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

Urban Farm DB summary

A phenomenological study interviewed three Australian primary school teachers — Laura, Meredith, and Clare — to investigate the internal processes behind teachers' rationales for incorporating school gardens into their teaching. Analysis showed that teachers form a strong rationale by reading their own, often idealized, childhood memories against their observations of children today, a rationale reinforced by opportunities the garden itself affords for enacting deep beliefs about teaching and learning and resisting external control. The study also provides evidence that school gardens readily evoke nostalgia, and re-theorizes this nostalgia as part of the "cultural logic" of school gardens.