| dc.description.abstract | This master s thesis has a double purpose: The first one is to investigate the role and significance of nature in family and in school practices among children who attend a public, multi-ethnic school, Solbakken School , in Oslo, Norway. The second purpose is to analyze the effects of school-practices-in-nature on learning and social inclusion through the development of the concept of Norwegianess among students. In order to operationalize concepts as broad and intangible as nature and national identity, two concepts were introduced: school-practices-in-nature and Norwegianess. A summarized version is to say that Norwegianess is conceptualized as cultural competence in Norwegian social practices related to nature. School-practices-in-nature is conceptualized as regular school-outings to local forests, beaches, lakes, etc. throughout the school-year in all kinds of weather conditions. The duration of such excursions may vary from one hour to several days. The thesis is structured as a qualitative research study based on data collected from interviews with parents and teachers. Given that one of the main research objectives has to do with familiarity with nature, ethnicity was considered a relevant variable and was taken into consideration in the choice of informants. Altogether, there were fifteen informants: seven of them were non-ethnic Norwegian parents, three were ethnic Norwegian parents and five were teachers; four of the teachers were ethnic Norwegian and one was a first generation Norwegian. All of the teachers worked at the aforementioned public school. At the time of the interviews, all of the teachers taught second grade, except for one who taught third grade. All of the parents had at least one child who attended second grade at Solbakken School . Altogether, I have elaborated four research questions: two main empirical research questions and two sub-research questions: one empirical and one theoretical. The main-research questions are: 1) What are the points-of-view of parents and teachers about the role of school-practices-in-nature in school in communities with many non-ethnic-Norwegian families? 2) In the opinion of teachers, what are the benefits, if any, of school-practices-in-nature to children s learning? The sub-research questions are: 1) How are the opinions of non-ethnic-Norwegian parents about school-practices-in nature similar or different from the opinions of ethnic-Norwegian parents? 2) How are school-practices-in-nature a part of Norwegianess? The theoretical frameworks that were chosen to guide this investigation were Lave and Wenger s Social Practice Theory and Holland et al s Figured Worlds. The research findings indicated several areas of agreement between parents and teachers and pointed towards unequivocal benefits associated with school-practices in nature to all students. There were also additional research findings which, for the sake of clarity and better understanding, were grouped according to themes. There were four main themes: I) Challenges between Home and School Communication, II) Tensions between the Intention and the Reality of the Curriculum, III) Challenges between the Importance of Being in Nature versus Being in the Classroom and IV) Nature and the Importance of Doing. Additionally, the concept of Norwegianess was analyzed and an important conclusion was that it could be made accessible to all, so that each student could construct his or her own Norwegianess. Furthermore, the connection between school-practices-in-nature, Norwegianess and Education for Sustainability was discussed. | eng |