ABSTRACT
Traditional stories and books shared with children in the United States often include negative or misleading messages about environmental identities and behaviors, such as the importance of individualism or natural resource abundance. These stories frame children’s expectations about the world, known as autobiographical memories, that subsequently influence how they interpret their interactions with the human and non-human world and their ecocultural identities. In Chapter 27 of the Routledge Handbook of Ecocultural Identity, Audley, Stein, and Ginsburg extend narrative identity development to include ecocultural identity and argue for the importance of co-constructing ecoresiliency frames with children as they begin to develop their life stories. Ecoresiliency frames are interpretations and responses to life events that are responsive, persistent, and anticipatory in adaptation, and capable of fostering relational empathy toward the non-human world. As a point of intervention, preschool teachers can help reframe young children’s everyday experiences, including their beloved books, using an ecoresiliency frame. Co-constructing an ecoresiliency frame with children through personal reminiscing and group discussions can challenge and problematize commonly accepted U.S. frames, such as bootstrap or abundance notions, in order to provide children with the building blocks for developing Earth regenerative ecocultural identities.
