Mejora del espacio exterior escolar desde la participación comunitaria

Zusammenfassung

The present article describes the process of community participation that was carried out in order to make improvements on outdoor school environments. A total of 1001 children, 54 parents, and 94 teachers from 7 early childhood education centers participated in the endeavor. All schools entered the project with traditional playgrounds and an educational context that granted them limited pedagogical importance with respect to either time or space. Additionally, the design of the outdoor environments allowed little contact with nature and low availability of any setting rich in offerings or resources that might meet the personal interests of the students. After the intervention, there were clear improvements in the quality of the outdoor school environments, specifically in the quality of the play and learning areas, as well as in the integration into the curriculum of the outdoor environment. It is important to recognize the value of the outdoor school environment as a highly useful pedagogical resource that can have a positive influence on child psychosocial development. Furthermore, we emphasize the importance of community participation in intervention processes for the improvement of the school context.