-directed play-based learning is promoted. Bush kinders, as they are known in Australia, are …
Engineering habits of mind in preschool children at Scottish forest nurseries and Australian bush kinders
Nature‐based learning environments for early childhood are expanding, as is research into their affordances and pedagogies. Engineering in these environments is not well studied. Previous work considered engineering experiences through the lens of ‘designerly play’, finding that natural materials, the space for larger creations and constructions, the altered group dynamics and less gendered environments, promote engineering play. Other engineerin…
Listening to children in nature: Emergent Curriculum in Science Teaching and Learning in Bush Kinders
Outdoor early childhood education contexts such as nature kindergartens have been established for well over 50 years in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. Despite their popularity in these settings, similar approaches in countries such as Canada, China, New Zealand and Australia have taken time to become established. One example of where this approach to nature kindergartens in early childhood education has recently taken a foothold is the Austr…
Bush Kinders: Building Young Children’s Relationships with the Environment
Early childhood is an important time for building children’s affinity with nature and the environment. Early childhood professionals play a crucial role in developing young children’s understanding of the natural world. Over the past 50 years, there has been a movement in early childhood education and care contexts to provide young children with the opportunity to learn in natural surroundings such as forest schools and nature kindergartens. This…
Career change teachers in hard-to-staff schools: Should I stay or leave
Recruiting career changers into teaching has emerged as a part of a strategy by governments worldwide to address complex teacher shortage problems in hard-to-staff schools. In this paper, we present a case study of two career change teachers and trace their career journey into Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and the teaching profession in two separate hard-to-staff schools. We interviewed these teachers during the first 2 years of their career ch…
Building a Better Wall: Assessing Children’s Design Technology Learning in Nature-Based Early Childhood Education
The teaching and learning of design technology that occurs in nature-based early childhood education and care (ECEC) contexts such as nature kindergartens remains under-theorised. There is a growing body of scholarship that describes how teaching and learning occurs in these contexts as well as highlighting the benefits for young children learning in the natural environment. Recently, in the perspective of the Australian ECEC sector, how students…
Vocational teachers in school settings: Career pathways and motivations
Vocational programmes offered to school students form an essential segment of senior secondary education, providing opportunities for students to develop employability skills, complete their senior secondary certificate and gain credit towards a vocational qualification. While school systems are experiencing teacher shortages across the board, these are both acute and ongoing in vocational programmes in many countries and attracting and retaining…
Researching early childhood education for sustainability: Challenging assumptions and orthodoxies - Edited by: Sue Elliott, Eva Ärlemalm-Hagsér, and Julie Davis. Routledge, 2020, London and New York
climate barbarism' as a form of climate adaptation. This represents a marrying of white supremacist violence with vicious anti-immigrant racism. A rise of far right politics globally and stricter border controls : : : ' (p. 22). And in the same spirit, it states that 'politicians will not gamble their political careers on climate actions unless the public call for them to do so : : : short-term political pay backs will remain more popular than lo…
Defining Teaching Out-of-Field: An Imperative for Research, Policy and Practice
Challenging the Representations and Assumptions of Out-of-Field Teaching
STEM Teaching and Learning in Bush Kinders
For over 50 years, the forest school approach to nature learning has gathered momentum in the UK and across parts of Europe including Scandinavia (Knight, 2016). In other contexts such as Canada, New Zealand and Australia, nature-based early childhood education and care settings, influenced by European forest school approaches, have begun to gain popularity. Opportunities for STEM education occur in nature-based settings, such as forest schools a…
Challenges in designing and assessing student interdisciplinary learning of optics using a representation construction approach
There is a growing interest in the value of teachers guiding students to generate their own representations to support conceptual learning in science and across complementary subjects such as mathematics. However, this approach to an interdisciplinary focus poses challenges for programme design and learning assessment. In this paper, we report on a 10-week study with a class of Year 5 students designed to (a) facilitate learning of key concepts i…
An interdisciplinary approach to primary school mathematics and science learning
Against a backdrop of advocacy for interdisciplinary STEM curricula, this paper explores the design principles underpinning a three-year longitudinal research project that develops and evaluates interdisciplinary mathematics and science learning sequences involving multiple teachers and student cohorts across the primary school years. The research uses design-based methodology and deploys a pedagogical cycle based on representation construction a…
The Light of Knowledge: Literacy Activism and the Politics of Writing in South India
In recent decades, the impact of literacy has brought about enormous social change across southern Indian states. It has generated ‘a massive transformation in the social divisions of linguistic la
How democracy works; An ethnographic theory of politics, by Marcio Goldman
Policy worlds: Anthropology and the analysis of contemporary power, edited by Cris Shore, Susan Wright and Davide Pero
Policy worlds: Anthropology and the analysis of contemporary power, edited by Cris Shore, Susan Wright and Davide Pero. Association with the European Association of Social Anthropologists and Bergh
Listening to children in nature: Emergent Curriculum in Science Teaching and Learning in Bush Kinders
Outdoor early childhood education contexts such as nature kindergartens have been established for well over 50 years in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. Despite their popularity in these settings, similar approaches in countries such as Canada, China, New Zealand and Australia have taken time to become established. One example of where this approach to nature kindergartens in early childhood education has recently taken a foothold is the Austr…
Policy worlds: Anthropology and the analysis of contemporary power, edited by Cris Shore, Susan Wright and Davide Pero
Policy worlds: Anthropology and the analysis of contemporary power, edited by Cris Shore, Susan Wright and Davide Pero. Association with the European Association of Social Anthropologists and Bergh
How democracy works; An ethnographic theory of politics, by Marcio Goldman
The Light of Knowledge: Literacy Activism and the Politics of Writing in South India
In recent decades, the impact of literacy has brought about enormous social change across southern Indian states. It has generated ‘a massive transformation in the social divisions of linguistic la
Challenges in designing and assessing student interdisciplinary learning of optics using a representation construction approach
There is a growing interest in the value of teachers guiding students to generate their own representations to support conceptual learning in science and across complementary subjects such as mathematics. However, this approach to an interdisciplinary focus poses challenges for programme design and learning assessment. In this paper, we report on a 10-week study with a class of Year 5 students designed to (a) facilitate learning of key concepts i…
An interdisciplinary approach to primary school mathematics and science learning
Against a backdrop of advocacy for interdisciplinary STEM curricula, this paper explores the design principles underpinning a three-year longitudinal research project that develops and evaluates interdisciplinary mathematics and science learning sequences involving multiple teachers and student cohorts across the primary school years. The research uses design-based methodology and deploys a pedagogical cycle based on representation construction a…
Defining Teaching Out-of-Field: An Imperative for Research, Policy and Practice
Challenging the Representations and Assumptions of Out-of-Field Teaching
STEM Teaching and Learning in Bush Kinders
For over 50 years, the forest school approach to nature learning has gathered momentum in the UK and across parts of Europe including Scandinavia (Knight, 2016). In other contexts such as Canada, New Zealand and Australia, nature-based early childhood education and care settings, influenced by European forest school approaches, have begun to gain popularity. Opportunities for STEM education occur in nature-based settings, such as forest schools a…
Researching early childhood education for sustainability: Challenging assumptions and orthodoxies - Edited by: Sue Elliott, Eva Ärlemalm-Hagsér, and Julie Davis. Routledge, 2020, London and New York
climate barbarism' as a form of climate adaptation. This represents a marrying of white supremacist violence with vicious anti-immigrant racism. A rise of far right politics globally and stricter border controls : : : ' (p. 22). And in the same spirit, it states that 'politicians will not gamble their political careers on climate actions unless the public call for them to do so : : : short-term political pay backs will remain more popular than lo…
Bush Kinders: Building Young Children’s Relationships with the Environment
Early childhood is an important time for building children’s affinity with nature and the environment. Early childhood professionals play a crucial role in developing young children’s understanding of the natural world. Over the past 50 years, there has been a movement in early childhood education and care contexts to provide young children with the opportunity to learn in natural surroundings such as forest schools and nature kindergartens. This…
Career change teachers in hard-to-staff schools: Should I stay or leave
Recruiting career changers into teaching has emerged as a part of a strategy by governments worldwide to address complex teacher shortage problems in hard-to-staff schools. In this paper, we present a case study of two career change teachers and trace their career journey into Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and the teaching profession in two separate hard-to-staff schools. We interviewed these teachers during the first 2 years of their career ch…
Building a Better Wall: Assessing Children’s Design Technology Learning in Nature-Based Early Childhood Education
