Ecological Representations in Childhood and Lifestyles

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse the different conceptions of the symbolic functions of representations.
Based on this we explore if boys and girls of different cultures and age groups show
similarities in their ways of understanding life and how it is maintained.
We studied two pictures of an imaginary island drawn by six to twelve year-old children
from Argentina, Colombia, Spain and Great Britain. One of the pictures represented
the island as they would see it on arrival to the island and the other one represented
the island one year later.
The pictures allowed us to approach the ecological representations of the children in
their different countries as well as the transformations that they introduce in the natural environment to adapt to it.