Peer-reviewed article
Nurturing existential resilience through wandering and wondering in early childhood education and care
Linda Eriksson, Ann-Christin Furu ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study explores how wandering and wondering—unstructured exploration and curious inquiry—can help young children develop existential resilience in early childhood settings. Researchers observed a group of 13 three- and four-year-old children on a walk in their local environment with educators, analyzing how departing from planned routes creates moments of wonder and deeper connection to the world. The practice encourages children and educators to pay attention to the extraordinary in everyday moments rather than pursuing predetermined learning outcomes.
Key points
- Wandering and wondering can nurture children's existential resilience and sense of connection
- Unplanned deviations from predetermined routes create 'pockets of wonder' for children
- The approach values attentiveness to the ordinary and more-than-human world over concrete knowledge outcomes
- The study drew on filmed observations and speculative vignettes to analyze the pedagogical practice
- The practice deepens children's curiosity and attunement to their environment
Limitations
This is a qualitative, observational study of one walk with one group of children, so it cannot demonstrate causal effects or whether the approach leads to measurable changes in resilience over time. The study does not compare this approach to other pedagogical methods or measure outcomes quantitatively.
Abstract
Drawing on Matteo Cattaneo's notion of w/o/andering and Alison Clark's work on slow knowledge, the authors explore how wandering and wondering can serve as a pedagogical practice to nurture children's existential resilience within early childhood education and care. The inquiry is based on a filmed and observed walk in the local surrounding environment undertaken by a group of 13 children (aged three to four) and three adults in an early childhood education and care setting. Through an engagement with speculative vignettes, thinking with theory becomes a method for exploring how the courage to deviate from pre-planned routes, both physical and mental, holds possibilities for pockets of wonder. Such pockets emerge when educators and children allow themselves to dwell in moments that do not necessarily aim at producing concrete answers or predetermined knowledge outcomes. Instead, these moments cultivate an attentiveness to the extraordinary within the seemingly ordinary, nurturing children's attunement to the human and more-than-human world in ways that deepen their sense of connection, curiosity, and existential resilience.