Katy
Doncaster
School of Architecture and Landscape
PhD Candidate
Full contact details
School of Architecture and Landscape
Arts Tower
- Profile
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I am a freelance creative and outdoors practitioner of thirty years, working in community, education and health settings. I devise and deliver sessions with people of different ages and abilities, with a variety of educational, cultural and environmental organisations. I use visual arts, forest school and therapeutic horticulture in my work, and I am also a visual artist, creating photography, print, textiles and pewter casting.
Alongside my creative practice, I have taught undergraduates as a visiting lecturer on modules in education in alternative settings, and master's students on modules in community arts. For ten years, I ran creative arts sessions for home educating young people. I currently teach art in a mainstream primary school, as well as providing continuing professional development for staff.
Thesis title: Can children’s experiences of forest school in the UK, revealed through creative, child-centred methods add value to current understandings of nature based learning?
In my work as a freelance FS practitioner, I have experienced the mainstreaming of FS in the UK orthodox primary education system and the tensions and differences between the two perspectives. I feel that a consequence of this has been an oversimplification and undervaluing of children’s perspectives of their FS and nature experiences. I question whether challenges and missed opportunities might be occurring as a result, and that some benefits of FS are being attributed to nature contact alone, the full value of FS not being appreciated.If children’s voices are better heard and made part of the research process, there could be an opportunity to support educators to understand and appreciate children’s lived experiences of FS. This may lead to a better understanding of children’s relationship to nature and of which elements of FS are particularly important and impactful for children. Additionally, the creative methodology used in my research may be of value for landscape architect researchers, in supporting children’s voices and co-production as part of nature-spaces consultation and research.
This research may also contribute to the discussion about nature and wellbeing for children, which is not well understood, and is important in landscape architecture. In addition to greater understanding of how natural environments might support children’s developmental needs, the development of methodological tools for understanding children’s experiences and world view in this research might support co-creation of informed children’s environments, for example in play or education.Supervisors: Dr Bridget Snaith (1st supervisor, Architecture and Landscape), Dr Helen Hoyle (2nd supervisor, Architecture and Landscape).Previous education and employment history:
- 2024: joined University of Sheffield as a PhD student
- 2019: Diploma in Social and Therapeutic Horticulture (distinction), Coventry University
- 2012: Level 3 Forest School Leader
- 2002: MA Integrative Arts in Health and Education, University of Derby
- 1995 to present: Freelance creative practitioner, visual artist
- 1990: BSc (Hons) Psychology, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne