The Origins of Aesthetic and Spiritual Values in Children's Experience of Nature

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12901722
AutoresGretel Van Wieren (Michigan State University, autor correspondente), Stephen R Kellert (Yale University)
Ano2013
Volume7
Fascículo3
Páginas243-264
Data de publicação2013-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal for the Study of Religion Nature and Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1749-4907 • E-ISSN: 1749-4915
EditoraEquinox Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1558/jsrnc.v7i3.243
OpenAlexW1993407197
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4

We conducted a limited exploratory study of the origins of children’s aesthetic and spiritual values in their experience of the natural world. We relied on a mix of research methods, including in-depth interviews, drawings, diaries, and observational studies of children, as well as conversations with parents about their children and their own childhood. Even though con?dent conclusions cannot be drawn from this study given the relatively small sample size, a number of preliminary results emerged that suggest the role of nature in the development of children’s aesthetic and spiritual values. These included children’s articulation of an aesthetic sense of beauty, pattern and order, wonder and discovery; and the expression of such spiritual attributes as feelings of solace and peacefulness, commonality and connection, happiness and feeling at one with and at home in nature, a power greater than oneself, and a sense of divine presence or mystery

Aesthetics · Art · Articulation (sociology · Beauty · Developmental psychology · Expression (computer science · Feeling · Happiness · Natural (archaeology · Observational study · Wonder · Animal and Plant Science Education · Art Education and Development · Environmental Education and Sustainability · History · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology