Articulating outdoor risky play in early childhood education: voices of forest and nature school practitioners

Outdoor risky play provides developmental and health benefits for children, such as risk-assessment skills, increased physical activity and well-being and promoting social competencies and resilience. Modern Western society is highly risk-averse and many children are protected from risks more commonly experienced by previous generations. Forest and nature schools (FS) are one approach encouraging unstructured outdoor play in natural environments including the inherent risks; falling, cuts and bruises, sun exposure, etc. Ten early childhood education FS practitioners were interviewed to explore their articulation of outdoor risky play, pedagogical practices pertaining to risk and how they navigate tensions between regulatory policies and idealized practice. This research serves to bring practitioners’ voices to the literature on how the risk associated with outdoor play is being defined, rationalized, and enacted in FS programs. Findings from this study inform recommendations for practice and further inquiry into risky play and its benefits.