Insects: Conservation, Perceptions, and Early Education

Why do humans prefer some insects over others? Why are we scared of insects that are harmless? How does our negative or confused attitude towards these animals impact conservation efforts? What influences beliefs in our early years of life? Elizabeth argues that we need to think critically about the messaging that children receive about insects and that we need to promote early development of positive perceptions of insects if we are to protect these vulnerable creatures. This talk is based on a recently published book chapter.

Boileau E.Y.S., & Russell, C. (2018). Insect and Human Flourishing in Early Childhood Education: Learning and Crawling Together. In A. Cutter-Mackenzie, K. Malone, & E. Barratt Hacking (Eds.), Research Handbook on Childhoodnature. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_65-1

Speaker: Elizabeth Boileau

Elizabeth is a doctoral student at Lakehead University in the Educational Studies program. Her research is focused on early childhood environmental education, which includes child-nature relationships and outdoor preschool programs such as Forest Schools. Elizabeth is also an Instructor at Grande Prairie Regional College, in the Child Care and Early Education diploma program. She is currently working on her Forest School Canada Practitioner training course and is a Board member of the Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication.