Engaging the Complexities of Agency, Voice, and the Climate Crisis in Nature-Based Early Learning: A Three-Paper Dissertation
Situated at the intersection of early childhood education, environmental education, and participatory inquiry, this dissertation investigates the roles of children, educators, and early learning programs in responding to the climate crisis. The first paper critically analyzes theoretical and methodological approaches of research conducted with and by young children in environmental contexts. Findings underscore the importance of reflexivity, collaboration, and the creation of co-research cultures that extend beyond data collection.
The second paper documents the adaptation and implementation of Group Level Assessment (GLA) (Vaughn, 2024) as a framework for collaborative professional inquiry. This work positions teachers as knowledge producers and GLA as a particularly effective methodology for fostering collective reflection, co-constructing professional knowledge, and generating actionable pedagogical possibilities. The third paper explores climate-related impacts and adaptations in nature-based preschools through a national survey study. Findings reveal how climate events disrupt daily programming, reduce time spent outdoors, and affect land, health, and program morale, underscoring the need for climate-informed guidance, infrastructure, and professional support to ensure equitable access to nature-based learning for all children.
This dissertation advances a framework for understanding and supporting children’s agency, educator voice, and climate-responsive practice. It demonstrates the value of participatory approaches that engage children, educators, and programs in co-creating knowledge and action, offering insights for research and practice in nature-based early learning contexts and beyond.
Honoring Children’s Agency: A Systematic Review of Research With and By Children in Environmental Contexts
In the context of the climate crisis, children are often framed as vulnerable, yet they also possess the agency to act as change-makers. This systematic literature review examines research conducted with young children in environmental contexts, emphasizing strategies that affirm children’s agency as active participants rather than passive subjects. Findings suggest that true participatory research with and by children is not defined by a specific theoretical framework or methodological approach, but by the extent of children's involvement: before and beyond the data collection phase. For this to occur, researchers must practice reflexivity, release control over the research process, and foster collaboration with teachers and families to create a culture of co-research. This review contributes to the broader discourse on participatory action research in early childhood education, providing guidance for researchers and educators seeking to engage children as co-creators of knowledge and change.
From Inquiry to Action: Leveraging Group Level Assessment to Elevate Teacher Voice
This methodological paper explores the use of Group Level Assessment (GLA) (Vaughn & Lohmueller, 2014; Vaughn, 2024) as a participatory approach to practitioner inquiry within an early childhood education program. Using Cochran-Smith and Lytle’s (2009) inquiry as stance as a guiding conceptual framework, GLA is framed as a methodology that affirms educator expertise, fosters collective reflection, and generates tangible action. We document the adaptation and implementation of the GLA protocol at the Arlitt Center, a university-affiliated early childhood laboratory school committed to teacher-led professional learning. Through an adapted GLA process, teaching staff engaged in identifying barriers and opportunities related to a shared pedagogical focus—phenology. GLA facilitated the co-construction of professional knowledge, generation of actionable solutions, and reflection on teacher identity as researchers. Consideration is also given to the limitations and benefits of GLA, positioning it as a valuable method for advancing and expanding the impact of practitioner research, within and beyond the classroom.
Weathering the Storm: An Exploratory Survey Study of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations in Nature Preschools
While impacts of the climate crisis on young children are increasingly recognized in the literature, including implications for the early childcare sector, specific effects on nature preschools remain under-investigated. This survey seeks to address that gap by providing a baseline understanding of the climate-related weather events that nature preschools are experiencing and the support they need to adapt. An online survey conducted in the summer of 2024 elicited responses from 84 nature preschool programs across the United States regarding their climate-related experiences. Results suggest that nature preschools are experiencing climate-related weather events that disrupt operations, reduce time spent outdoors, lead to school closures, and affect land, health, and morale. Findings underscore the need for climate-related guidance specific to nature preschools, including professional development for nature-based educators; access to reliable weather data and on-site weather monitoring; and infrastructure and investments that support climate resilience and access to nature-based learning for all children.
Dedication
For Elba, Molly, and Teddy.
and for all children:
May you always know the earth loves you.
“Knowing that you love the Earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the Earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.” (Kimmerer, 2013, p.124)
Acknowledgments
Every learning carries a lineage. I am immensely grateful to situate my work in a lineage of brilliant and generous mentors, scholars, and communities who have shaped not only my work, but my life. First and foremost, I give deep thanks to the Land. Completing my dissertation at home in Minnesota has been incredibly grounding. Gitchigumi (Lake Superior) has been one of my greatest teachers: vast and powerful, constantly awe-inspiring, demonstrating endurance and resilience in every season.
To my chair and advisor, Dr. Vicki Carr for saying yes to me as your “last in” doctoral student, for pushing me to design a rigorous study that will make a real contribution to our field, and for all your feedback and guidance along my doctoral journey. To my committee: Dr. Kimberley McCormick for your invaluable guidance on my survey study, and Dr. Helen Meyer for fielding countless IRB questions. And together as a committee for seeing the trajectory of my work, affirming my identity as a scholar, and not only supporting but championing my ambitious timeline!
To my University of Cincinnati community: Dr. Mark Sulzer - much of the work undertaken in my independent study has found its way into these pages. The questions you’ve posed have shaped my scholarship in more ways that I can count. To Dr. Rhonda Brown - your early feedback on chapter 2 improved its conceptual coherency immeasurably, thank you. To Dr. Lisa Vaughn thank you for generously sharing your abundant wisdom about participatory methodologies - I use what you’ve taught me daily. To Dr. Stephanie Reid for the time, attention, and care you gave to my writing and work, for your infectious energy, and for your commitment to honoring children and educators. To my luminous writing friends: Amy, Vicki, Maddie, & Eunique. I have loved journeying alongside you. Thank you for your support, solidarity, and brilliant scholarship.
To my Arlitt Center colleagues: Dr. Leslie Kochanowski, brilliant collaborator and friend: working together has been such a place of inspiration and grounded energy. And Dr. Ann Rossmiller, I so appreciate your pragmatic, get-it-done approach. Thank you for your patience with me wading into quantitative analysis, and for encouraging me to keep thinking qualitatively about our findings. To Abraham Underhill, your commitment to nature-based learning and passion for phenology is contagious. I have so enjoyed our work together and am constantly impressed by your dedication, creativity, and curiosity. And to all the incredible Arlitt educators, especially Mary Beth Wright and Rachel Konerman, thank you for welcoming me into your center and your practice. I am grateful to play a small part in sharing the brilliant work that you do with our wider field.
To my University of Minnesota Duluth colleagues & mentors: Dr. Julie Ernst, I truly would not be here if not for you - your tenacious advocacy for this work and our field is something I aspire to. To Dr. Ken Gilbertson, your rigor and unending curiosity have forever shaped my life, teaching, and scholarship (thanks for always encouraging us to get outside and remember why we do this). To Dr. Thelma Nayquonabe words cannot express how grateful I am that our lives are now intertwined; my life is forever changed because of all you’ve taught me. Chi miigwech, nindaangwe. To my dear community of practice colleagues, you live this work and I am honored to walk alongside you. Thank you for trusting me with your stories, they inspire me daily. To my Environmental Education and Childhood Nature Studies students - it is a total joy and honor to learn alongside you.
To my family and friends, thank you for seeing me, celebrating me, and supporting me as I carved out space and time to do this work. I hope you know that this is for us all. To Scout, my near constant companion and one of my greatest teachers - who true to form interrupted the writing of these acknowledgments for a play break. Most of all to Wade, you saw this path for me long before I could imagine it for myself. Your love makes everything possible.