Paper short abstract:

School projects often aim at leading children to specific directions and giving them tools and opportunities to elaborate. Forest school in a superdiverse context seems to be generating unpredicted outcomes which may allow children to build their own grammar to interact in unexpected ways.

Paper long abstract:

This paper presents an ongoing anthropological investigation at a primary school in Hackney, London where pupils from different backgrounds are experiencing a super diverse context. My inquiry is cast on an innovative project developed around environmental issues. I have chosen to focus especially on a case study called "Forest School": children are allowed to play and interact with nature and each-other, they spend time doing activities such as climbing trees and making fire in the little forest on the school grounds. The school runs this project to produce awareness of outdoor play and to increase learning outcomes for all disciplines.

Outdoor activities positively influence not only children's learning but also their interaction. Children go beyond cultural and social class differences and elaborate new patterns of socialisation when engaged in a neutral outdoor environment. The question that this research is leading to is: Can children embrace superdiversity and build up a sense of global citizenship? Can Anthropology and participant observation among children answer this question or is it necessary to involve the children themselves in a participatory research?