Reconceptualising disability and inclusion: Enacting relational ways of knowing, being and doing with Bush Kinder

Abstract

In the past decade over 170 ‘nature kindergarten’ programs have emerged in Victoria, Australia in which children and their early childhood teachers and educators routinely engage with local places – beaches, creeks, bush, parklands - for extended periods each week. While legally and ethically mandated to include all learners and pedagogically and philosophically premised on inclusive theories, quality standards and curriculum frameworks, little is known about how these new practice approaches conceptualise and support inclusivity for children with a range of diverse abilities. Dominant positivist and developmental discourses in research concerned with ‘disability’ in early childhood educatio..