Maria Hammarsten

Research

Hammarsten's licentiate thesis; Children’s Perspectives on Spending Time in a Forest Garden As Reflected in Walk-and-Talk Conversations, examines a range of topics relevant for outdoor education for children in early and middle childhood: the development of children’s ecological literacy, the phenomenon of plant blindness and the affordances of forest garden's as sites for outdoor education. The study describes the potentials of an outdoor pedagogy in the context of a forest garden where folk college (folkhögskola) pedagogues and primary school teachers work together. The licentiate thesis also addresses the compensatory assignment in the meeting with children who in everyday life do not have direct proximity to natural environments. 

Biography

Maria Hammarsten has a Licentiate degree in pedagogy with focus on didactics (Jönköping University); a master´s degree in pedagogy with a focus on outdoor didactics (Linköping University); an undergraduate degree in children's and youth studies (Jönköping University); and a teaching license in subjects areas related to primary school and school-age educare.  She is currently an adjunct lecturer in education at Jönköping University (JU) since the spring, 2005, and where she is a member of Sustainable Societies (SUS) reserch group. She is also chairman of the national network for the promotion of outdoor-based learning, Utenavet.