Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T05:26:04.891Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Logic of School Gardens: A Phenomenological Study of Teacher Rationales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2014

Simon Jorgenson
Simon Jorgenson*
Affiliation:
Educational Studies Program, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Simon Jorgenson, 6911 Windward Street, Cincinnati, OH 45227, USA. Email: simon.jorgenson@uc.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Despite the importance of teachers to the school garden movement, we still know very little about what drives particular teachers to incorporate a school garden into their pedagogy. In response, this article reports the findings of a study designed to investigate the internal processes and products involved in rationalising and sustaining teachers’ use. Analysis of interviews with three primary teachers — Laura, Meredith, and Clare — indicate that a powerful rationale is formed when teachers read their childhood memories, often idealised, against their observations of children today. This rationale is strengthened by opportunities afforded by the garden itself, which allows teachers to enact their deepest beliefs about teaching and learning and resist external controls. This study also provides evidence that a school garden can easily evoke nostalgia. The article ends by re-theorising this nostalgia as part of the ‘cultural logic’ (Enfield, 2000) of school gardens, while suggesting nostalgia's productive uses.

Keywords

school gardensnostalgiapedagogyenvironmental educationphenomenology
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , December 2013 , pp. 121 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, K., & Jack, D.C. (1991). Learning to listen: Interview techniques and analyses. In Gluck, S.B. & Patai, D. (Eds.), Women's words: The feminist practice of oral history (pp. 11–26). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Blair, D. (2009). The child in the garden: An evaluative review of the benefits of school gardening. Journal of Environmental Education, 40, 15–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowers, C.A. (2001). Educating for ecojustice and community. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.Google Scholar
Boym, S. (2001). The future of nostalgia. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Buell, L. (2005). The future of environmental criticism: Environmental crisis and literary imagination. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bushnell, M. (1999). Imagining rural life: Schooling as a sense of place. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 15, 80–89.Google Scholar
Chawla, L. (2006). Research methods to investigate significant life experiences: Review and recommendations. Environmental Education Research, 12, 359–374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutter-Mackenzie, A. (2009). Multicultural school gardens: Creating engaging garden spaces in learning about language, culture, and environment. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 14, 122–135.Google Scholar
Demarco, L.W., Relf, D., & McDaniel, A. (1999). Integrating gardening into the elementary school curriculum. HortTechnology, 9, 276–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobbs, K., Relf, D., & McDaniel, A. (1998). Survey on the needs of elementary education teachers to enhance the use of horticulture or gardening in the classroom. HortTechnology, 8, 370–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elmore, R.F. (1996). Getting to scale with good educational practice. Harvard Educational Review, 66, 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enfield, N. J. (2000). The theory of cultural logic: How individuals combine social intelligence with semiotics to create and maintain cultural meaning. Cultural Dynamics, 12, 35–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francis, M. (1995). Childhood's garden: Memory and meaning of gardens. Children's Environments, 12, 183–191.Google Scholar
Francis, M., & Hester, R.T. Jr. (Eds.) (1992). The garden as idea, place, and action. In The meaning of gardens: Idea, place, and action (pp. 2–19). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gaylie, V. (2009). The learning garden: Ecology, teaching, and transformation. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Gilligan, C., Spencer, R., Weinberg, M.K., & Bertsch, T. (2003). On the Listening Guide: A voice-centered relational model. In Camic, P.M., Rhodes, J.E., & Yardley, L. (Eds.), Qualitative research in psychology: Expanding perpectives in methodology and design (pp. 157–172). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gough, A. (1999a). Kids don't like wearing the same jeans as their mums and dads: So whose ‘life’ should be in significant life experiences research? Environmental Education Research, 5, 383–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gough, N. (1999b). Surpassing our own histories: Autobiographical methods for environmental education research. Environmental Education Research, 5, 407–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, H., Beall, D.L., Lussier, M., McLaughlin, P., & Zidenberg-Cherr, S. (2005). Use of school gardens in academic instruction. Journal of Nutrition Education Behavior, 37, 147–151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, P. (1996). Problematizing enquiry in environmental education: Issues of method in a study of teacher thinking and practice. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 1, 56–88.Google Scholar