The teaching and learning of design technology that occurs in nature-based early childhood education and care (ECEC) contexts such as nature kindergartens remains under-theorised. There is a growing body of scholarship that describes how teaching and learning occurs in these contexts as well as highlighting the benefits for young children learning in the natural environment. Recently, in the perspective of the Australian ECEC sector, how students…
Vocational teachers in school settings: Career pathways and motivations
Vocational programmes offered to school students form an essential segment of senior secondary education, providing opportunities for students to develop employability skills, complete their senior secondary certificate and gain credit towards a vocational qualification. While school systems are experiencing teacher shortages across the board, these are both acute and ongoing in vocational programmes in many countries and attracting and retaining…
Facilitated Play in Nature Playgroups: An Opportunity for Early Childhood Science Education
Advocates for playful nature-based learning espouse the benefits of children’s self-directed play; however, past research has questioned whether this form of activity is beneficial to children of all ages, particularly the very young. In Australia, there are rapidly growing numbers of nature playgroups and bush kindergartens in which young children’s self-directed play-based learning is promoted. Bush kinders, as they are known in Australia, are …
Engineering habits of mind in preschool children at Scottish forest nurseries and Australian bush kinders
Nature‐based learning environments for early childhood are expanding, as is research into their affordances and pedagogies. Engineering in these environments is not well studied. Previous work considered engineering experiences through the lens of ‘designerly play’, finding that natural materials, the space for larger creations and constructions, the altered group dynamics and less gendered environments, promote engineering play. Other engineerin…
Listening to children in nature: Emergent Curriculum in Science Teaching and Learning in Bush Kinders
Outdoor early childhood education contexts such as nature kindergartens have been established for well over 50 years in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. Despite their popularity in these settings, similar approaches in countries such as Canada, China, New Zealand and Australia have taken time to become established. One example of where this approach to nature kindergartens in early childhood education has recently taken a foothold is the Austr…
Australia’s professional education ecosystem for out-of-field teachers: Seeking diverse pathways for teacher learning
Teaching out-of-field refers to teachers’ teaching subjects or schooling phases that do not align with their qualifications. Despite calls for professional development for out-of-field teachers, formal programmes are often lacking, poorly attended, or ill-suited to their specific needs. This paper applies an ecological lens to examine how an education system could better support out-of-field teachers by distributing responsibility. Drawing on a l…
The Domain of the Cubby Houses: Gender Inclusive Play in the Bush Kinder
For over a decade, growing numbers of ‘bush kinders’ have provided an important element of the Australian early childhood education experience. Influenced by the European forest school movement, bush kinders connect to elements of curriculum frameworks and have been adapted to suit the Australian context. This research project adopted an ethnographic approach and across time, allowed us to observe the dynamics of children’s nature play. We notice…
Exploring Parent and Teacher Perceptions of Multimodal Educational Games for Engaging Girls in STEM
This study co-designed and developed multimodal educational games in collaboration with parents and teachers to engage girls in STEM from early childhood onward. Recent studies examine the supportive and complementary role of digital educational technology, such as multimodal games, in engaging girls in STEM education during primary and secondary schooling. Different skills, such as computational thinking, mathematical and scientific skills, can …
It’s Not About the Money: STEM Professionals’ Motivations to Become Secondary School Teachers Through Alternative Entry Teacher Education Pathways
Teacher shortage is a global problem. One strategy adopted in several countries to help address the shortfall of teachers is to employ career-change teachers, sometimes through alternative entry pathways, which allow aspiring teachers to teach in a school, while simultaneously working towards their teacher qualification. Teachers of STEM subjects, including mathematics, technology, physics, chemistry, biology, and generalist science, are in short…
Beach Kinders: The Blue Spaces that Support Early Childhood Learners to Build Mathematical Habits of Mind
In the UK and Europe, the forest kindergarten approach to early childhood education and care (ECEC) has been an important learning context for over 50 years. Nature-based ECEC approaches are in a growth phase. This paper focusses on ‘blue spaces’, a learning context that incorporates beaches and coastal hinterlands that provides rich opportunities for early childhood mathematics education. One example of a nature-based ECEC approach is the Austra…
Pedagogy (10 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Early childhood education (7 works) · Early childhood (6 works) · Mathematics education (6 works) · Curriculum (5 works) · Ethnography (5 works) · Science education (5 works)