Children's Environmental Identity Development: Negotiating Inner and Outer Tensions in Natural World Socialization draws inspiration from environmental education, education for sustainability, environmental psychology, sociology, and child development to propose a theoretical framework for considering how children's identity in/with/for nature evolves through formative experiences. The natural world socialization of young children considers not only how the natural environment affects the growth and development of young children but also how children shape and influence natural settings. Such childhood relations with the environment are explicitly linked to familial, sociocultural, geographical, and educational contexts. While the book is theoretical and will be of interest to academics and students, the use of accessible language, vignettes, and figures will make it useful to teachers, policy-makers, parents, and others genuinely concerned with children's relationships with other humans and the natural world.
"For everyone who seeks to connect young people with the natural world, Carie Green focuses our attention on a central question: How does an environmental identity of connection and care for nature develop during infancy, childhood, and youth? She has pondered this question at length, drawing on her own research and the work of others, and presents her reflections through a combination of research reviews and observations of children in nature covering different ages, different cultures, and different settings for social and environmental learning. A broad spectrum of readers will find much that is useful here-other researchers, parents, teachers, and staff in parks, nature centers, and institutions of all kinds that bring children and nature together." -Louise Chawla, Professor Emerita, University of Colorado Boulder