Playing with mud- becoming stuck, becoming free? … The negotiation of gendered/class identities when learning outdoors

Urban Farm DB summary

This paper explores how mud is used to form gendered and class-based identities among children aged 3–11 years old during outdoor learning. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in a school garden and two forest schools during the 2014–2015 school year. The research found that mud kitchens and waterproofs partly governed experiences by creating separations between bodies and mud, though children's encounters sometimes exceeded pedagogical functions, leading to resistances.