Abstract

Nature-based education appears as a powerful response to the increase of an indoor and sedentary lifestyle. Nature-based education refers to a practice where nature is central to children’s daily experiences, such as routines, exploration, and play, and includes opportunities to connect and become comfortable with nature. It offers multiple benefits for children’s whole development (e.g., Kuo et al. 2019). Literature on infants’ experiences with nature is limited (e.g., Jørgensen, 2018; Monti et al., 2019). The present qualitative case study examined the experiences of infants younger than 18-months-old and their educators in two not-for-profit Québec daycares: one urban and one semi-rural centre that integrated regular nature-based practices into their curriculum. Observations examined 19 infants’ experiences into the outdoor natural setting and with their four educators. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each educator to investigate their perspectives on this approach with infants. Results demonstrated that the natural environment offered a rich context for infants’ whole development in an integrated way: cognitive, social, language, and motor. Educators offered a secure base in a child-led pedagogy by being responsive, sharing joint attention, and supporting infants’ learning experiences verbally and physically. They also held a strong vision of infants as active learners, which is crucial to a child-led pedagogy in a nature-based context. Still, the educators must display strong self-confidence, teamwork and organizational skills to overcome the invisibility of this age group in the guidelines, training, and information for outdoor practices. The findings have important pedagogical and policy implications for the well-being of Quebec’s youngest citizens to make them more visible and to offer them a rich context to explore and learn.