2019 Annual Conference

Sustainability and Environmental Adult Education

Concurrent Session (45 minutes)

Significant changes have occurred in 26 years to Japanese children’s playgrounds. The stages of the playground design process are based on an adult perspective to encourage children to play more in today’s changing society. The analysis of this design parallels the successes and failures of sustainability education in America.

Individuals (e.g., community educators, senior learning specialists, environmentalists or urban planners, sociologists, or psychologists) interested in the impact of changing family structures (e.g., smaller family units, more females in the workforce, declining birth rates, higher aging population), changes in the environment and sustainability, less emphasis on the world of play for children (e.g., more technological devices, reduced play at home, fewer areas for community play, nature schools, nature educational activities, intergenerational communication or events, shared space with the elderly).

Children’s play spaces are under threat in Japan due to increased urbanization. Planned playgrounds and open spaces are drastically being reduced near homes and schools. The children are being neglected in the decision-making processes as less and less sustainable areas are present for play.
Play is valued in the Japanese culture as part of the growth ritual for children and adults. “Playscapes” have been introduced as an alternative to natural learning environments. Studies have reported the presence of playground equipment and artificial plazas tend to negatively affect the diversity of play that exists when natural elements are present.

With changing ages, the methods of play are changing as well as the characteristics of the play space. Many present-day children are engaging in monotonous and determined play that does not activate their creativity or expose them to challenges of a natural landscape. Design impacts use.  If more areas are created to use the natural elements as part of the play experience, more adults and children may be re-introduce to the environment and place greater value on what is there.

"More attention should be paid to creating the kind of space that serves as amusement and is a fun atmosphere, to explore the correlations among them or some fuzzy field, rather than creating a tough division into play behaviors and space characteristics. In the meantime, playability should be considered along with the perspective of children to solve the problem of shrinking play equipment or play areas, as children are being lured away by electronic games as a result of social development." (Qin, Q., Nakamura, K.W.,Yamamoto, K., & Shimomura, A. (2019) Sustainability 2019, 11(7),2127 doi:10.3390/su11072127

Adult educators, environmentalists, urban planners, community educators, and sustainability gurus need to join forces in providing natural, engage spaces for youth, seniors and even ourselves.

Entire session will encourage the audience to be actively engaged in the problem identified and the solutions that may be possible. The leader will 1) Quiz audience through a computer-generated questionnaire via padlet or similar tool; 2) Have the audience engage in a memory exercise related to their “playgrounds of the past”; 3) If time and space allows, pull suggestions from the audience as to the players needed to redesign spaces for children and adults that meets sustainability requirements needed in the future using papers and markers. Suggested sustainability handouts will be provided.