Activity 3.5 | Curriculum Making with Place

Listening to Children's Voices

Children are deeply connected to and shaped by the contexts in which they live. 

• How can we ground learning in the unique circumstances of each child’s life? 
• How might we nurture their capacity to learn from the land where they play and grow? 
  • By listening to children’s voices, we can gain valuable insights into how they perceive and make sense of the world around them.
• How might we cultivate opportunities for children to learn not just on the land but from the land, the soils, plants, animals, and histories of the places they call home? 
  • By inviting children to engage with their surroundings, we encourage them to develop a sense of stewardship, belonging, and interconnectedness with the world around them.

Listening to children’s voices is essential in this process. When we pay close attention to their thoughts, questions, and stories, we gain a deeper understanding of their perspectives and how they interpret their place in the world. 

Their insights can challenge us to rethink what it means to teach and to learn, emphasizing the importance of co-creating knowledge that reflects their lived realities. Supporting this kind of learning requires intentionality, humility, and a commitment to creating spaces where children’s voices are valued, their experiences are centred, and their relationships with the land and community are nurtured. Through this, we enrich their understanding of the world and deepen our own. When we deeply listen to children’s voices, we can better understand who that child is and their experiences within their surroundings. 

As you explore the resources provided in this activity (on the following page), consider: 

• How might you provide contextual experiences for children that ground children in the place in which they live? 
• Children live in urban contexts; how might we embrace the learning that urban contexts have to provide?