Research & reports

Lucy Harding · Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry · Global

This paper examines the diffractive connectedness of spaces among education, nature, academia, and community. It follows a project where trainee teachers and a community garden volunteer group used photography and poetry to connect in cross-community education spaces. The author documents a discomfort emerging from these encounters, reflecting on their entanglement with philosophical posthuman and feminist new materialist ideas.

Sun–A Jung · The Global Association of Applied Liberal Arts Studies · Global

This study investigated the effects of environment-friendly urban agricultural education. It found that participants mostly used chemicals for pest control, though some avoided them for safety and environmental reasons. Those who completed the education perceived a higher possibility of solving urban environmental problems and used less manure, with some producing their own.

Deni Permana · ANTASENA Governance and Innovation Journal · Global

This analysis evaluated the impact of school garden programs on students' nutritional status and nutritious food intake, using surveys, interviews, and nutritional status measurements before and after program implementation. School gardens positively impacted students' nutrition knowledge and increased fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, contributing to a reduction in malnutrition prevalence with significant increases in children's weight and height. However, the program's success was constrained by budget limitations and a lack of training for educators, highlighting the need for adequate training, stable financial support, and curriculum integration.

Gracie Pekarcik Carter, David Ader, Tom Gill, Jennifer Richards · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Cambodia

The impact of parental involvement on scaling agricultural technologies from school gardens to home farms was assessed among 178 parents whose children attend three high schools in three districts of Cambodia. Results indicated that 84% of parents were interested in visiting a school garden, 65% believed they could learn from their children, and 72% actively discussed school learning with their children. However, parental involvement in school activities varied by region, with household rurality influencing family social ties and proximity to the school.

Jung-Ho Byeon, Yong-Ju Kwon · Journal of Baltic Science Education · Global

This study developed a biology class program where students constructed a virtual world and explored living organisms using a digital twin platform, addressing challenges of frequent outdoor inquiry in school gardens. Researchers assessed changes in students' affective domain. The experimental group showed more positive changes in the affective domain of learning biology compared to the control group, attributed to replicating the school garden for indoor and outdoor exploration.

Fabio Aislant Moreno · GACETA DE PEDAGOGÍA · Global

This documentary review analyzed 18 articles published between 2018 and 2022 to examine agroecological school gardens as a didactic strategy for sustainability. The analysis found that such gardens, when oriented towards education for sustainable development, should involve cooperative learning processes from a transversal perspective. It concluded that agroecological school gardens are key to developing socio-critical skills in students through theoretical and practical work, enhancing their sensitivity to environmental problems.

Filippos Evangelou · European Journal of Education Studies · Greece (Ioannina)

This paper analyzes the design and implementation of a teaching scenario for creating a school garden using the inquiry method, implemented by students aged 6 to 12 years old at the 9th Primary School of Intercultural Education in Ioannina, Greece, from September 2018 to June 2019. The main purpose of the scenario's implementation is to create the school garden through practical daily teaching and learning activities and an inquiry approach, forming a culture among students about sustainability and sustainable development.

Karolina Zubel · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Jordan

This policy paper explores the potential of urban farming in Jordan to address pressing issues of food security, climate-induced risks, and socioeconomic vulnerability in urban centers. Urban farming is identified as a crucial solution to feed vulnerable groups, enhance cities' resilience and employment opportunities, act as a center for community engagement and youth education, and provide ecological benefits. The paper also examines stakeholders' perceptions, beneficiaries, inclusivity in decision-making processes, and governance challenges related to urban farm development.

Véronique Saint-Gès, Hugo de Vergès · Frontiers for Young Minds · Global

This article introduces urban agriculture, explaining what it is, how it is practiced, and the benefits it provides. It highlights urban agriculture as a way to provide fresh, local food for city residents and to reintroduce nature into urban environments.

Samuel Ikendi, Michael S. Retallick, Gail R. Nonnecke, Donald R. Kugonza · Journal of Agricultural Education · Global

This study investigated the influence of a school garden-based service-learning program on the academic development of alumni (n = 274) from 2006-2019. A self-administered questionnaire, completed by 94.2% of alumni, revealed three components of program activities: community engagement (including school gardening, bi-national team projects, farmer field visits, and school teaching assistance), reflexive actions (such as journaling, critical reflections, and presentations), and social life (including co-curricular activities, tours, and social parties). The findings suggested that alumni could benefit from more instructor-led cognitive development activities.

