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Entangled Gardens, Entangled Lives: Refiguring Presences toward an Ethics of Care and Vulnerability in Preschoolers' Multispecies Encounters

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Title: Entangled Gardens, Entangled Lives: Refiguring Presences toward an Ethics of Care and Vulnerability in Preschoolers' Multispecies Encounters
Language: English
Authors: Luke Muscat
Source: International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education. 2026 13(1):58-75.
Availability: North American Association for Environmnental Education. 1725 DeSales Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 202-419-0412; Web site: https://naturalstart.org/research
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 18
Publication Date: 2026
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Preschool Children, Outdoor Education, Urban Areas, Urban Environment, Gardening, Animals, Climate, Plants (Botany), Environmental Education, Learning Activities
ISSN: 2331-0464
Abstract: This praxis-oriented paper draws from a yearlong multispecies ethnography of preschoolers' encounters in an urban garden through child-led documentation. Thinking-with common worlds pedagogies, I attend to young children's everyday multispecies encounters with worms, bees, and flowers and describe their embodied, affective, and relational learning-with the more-than-human that was messy and situated. Important as we navigate the environmental destruction of the Anthropocene, I share moments of children's learnings where their developing ethics of relational care and environmental vulnerability surface as hope. Seeking to unsettle disconnected, humancentric, nature-as-resource scientific learning, I mobilized a pedagogy of refiguring more-than-human presences to center human/more-than-human entanglement, interconnectedness, and interdependency. Findings narrate learning encounters and pedagogical moves through vignettes and children's documentation of photographs, drawings, and writings. [Note: The volume and issue numbers (v12 n2) shown on the PDF are incorrect. The correct volume and issue numbers are v13 n1.]
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: EJ1506103
Database: ERIC
FullText Text:
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  Data: North American Association for Environmnental Education. 1725 DeSales Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 202-419-0412; Web site: https://naturalstart.org/research
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  Data: This praxis-oriented paper draws from a yearlong multispecies ethnography of preschoolers' encounters in an urban garden through child-led documentation. Thinking-with common worlds pedagogies, I attend to young children's everyday multispecies encounters with worms, bees, and flowers and describe their embodied, affective, and relational learning-with the more-than-human that was messy and situated. Important as we navigate the environmental destruction of the Anthropocene, I share moments of children's learnings where their developing ethics of relational care and environmental vulnerability surface as hope. Seeking to unsettle disconnected, humancentric, nature-as-resource scientific learning, I mobilized a pedagogy of refiguring more-than-human presences to center human/more-than-human entanglement, interconnectedness, and interdependency. Findings narrate learning encounters and pedagogical moves through vignettes and children's documentation of photographs, drawings, and writings. [Note: The volume and issue numbers (v12 n2) shown on the PDF are incorrect. The correct volume and issue numbers are v13 n1.]
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      – SubjectFull: Urban Areas
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      – TitleFull: Entangled Gardens, Entangled Lives: Refiguring Presences toward an Ethics of Care and Vulnerability in Preschoolers' Multispecies Encounters
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