Eco-Capabilities: Supporting children’s wellbeing through participatory art in nature

• Professor Nicola Walshe

• Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination (CCI)

• Dr Zoe Moula, IOE
• Dr Elsa Lee, Anglia Ruskin University (ARU),
• Ruth Sapsed and artists from CCI.

Global interest in children’s wellbeing is growing and is now central to major international policy documents regarding children’s life quality (e.g. UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing). Research suggests that children’s wellbeing is linked to developing positive learning attitudes and coping successfully with change; conversely, low emotional wellbeing can lead to mental health problems. Critically, one in six children in England suffer a mental health illness and suicide is the third leading cause of death in young people, and this figure is higher for vulnerable groups, such as those from low-income households (NHS, 2020). 

The Covid-19 pandemic has further had a detrimental impact on previously healthy children and adolescents’ mental health - for example, studies have shown that for some young people, smartphone or internet addiction through lockdown were further associated with increased depressive symptoms.

In an effort to combat these urgent problems, schools are increasingly expected to support mental health and wellbeing but receive few resources to do so. Substantial benefits for wellbeing may be derived from contact with nature and lack thereof in childhood has been found to be a predictor for adulthood depression. Despite this, in the last 30 years the number of children regularly playing in wild places in the UK fell by 90% (Natural Childhood Report, 2012) and children living with high deprivation are significantly less likely to have access to green spaces. 

HM Government’s ‘Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment’ (2018) explicitly states a commitment to helping people improve their health and wellbeing by using green spaces, with a particular focus on disadvantaged areas. An innovative way to approach this is through art in familiar outdoor places - there is evidence that arts can improve wellbeing and social inclusion - however, individuals with low socio-economic status have less access to the arts than their more affluent counterparts and the arts are increasingly marginalised in school curricula. 

This participatory study is situated at the intersection of these three issues: a concern with children’s wellbeing, their apparent disconnect with the natural environment, and a lack of engagement with the arts in school curricula.

It builds on Amartya Sen’s work on human capabilities as a proxy for wellbeing, developing the term eco-capabilities to describe how children define what they feel they need to live a fully human good life through environmental sustainability, social justice and future economic wellbeing (the three pillars of sustainability). 

The research focuses on the nature-based interventions of our project partner, arts and wellbeing charity Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination (CCI). 

The main aims of the research are to:

• elicit children’s eco-capabilities, what we define as how children articulate what is important to them, or what they feel they need to live a fully human good life, through environmental sustainability, social justice and future economic wellbeing (i.e. the three pillars of sustainability)
• consider how working with artists in nature in response to familiar, local spaces influences children’s wellbeing, as measured both using children’s self-defined list of eco-capabilities, as well as an extended measure of subjective wellbeing, and
• use these findings to contribute to policy and pedagogical practice relating to arts-based education in nature.

The overarching research question addressed by the research was:

• How does working with artists in nature influence children’s wellbeing?

To address this, we are seeking answers to the following sub-questions:

1. How does working with artists in nature support children’s wellbeing?
2. How does working with artists in nature influence children’s perceptions of eco-capabilities?
3. What are the mechanisms for change to wellbeing using arts-based practice in nature?

The research methodology draws on arts-based research (ABR), a transdisciplinary approach to knowledge building that combines the tenets of the creative arts in research contexts and provides an inclusive approach to engaging disenfranchised perspectives, such as those of children.

Within the methodological framework provided by ABR we took a participatory approach to data collection, engaging children in the development, implementation and evaluation phases of the project.

Data collection was undertaken using a case study approach to working with children in two primary schools in East Anglia identified as being in areas of poverty and deprivation with minimal cultural provision and infrastructure.

Research included 120 children aged 7-10 years across four classes, two in each school.

Methods of data collection were designed to explore the practice of project partner CCI in each school through eight full-day creative adventuring days and included:

1. Pre- and post- intervention wellbeing questionnaire with children.
2. Pre- and post- intervention full day research workshop which included: children drawing their ‘happy place’ and reflecting on what makes them flourish, and walk-and-talk interviews with children around their school reflecting on their relationship with outdoor spaces.
3. Within the eight days of creative adventuring, teachers, artists and researchers worked collaboratively to keep field notes to capture significant moments across the day, each focusing on their individual fields of interest.
4. All teachers and artists undertook a focus group discussion and individual interviews at the end of the creative adventuring days.

• Eco-Capabilities - Voices of children, artists and teachers
• Eco-Capabilities - Creative Adventuring in Nature - Shirley Community Primary School
• Eco-Capabilities - Creative Adventuring in Nature - Howard Community Academy

• Walshe, N., Perry, J., & Moula, Z. (2023). Eco-Capabilities: Arts-in-nature interventions for supporting nature visibilisation and wellbeing in children. Sustainability, 15, 12290.
• Moula Z., Walshe N., Lee E. (2023). “It was like I was not a person, it was like I was the nature”: The impact of arts-in-nature experiences on the wellbeing of children living in areas of high deprivation.  Journal of Environmental Psychology, 90, 102072. 
• CCI and UCL (2023) Artscaping: A Guide to establishing arts-in-nature opportunities in your school, Artscaping, A guide to establishing arts-in-nature opportunities in your school
• Walshe, N. (2023). Arts-in-nature practice improves mental health and connection with nature. IOE Policy Briefing.
• Moula, Z. and Walshe, N. (2023). How arts-in-nature experiences can boost the wellbeing of children and young people. The House, 17 April 2023.
• Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination (2023) Artscaping – A Case Study.
• Walshe, N. and Perry, J. (2022). Transformative geography education: developing eco-capabilities for a flourishing and sustainable future. Teaching Geography, 47(3), 94-97.  
• Walshe, N. and Perry, J. (in publication – Spring 2023). Nurturing eco-capabilities for transformative learning and wellbeing. Primary Geographer. 
• Walshe, N., Moula, Z. & Lee, E. (2022) Eco-Capabilities as a Pathway to Wellbeing and Sustainability. Sustainability, 14(6), 3582.
• Moula, Z., Palmer, K. & Walshe, N.  (2022) A Systematic Review of Arts-Based Interventions Delivered to Children and Young People in Nature or Outdoor Spaces: Impact on Nature Connectedness, Health and Wellbeing. Frontiers in Psychology – Health Psychology.
• How can we meet the pledge to put climate ‘at the heart of education? by Nicola Walshe on Schoolsweek (Nov 2021).
• Moula, Z., Walshe, N., & Lee, E. (2021) Making nature explicit in children’s drawings of wellbeing and happy spaces. Child Indicators Research, 14 (4), 1653-1675.
• Walshe, N., Lee, E., & Smith, M. (2020). Supporting Children’s Wellbeing with Art in Nature: Artist Pedagogue Perceptions. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development.
• Walshe, N., Lee, E., Lloyd, D., & Sapsed, R. (2020). STEM to STEAM as an approach to human development: the potential of arts practices for supporting wellbeing. In: Burnard, P. & L. Colucci-Gray (Eds) Why Science and Art Creativities Matter: STEAM (re-) Configurings for Future-Making Education. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. pp.337-357.
• Lee, E, Walshe, N., Sapsed R., & Holland, J. (2018). Artists as emplaced pedagogues: how does thinking about children's nature relations influence pedagogy? In A. Cutter Mackenzie, K. Malone and E. Barratt Hacking (Eds) Springer International Handbooks of Education. Research Handbook on ChildhoodNature: Assemblages of Childhood and Nature Research.
• Walshe, N. and Moula, Z. (2021). Eco-capabilities: Supporting children’s wellbeing through arts in nature. National Association of Environmental Education, 126.

• What do we need to empower and educate young people about the environment? Listen to the Research for the Real World podcast, season 11 episode 4

• An Introduction to Artscaping Webinar
• Walshe, N. (2022). Let’s Brambleforest Together; Reflections from teachers and artists working together at Shirley Primary School.
• Walshe, N., Sapsed, R., Pereira-Stubbs, F. and Holt, J. (2021). Introducing artscaping: creative adventuring for children’s wellbeing. Cambridge Festival.
• Walshe, N. and Sapsed, R. (2020). Talking Eco-Capabilities Webinar: Lost words and found connections – adventures into language and literacy through nature.

• MP sees work of IOE project that supports children’s wellbeing through art in nature

• Walshe, N., & Moula, Z. (2021). Eco-Capabilities: Teacher and artist reflections on nature-based art interventions for children's wellbeing. Presented at: European Conference of Educational Research. Walshe, N., Moula, Z., & Lee, E. (2020).
• Eco-Capabilities: Making nature explicit in children’s drawings about wellbeing. Presented at: North American Association of Environmental Education.