Yichen Ma · International Journal of Environmental Sustainability and Protection · Global

This article explores participatory community gardening theory and practices, using an old community as an example, to find ways to establish and grow community gardens for residents. It aims to provide a reference for establishing community gardens and exploring sustainable methods within urban micro-renewal, especially in response to challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic affecting residents' access to necessities.

Govinda Prasad Devkota · Pragyaratna प्रज्ञारत्न · Nepal

This participatory action research in a public high school in Nepal explored the applicability of urine diversion toilets for organic vegetable production and sanitation improvement. It found that urine diversion toilets prevent surface water pollution and improve students' hygiene. Additionally, using human urine as fertilizer increased vegetable production by 40% compared to animal fertilizer in plots of the same area.

Grace Gardner, Wendy Burton, Maddie Sinclair, Maria Bryant · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · Global

A scoping review following Arksey and O'Malley's methodology searched Scopus and grey literature to identify interventions aimed at strengthening the environmental sustainability of school food systems; of 6,016 records screened, 24 were included. The most common intervention types were sustainably designed school lunch menus, school food waste reduction, sustainability education delivered through school gardens, and dietary interventions with an added environmental component, and the review concluded that further research is needed to establish the effectiveness of these interventions.

Rachael Walshe, Lisa Law · Cities · Global

This paper presents a novel research method combining the "walking interview" method with a "free listing technique," applied with teachers at a north Queensland primary school in a rapidly urbanising neighbourhood, as part of a larger project exploring the barriers and opportunities of incorporating community gardens -- as important green spaces -- into schools. It reflectively analyses how simple factors such as weather, noise and interruptions shaped 20 minutes of a teacher's day, and considers how conditioned and situational temporalities and more-than-human influences affect the knowledge produced in such rapid walking interviews.

Ahmad Shukry Yahya, Nur Bahiah Mohamed Haris, Jasmin Arif Shah, Nurulnadiatulamira Ahmad Zaki · International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences · Global

A concept paper aiming to explore the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) factors influencing the adoption of urban farming. It outlines urban farming's potential benefits — improved access to fresh produce, reduced food transportation costs, community health improvements, and contributions to greenhouse gas reduction and biodiversity — and reviews existing approaches that treat KAP factors individually versus as a holistic model, aiming to deepen understanding of the KAP model as applied to urban farming adoption. No empirical data is presented.

Meike Rombach, David Dean · Frontiers in Horticulture · Global

A study on urban food foraging examines key factors determining consumers' willingness to try foraged food, spend time and effort on it, accept risk, and commit to food foraging. A conceptual model — in which general perceptions of nature, food foraging, and COVID-19 shape three specific attitudes toward food foraging, which in turn drive four behavioral intentions — was tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Results show the strongest drivers of willingness to try are approval of responsible foraging activities and individual benefits of foraging. For willingness to spend extra time and effort, all predictors had some impact. For willingness to accept risk, approval of responsible foraging activities and societal benefits were influential. For commitment to food foraging, individual and societal benefits were the most important drivers.

Abigail M. Decker, Scott A. Morrison · The Journal of Environmental Education · Global

An exploratory study examined how gender is communicated, experienced and constructed in nature-based education (NBE), based on 30 hours of fieldwork at one private outdoor preschool and two public elementary school garden clubs. The analysis identified four sites where gender socialization occurs in NBE: materials, spaces, conversations and educators. While gender-coded human-made objects tend to be fewer outdoors, the study argues that environmental educators must be intentional and explicit about curating a gender-decoded learning space, recognizing how gender is constructed by and for children and communicated and experienced, and must foster understandings of gender beyond the binary.

Kamal Prasad Acharya, Chitra Bahadur Budhathoki, Birgitte Bjønness, Krishna Prasad Duwadi · Advances in educational marketing, administration, and leadership book series · Nepal

A participatory action research study (observe-plan-act-reflect) involving students, teachers and parents as co-researchers examined a school-garden project at a public school in Nepal. The garden functioned as a "living laboratory" for learning about flora, fauna and their interrelations, and transformed teaching into a mix of indoor and outdoor sessions. Students developed a sense of responsibility for environmental conservation and were positioned as "junior scientists" caring for the garden, with parents, teachers and students engaging in it as a co-curricular activity.

