What impact has increased outdoor play and Covid-19 had on early year’s practitioner’s pedagogical perspectives?

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to explore the impact that both the increase outdoor play provision which necessitated the 1140 hours in additional childcare provisions set out by the Scottish government and the Covid-19 pandemic had on early years practitioners pedagogical perspectives. Within this study, the Scottish policy context was discussed in terms of outlining importance the outdoor play pedagogy in ELC settings through. Also discussed were International pedagogical perspectives and Forest Schools influence Scottish pedagogical approaches to the outdoors. This study adopts an interpretive paradigm in order to explore the individual perspectives and realities according to the participants involved, using thematic analysis by means of Braun and Clarke method to establish the themes of this study which included; outdoor play and changes to pedagogy, the pedagogical implications of Covid-19 and practitioner perspectives on training to develop outdoor play pedagogy. The research data was collected from early years practitioners within the author’s local authority through online questionnaire and subsequent online discussion group.