In collaboration with the p.i.n.e. project, a charity-based nature education organization in Toronto, this study seeks to understand, interpret, and communicate stories associated with environmental learning, community, and nature connection.
The study employs narrative, participatory, and visual methodologies to achieve four primary objectives:
- To explore how research can be used to foster healthy relationships between self, others, and the environment;
- To invite children to be the storytellers of their outdoor education experiences and the meanings they ascribe to notions of learning, community, and nature connection;
- To document the multiple ways that children, and other members of the p.i.n.e. project community, interact with, perceive, and value urban nature spaces;
- To evaluate the effectiveness of p.i.n.e. project programs in terms of fostering resilient children and communities deeply connected to nature.