Spatial Thinking with Children: Limits, Attachments, and Terrestrial Design for All the Living

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 11:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Young Children's Engagement in Culturally Relevant and Sustaining STEM

Abstract

This paper responds to AERA's 2026 call expressing concerns on practices of futuring in education. It engages with Terrestrial politics, a concept advanced by Bruno Latour, that argues ecological thinking requires reorientation to the spaces we inhabit and how we make these spaces inclusive for all the living. Through four workshops with Year 4 children, using block play and architectural drawing, the study explores how children co-composed space through material and relational engagements. Findings show that children became attuned to spatial limits, dependencies, and attachments, challenging dominant models of participation in urban policy frameworks. The study contributes to posthuman childhood studies and urban policy by positioning children as active spatial thinkers shaping inclusive, ecologically responsive futures.

Author

• Laura Trafi-Prats, Manchester Metropolitan University