Inspiring Change Toward Nature-based Teaching
This post originally appeared in Dr. Rachel A. Larimore’s weekly Samara newsletter on February 27, 2024. If you’re interested in receiving these emails, scroll to the bottom of this page to subscribe.
“There are only two ways to influence human behavior: You can manipulate it or you can inspire it.” ~Simon Sinek
Manipulating others rarely results in long-term change. For most leaders manipulation also doesn’t align with their values. When it comes to leading change in nature-based education, doing our own individual work is how we ensure we’re prepared to lead others toward nature-based teaching.
So if we want others to move toward nature-based teaching our only option is to inspire.
How do we inspire others? One of the first steps is to create a clear vision of what nature-based pedagogy looks like and why it’s important for young children.
To do this, we can work with other leaders on our team to:
Develop a shared understanding among the team of what is meant by “nature-based pedagogy. What does this look like in practice? What does it NOT look like?
As a team, explore the various ways nature-based pedagogy can be implemented. Seeing a range of ways to implement the nature-based approach can inspire others to see what’s possible for them and their teaching–that there is flexibility rather than one right way.
Explore our individual WHY for this work in order to share that story with others. Each leader will have a different story and perspective about what drew them to this work, why it matters to them personally, etc. (If you’re interested in exploring this more deeply check out our Defining Your Why for Nature-based Education workbook)
Support the leaders who continue to have questions about nature-based pedagogy. This might include more examples of nature-based pedagogy in practice, exploring how certain developmental domains will be addressed, how other programs support families through the process, etc.
The key of all of these actions is patience and support to inspire rather than manipulate.
The need for creating a clear vision for nature-based pedagogy is one of the first steps of the Trail Map for Leading Change Toward Nature-based Pedagogy. I explored more of this Trail Map in a webinar through Early Childhood Investigations Webinars: Nature-Based Learning: Inspiring & Supporting Staff to Help Children Learn With Nature.
This webinar, designed to support program leaders and administrators, focused on the steps to support your team to make the shift to a nature-based approach—and keep them happy and inspired along the way. You can watch the recording here.
Whether you watch or not, I hope you’ll continue thinking about how you can inspire others to embrace the nature-based approach.
While it can feel slow, the more we inspire folks the more real, long-lasting change we’ll see in nature-based education–which means more young children experiencing the wonders of the natural world.
Keep changing lives,
Rachel
Rachel A. Larimore, Ph.D., Chief Visionary of Samara Learning
