(2012). Real world research: a resource for users of social research methods in applied settings (3rd ed.) Journal of Education for Teaching: Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 513-515.

Pastoral care in education may take many forms but increasing emphasis on education for sustainable development (ESD) and concern about children’s disconnection from nature suggests that our understanding of care should perhaps encompass the more than human world. The study described in this article examines longer term perspectives on well-being and looks at the possible benefits of environmental action for happiness and positive functioning. Considering the role of memory in the reconstruction of a past experience of tree planting, we suggest that well-being is constantly being reframed within the flux of life course and education. From survey responses and subsequent discussion groups in secondary schools exploring such memories, a deeper understanding of what well-being and connectedness to nature mean to young people within this case study is achieved. We note interdependencies between personal and planetary well-being within respondents’ reflections and consider whether experiences of environmental action and its positioning as an act of altruism for the greater good might provide a source of positive feelings for young people not only at the time, but through subsequent recollection.

A collaboration between the third sector and a university in Southwest England, the Good from Woods project investigated wellbeing outcomes of time spent in woodland through action research by a range of woodland practitioners. The research reported in this article explores relations between children aged 3–15 years and trees in an adventure playground set in woodland regrowth on an old municipal tip. The innovative arts-based methodology highlights playful, imaginative and affective place-based play. We examine the flows of activity amongst human and nonhuman in this environment and consider how this place and its materiality supported intra-play between trees and children, nonhuman and human inhabitants. Our analysis interweaves post-paradigmatic new materialism with ideas of cultureplaces leading us towards an understanding of place as children’s (unequal) partner in intra-play.

Policy makers are challenged to find ways of influencing and supporting land manager behaviours and actions to deal with the impacts of increasing pressure from tree pests and diseases. This paper investigates attitudes and behaviours of farmers towards managing trees on farmland for pests and diseases. Data collection with farmers included deliberative workshops and semi-structured interviews. Data were thematically analyzed using the COM-B (Capacity/Opportunity/Motivation-Behaviour) model to understand the drivers of farmer behaviour for tree health. Results suggested farmers had some knowledge, experience and skills managing trees, but they did not recognize this capacity. Social norms and networks impacted the context of opportunity to act for tree health, along with access to trusted advice and labour, and the costs associated with management action. Motivational factors such as self-efficacy, perceived benefits of acting, personal interest and sense of agency were impacted by farmers’ self-identity as food producers. The COM-B model also provides a framework for identifying intervention design through a Behaviour Change Wheel. This suggests that enhancing self-efficacy supported by the right kind of advice and guidance, framed and communicated in farmers’ terms and brokered by appropriate knowledge intermediaries, seems critical to building action amongst different farmer types and attitudinal groups.