Small Matters is an educational response to the existential crisis brought about by climate change, species extinction, environmental decline, the Ukraine war and the pandemic. Death and dying have become more real for children in Finland. Responding to their experiences is critical for multispecies wellbeing. This community project brings together ‘small matters' as political agents in private and public spaces: young children, viruses, insects, microbes, plastics, the digital – (non)human bodies usually excluded from conversations about death and education research. The research design comprises four progressive research phases using (post)qualitative methods from the arts, social sciences, education and philosophy. This transdisciplinary collaboration changes how we think about ‘the human' through the concept ‘smallness'. It reimagines death and produces new scientific knowledge and educational materials about when and how to engage with children about multispecies death and dying.

2023

2027