Agricultural Education in an Elementary School: An Ethnographic Study of a School Garden
Laurie Thorp, Christine D. Townsend
Urban Farm DB summary
An ethnographic case study of an agricultural-education garden-based curriculum at an elementary school in the Midwestern United States, seeking a phenomenological understanding of its impact on students and teachers. Data were collected through participant observation, dialogue, interviews, photo elicitation and student work, and analyzed using Lincoln and Guba's constant comparative method. Findings were that the garden: (1) reshapes school culture; (2) serves as a leverage point reversing loss of time, control and place; (3) connects students to experience as an organizing principle; (4) becomes a site for student and teacher self-expression, creativity and innovation; and (5) shifts food's status from a consumable commodity to a portal for communal good.