Education in First Gear Ltd

The Early Years environment has become a hot topic of conversation. It could be argued it has the potential to be education’s answer to an Aladdin’s Cave of early childhood experiences, both unlocking and enriching these for all. Unfortunately, due to increased budget cuts, often these environments are the first things that become squeezed dry of resources. Increasingly they have become heavily reliant on the good will of early educators, who dig deep into their pockets, despite many being on minimum wage. These environments have become littered with upcycled and repurposed projects. Some would say they continue to hold their own as ‘treasure troves’, fostering creativity and play in our littlest learners.  

We must not forget that Montessori once told us that the early years environment, both inside and out, must be appropriately set up. The environment should enable independence in children, so they are neither held back or restricted. They must be able to explore! However, years have passed, and the power of lethal mutation has potentially left her message misconstrued More often than not, the interpretations of ‘appropriately set up’ is driven by education under the influence of government legislation and agendas.  Consequently, some environments have deviated off-piste, potentially falling victim to the external pressure to ‘dress to impress’ our early years environments for judgements made, mostly, by adults.  

Montessori argued that the task we should aspire to set ourselves as educators is to provide children with an environment carefully prepared to meet their particular developmental needs. That through careful observation, we should endeavour to connect children with their environment, so that they can build themselves through their own activity. However, in practice we sometime notice conflicting actions. For example, Montessori’s love for nature and the natural environment may have, in some settings, morphed simply into naturally woven baskets, or tuff spots littered with natural objects (brought inside, stolen from the outdoors!). Social media has seen a boom of images demonstrating object hidden behind and inside glass boxes, coined as the ‘curiosity cubes’. Surely this sort of practice seems somewhat counter intuitive to a young child’s inquisitive thinking. Perhaps it’s time to take a step back and consider how favourable our environments really are to the children who learn and thrive inside them? 

Recently, I was invited to be part of a research project in the Early Years. This presented the opportunity to ask some children about what they really thought. We were exploring how favourable it truly was, in terms of what these children, turned co researchers, genuinely thought about their Early Years learning environment. The project was centred upon trusting the autonomy and integrity of children’s perceptions and opinions of their Early Years environment.  

So, what did we find out?  

When asked what the children liked, there was a strong sense of objects and areas that specifically encouraged or resonated with their own personal experiences. Some children were drawn to cultural materials which represented them and their families, from books, to religious artefacts. Others liked pictures on displays that reminded them of trips or experiences they had had, like eating ice creams on the hottest day of the year! Others were most fond of items which supported and influenced investigations. These children chose objects that encouraged exploration and investigation, particularly from their role play area or small world.  

What was even more interesting was when they explained what they didn’t like. 

Children were keen to tell us that they did not like things that they could not play with. Anything for decoration was displeasing to them. This included anything from fairy lights to artificial plants. They didn’t like objects which imposed on their environment either. This included the teacher’s chair, which was describe as being ‘too big!’ 

One child passionately pointed out, ‘if you can’t play with it, what is the point?’  

As Montessori once said: ‘We should hide our heads in shame and cover out guilty faces with our hands!’ (Montessori, 1912, p.27)  

I am absolutely not condemning this particular Early Years environment. It is one that heralds so many aspects of good practice, shown by some of the reflections and feedback from the children during the project. What I am doing is drawing our attention to the importance of taking time to reflect, and even better, inviting our children to be part of that conversation.  

For far too long, children have become the victims of the good, bad and ugly practice, formulated from the current state of play of education and its agendas. We cannot underestimate the implications of this. So perhaps it’s time we take stock and reflect upon the purpose of what is inside our Early Years environments.  We must remember that when theories such as Montessori’s, as so habitually used, the origins are not always realised or relished. Noticing this is only the beginning. From here we can start to unpick and avoid practice that wanders off-piste; ultimately, avoiding become surface level rather than deep rooted in strong pedological decisions.  

Blog inspired by Early Childhood Theories today, Maria Montessori (1870-1952) by Sue Allingham  

Post originally published by the Nottingham Institute of Education

An environmental crisis in the Early Years classroom

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