Abstract:
Place-based education provides a creative alternative to the nationalised school curriculum agenda particularly through food gardens and ecological restoration projects in schools. Many of these places are located in and around the immediate environment of a school ground and become educational portals through which children explore their world.
In this paper I will report on the literature reviewed for a study on how pedagogies of place are cultivated within garden experiences. There is little research about the use of school gardens as an educational tool and the pedagogies that support learning in this context. There are a number of themes that emerge from various bodies of literature that provide a conceptual framework for the study of school garden pedagogies. These themes include ecological literacy, nature as teacher and garden as place. It is useful to think about primary school gardens in the light of this literature because it helps frame a research question for a study into how pedagogies of place can be cultivated within food gardens.
In this paper I will report on the literature reviewed for a study on how pedagogies of place are cultivated within garden experiences. There is little research about the use of school gardens as an educational tool and the pedagogies that support learning in this context. There are a number of themes that emerge from various bodies of literature that provide a conceptual framework for the study of school garden pedagogies. These themes include ecological literacy, nature as teacher and garden as place. It is useful to think about primary school gardens in the light of this literature because it helps frame a research question for a study into how pedagogies of place can be cultivated within food gardens.