Judson, J. (2010). A new approach to imaginative ecological education: Engaging students’ imaginations in their world. New York: Peter Lang.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, J.S., Ewing, M.S., Hyle, A.E., Montgomery, D., & Self, P.A. (2006). Women and nature: Using memory-work to rethink our relationship to the natural world. Environmental Education Research, 12, 309–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lekies, K.S., & Sheavly, M.E. (2007). Fostering children's interests in gardening. Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 6, 67–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, E., & Hanauer, N. (2011). The gardens of democracy. Seattle: Sasquatch Books.Google Scholar
Louv, R. (1990). Childhood's future. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.Google Scholar
Louv, R. (2005). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books.Google Scholar
Marcus, C.C. (1992). The garden as metaphor. In Francis, M. & Hester, R.T. Jr. (Eds.), The meaning of gardens: Idea, place, and action (pp. 26–33). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Martusewicz, R.A., Edmundson, J., & Lupinacci, J. (2011). EcoJustice education: Toward diverse, democratic, and sustainable communities. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Marx, L. (1964/2000). The machine in the garden: Technology and the pastoral ideal in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Maxwell, J.A., & Miller, B.A. (2008). Categorizing and connecting strategies in qualitative data analysis. In Leavy, P. & Hesse-Biber, S. (Eds.), Handbook of emergent methods (pp. 461–477). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Mayer-Smith, J., Bartosh, O., & Peterat, L. (2007). Teaming children and elders to grow food and environmental consciousness. Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 6, 77–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miles, M.B., & Huberman, M.A. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.Google Scholar
Miller, M.A. (2007). A rose by any other name: Environmental education through gardening. Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 6, 15–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, R.C. (1995). Children gardening: First steps towards a sustainable future. Children's Environments, 12, 222–232.Google Scholar
Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Thousand Islands, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neilson, T.L. (2010). Nostalgic narratives: Planting collective ideals in the urban garden educational movement. Social Sciences, Paper 10.Google Scholar
Neisser, U. (1988). Time present and time past. In Gruneberg, M.M., Morris, P.E., & Sykes, R.N. (Eds.), Practical aspects of memory: Current research and issues (Vol. 2, pp. 545–560). New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Ozer, E. (2007). The effects of school gardens on students and schools: Conceptualization and considerations for maximizing healthy development. Health Education and Behavior, 34, 846–863.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Payne, P.G., & Wattchow, B. (2009). Phenomenological deconstruction, slow pedagogy, and the corporeal turn in wild environmental/outdoor education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 14, 15–32.Google Scholar
Pickering, M., & Keightley, E. (2006). The modalities of nostalgia. Current Sociology, 54, 919–941.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raymund, J.F. (1995). From barnyards to backyards: An exploration through adult memories and children's narratives in search of an ideal playscape. Children's Environments, 12, 362–380.Google Scholar
Richards, L. (2009). Handling qualitative data (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Sauve, L. (2005). Currents in environmental education: Mapping a complex and evolving pedagogical field. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 10, 11–37.Google Scholar
Schutz, A. (1967). The phenomenology of the social world [Walsh, G. & Lehnert, F., Trans.]. Chicago: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Sebba, R. (1991). The landscapes of childhood: The reflection of childhood's environment in adult memories and in children's attitudes. Environment and Behavior, 23, 395–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seidman, I. (2006). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences (3rd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Skelly, S.M., & Bradley, J.C. (2000). The importance of school gardens as perceived by Florida elementary school teachers. HortTechnology, 10, 229–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, G.A. (2007). Place-based education: Breaking through the constraining regularities of public school. Environmental Education Research, 13, 189–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, H.N. (1950). Virgin land: The American West as symbol and myth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, L.L., & Mostenbrocker, C.E. (2005). Impact of hands-on science through school gardening in Louisiana public elementary schools. HortTechnology, 15, 439–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sobel, D. (1993). Children's special places: Exploring the role of forts, dens, and bush houses in middle childhood. Tucson: Zephyr Press.Google Scholar
Thorp, L. (2006). The pull of the earth: Participatory ethnography in the school garden. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. Toronto, ON: Althouse Press.Google Scholar
Wake, S.J. (2008). ‘In the best interests of the child’: Juggling the geography of children's gardens (between adult agendas and children's needs). Children's Geographies, 6, 423–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, D.R., & Brown, J.D. (2012). Learning gardens and sustainability education: Bringing life to schools and schools to life. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Williams, R. (1973). The country and the city. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, J.L. (2005). Nostalgia. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press.Google Scholar