It’s been fantastic to see more and more news stories recently highlighting the need for children to engage in risky play. The latest illustration of this – Kids Gone Wild – offers some wonderful insights into Danish forest kindergartens run by highly qualified pedagogues. With quite literally stunning images of small children climbing tall trees, whittling sticks with sharp knives and playing together in open water, the report shows the close connection between risk, adventure and learning. It is impressive just how quickly and naturally children learn about risk and develop a very astute sense of their own physical abilities and competence – if they are actually given opportunities to engage in risky play and are trusted by adults to explore the world on their own terms.

 

It is also telling that in countries like Denmark, with a vibrant tradition of social pedagogy, risk-taking is seen as beneficial for children rather than as dangerous. It is not only that actually bad things very rarely happen when children are allowed to take risks – the pedagogue in the film mentions that in his 17-year work at the forest kindergarten, only once did he have to take a child to hospital (because a parent accidentally drove their car over the child’s foot). In fact, really good things happen within the process. Where children grow up with opportunities to test their mental, emotional and physical abilities, to develop them by challenging themselves to dive a little deeper than they have previously done, jump off a rock that’s a little higher than the last one, or climb a little higher than before, they usually have a very astute sense of where their boundaries are, how competent they are and what is still beyond their abilities. In social pedagogy, this ability to understand, assess and safely take risks is often referred to as risk competence. Children who have had opportunities to develop their physical abilities and motor skills, a good sense of balance and rhythm and to experience their bodily limits will be more risk competent in activities such as climbing a tree than children who have little or no sense of coordination, of gravity, of how much weight their arms will hold. This doesn’t just make a difference when it comes to safely climbing a tree, it affects children’s entire everyday life. Evidence suggests that accidents are more likely to have serious consequences for those children who are not used to taking risks and develop risk competence than for those who have learned how to run without losing control, how to land when jumping, how to fall without hurting themselves. In order to develop risk competence children require opportunities to experience risk situations first-hand in order to make both cognitive and emotional sense of risks as well as their ability to assess and manage such situations.

Whilst more and more research points to the importance of risk-taking and practice examples such as the Danish forest kindergarten show how this can be facilitated safely, unfortunately, research also highlights that culturally we’ve yet to implement these lessons and strengthen the case for risky play. It is important not to underestimate the significance of our collective approach to risk. Protecting children from risks and managing those for them does not simply mean that we do not develop their risk competence – it means that we are keeping them in a bubble of pretend safety, a bubble that is destined to burst sooner or later. Furthermore, by preventing them from acquiring essential skills to understand, analyse, emotionally cope with and master risky situations, we are also limiting our collective resourcefulness as a society. Life in what sociologists refer to as ‘risk society’ relies on us better understanding the many small and large, predictable and unpredictable, visible and invisible risks around us and on our ability to use this knowledge for our collective safety. Enabling children to develop risk competence is therefore not just about their well-being, it also has potentially a profound impact on the shape of our society in the future.

In a world of uncertainty, where the ways in which we solve problems, innovate, collaborate, perceive and think matter more than the hard knowledge we have acquired, we must equip children to not be afraid of risk but to respect it, to not let fear hold them back but to guide them forwards. Admittedly, this is no easy task. It requires from parents, practitioners, policy-makers, regulators and others to take their own risks, to be prepared to let go and let children explore freely.

In the end, the question is this: What world do we want to contribute to? A world where children don’t play outside, don’t take risks, move less, grow obese, are less active and develop more physical and mental health issues? Or a world where children have stimulating play opportunities in their communities, where they can explore and develop their ability to assess and master risk situations, where they learn to solve problems, collaborate and imagine, where their bodies and their minds are active and engaged and where they enjoy a sense of well-being as a result? Which of these worlds is likely to produce the innovators and leaders that our societies will need in the future? We must remember that the choice over the world we want to help create is ours.

 

If you’d like to find out more about a social pedagogical approach to developing risk competence, please check out our article on risk competence or get in touch with us.

As a social enterprise we have been committed to serving a wider purpose and being an organisation with a difference from the start. In coaching other organisations to develop social pedagogy within their practice and culture, we feel strongly that social pedagogical principles must also apply to the ways we work as an organisation both externally and internally. We want to nurture authentic relationships, focus on strengths and potential, create meaningful learning, encourage a sense of empowerment and celebrate the profound sense of joy that comes from making a positive difference. Our journey towards becoming a TEAL organisation – described by Frederic Laloux in his influential book Reinventing Organizations as organisations characterised by self-management, wholeness and evolutionary purpose – is now enabling us to translate these principles more effectively into our own structures and internal practices in ways that feel very congruent with what attracted us to ThemPra in the first place. We’ve always been purpose-driven, and now feel even more encouraged to make our purpose central to everything and listen more to it. We have also aspired to provide a soulful organisational culture in which we each can bring in all our sides as human beings and form authentic relationships – and in our experience this has been one of the most important reasons for our success as a pioneering organisation. As a virtual team engaged in a variety of projects, our different team members have always shown a high level of self-management. As an emerging teal organisation we now see self-management not just as a necessity but value it even more as an asset. Adopting the advice process to make decisions has meant that we make better decisions, make them faster and more inclusively and that we all feel trusted to take responsibility. We’ve been fortunate to have found an excellent external consultant in Judy Rees whose support has helped us develop towards a TEAL organisation and has offered us a clear sense of direction and connectedness both to our inner motivations and to a wider movement – a sense that what we do as an organisation has a sound foundation, that we’re not successful despite the ways in which we operate but because of them. Frederic Laloux’s research has been truly inspirational and, together with Judy’s brilliant coaching, provided us with new ideas and ways to work through the challenges that characterise meaningful change.

We’re incredibly excited about this emerging organisational model, which has received more attention recently (see BBC Radio 4 programme) and can be found in a wide variety of sectors. We strongly feel that, with its emphasis on trust and autonomy, wholeness and purpose, TEAL has much to offer to social care organisations. We are always happy to share more insights into our journey towards TEAL and to support other organisations in reinventing themselves. Please feel free to get in touch with us to find out more.

The next SPDN event, which will be hosted by the University of Central Lancashire on 3/4 December 2015 for up to 250 professionals, is dedicated to scaling up social pedagogy. Through the event we want to explore ways in which we can individually and jointly develop social pedagogy further, drawing on experiences from pioneering organisations and the latest research in implementation science. Whilst the complexities of moving beyond good intentions and achieving change in the real world mean that there isn’t a step-by-step guide to implementing social pedagogy, there are many ways in which we can take social pedagogy forward within our spheres of influence and create the conditions for further change. We hope that participants will leave both with new ideas of how scaling may occur systematically and a sense of organic growth/scaling.

Registration for the event will open in early October, so please check back soon or add your name to the SPDN distribution list.