It is the mission of the times to cultivate ecological views of nature in both urban and rural preschool children. Clarifying their nature views and the differences between them is crucial for achieving this goal. 301 preschool children from urban and rural areas in their final year of kindergarten were taken as participants and phenomenography is employed as the research method to analyze the nature views constructed by urban and rural preschool children and their differences from the perspective of nature connectedness. The results reveal that the nature view constructed by urban preschool children is a humanized nature transformed through human practices. Additionally, there is a certain degree of nature deficit disorder. On the other hand, the nature view of rural preschool children, to some extent, reflects the ecological view of nature in which humans continuously transform the pristine nature into a humanized nature through practice. Significant differences exist between urban and rural preschool children in their cognitive representations, emotional experiences, and behavioral manifestations of their nature views. Both groups lack understanding and awareness of nature conservation. Besides, they display anthropocentrism characterized by a “subject-object dichotomy.” Thus, strengthening nature connectedness can help promote children’s construction of ecological nature views.

Yanrui Li, Yunjia Liang. A Study on the Differences in Nature Views between Urban and Rural Preschool Children: An Analysis Based on Phenomenography. Frontiers in Educational Research(2025), Vol. 8, Issue 4: 66-74. https://doi.org/10.25236/FER.2025.080410.

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