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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
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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 

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