Abstract

Aim.  This study aims to analyze the perceptions of alternative education in the La Fábrica de Sueños (Dream Factory) project. The project aimed at the reforestation of consciousness and the cultural transformation in seven-year-old children from educational institutions for the care of nature and coexistence.

Methodology.  The methodology focuses on the systematization of an experience that parents, teaching staff, and children lived. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, stories, and drawings; it was analyzed with the Atlas ti program based on qualitative research and categorical analysis. Coincidences, relationships, and correlations were established through the central category of reforestation of awareness and the following five axial categories: personal empowerment, human being, self-awareness, coexistence, and relationship with nature. These five categories emerged from experiences and educational commitments, focused on ethics and pedagogy.

Results.  It was found that the applied experiential approach, especially the contact with nature and art, sensitizes toward new learning from the stimulation of creativity and imagination that are motors for children’s free expression and narration. The Dream Factory project contributes to comprehensive training and leads to the children’s awakening in coexistence with their social and natural environment. The experience strengthens the development of creative, critical, and reflective thinking that starts from the empowerment and understanding of children’s vital space.

Keywords: Learning by experience; awareness; educational investigation; perception; values