A realistic nostalgia for the future — exploring materials and material utterings in a preschool for sustainability

Abstract

In Nordic kindergarten, activities with materials have had a significant position historically. The Norwegian term “forming” includes both the material-based craftwork and the art area. Research shows that creative activity with materials constitutes a smaller part of the content in the kindergarten than before. The aim of this article is 1) to provide a historical overview of the subject forming, 2) to put this retrospectively into an epistemological context that points towards 3) an actualization in relation to the UN Sustainability Goals and children’s right to expression according to the UN Convention. The article is based on an ethnographic study in kindergarten and an article on the topic written in Norwegian (Carlsen, 2015, 2022). The discussion illuminates how the anchoring of forming in natural and cultural materials is lifted into a sustainability perspective and how a shift in theoretical perspectives opens new understandings and contributes to the kindergarten’s content.