B. BOLOU-BI Emile, Philippe GUETY Thierry, TRAORE Adama, KONE Brahima · African Journal of Agricultural Research · Global

To evaluate the effect of biochar on tomato production in acidic soil, a complete randomized block design with 5 replications tested four treatments: 0% (T0, control), 8% (T1), 12% (T2) and 16% (T3) biochar application, measuring plant height, stem diameter, leaf number, fruit number and biomass. Plants receiving biochar (T1, T2, T3) were taller than the unamended control (T0); T1 plants averaged 12±2 fruits per plant, while T0 control plants produced no fruit at all, and T2/T3 fruit counts fell between the control and T1. Soil chemical analysis showed exchangeable cations, cation exchange capacity, pH, soil organic matter, total nitrogen and C/N ratio all higher than the initial soil, though treatments had no significant effect on soil enzymic activity. The study recommends recovering waste as an organic material source in urban horticulture and open-field cultivation to restore soil fertility.

Winalyn Denzon, Meraflor C. Estose, Krysha Camille Villanueva, Joa H. Jao · Multidisciplinary Science Journal · Global

A descriptive study surveyed 50 randomly selected respondents from designated areas on their acceptability of a container gardening program designed for BTVTED (technical-vocational teacher education) students, to gauge whether it could serve as a food augmentation strategy. Analysis using means and standard deviations found most participants were female, and acceptability was highest on the economic dimension — producing one's own food, generating income and supplying household subsistence. The researchers recommended that local governments run education campaigns to expand participation in container gardening.

Luis Manuel Cárdenas Cárdenas, Rafael Fernando Oyaga Martínez, Martha Luz Ortiz Padilla, Adriana Morales Salazar, Emily Juliana Tumbaco Patiño · Ingeniería e innovación · Colombia

A master's-degree research project in environmental pedagogy for sustainable development, conducted in 2020-2021 at the La Honda Educational Center in the La Honda village of Timbío municipality (Cauca), Colombia, examined school gardens as a teaching tool to strengthen environmental education and meaningful learning among fourth and fifth graders. Using qualitative, socio-critical action research, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with parents — largely via technology platforms because of pandemic confinement — along with children's drawings and participant observation. The gardens were found viable for rescuing the community's cultural tradition; a curricular proposal was built with the school garden as its center of interest, and community members were involved in creating and sustaining the garden.

Urban Sustainability Exchange (Metropolis) · Urban Sustainability Exchange (Metropolis) · Colombia

A case study on Bogotá's expansion of urban and peri-urban agriculture as a response to COVID-19 and the climate crisis. With technical support from the Bogotá Botanical Garden, 14,266 people received basic urban-agriculture training and 31,926 received technical assistance between the second half of 2020 and February 2022, while 11,970 vegetable gardens were supplied with inputs. In April 2022 the city launched the AUPA mobile app for real-time data collection and updates.

Ilieva R.T., Cohen N., Israel M., Specht K., Fox-Kämper R., Fargue-Lelièvre A., Poniży L., Schoen V., Caputo S., Kirby C.K., Goldstein B., Newell J.P., Blythe C. · Land (MDPI), 11(5):622 · Global

A systematic review of 272 peer-reviewed publications drawing on urban-agriculture sites in 57 countries, organizing socio-cultural benefits into four domains: cohesive communities, health and well-being, economic opportunities, and education. Community connection and learning emerged as the most frequently reported benefits.

Hume C., Grieger J.A., Kalamkarian A., D'Onise K., Smithers L.G. · BMC Public Health, 22:1247 · Global

A systematic review synthesizing 53 eligible studies. Community garden participation was positively associated with fruit and vegetable intake and several psychosocial and community outcomes, though effects on physical health indicators were mixed.

Gray T., Tracey D., Truong S., Ward K. · Local Environment, 27(5):570-585 · Australia

A mixed-methods study of 42 social-housing residents across six new community garden sites in Sydney. Participants reported greater health and wellbeing awareness, new interest in growing fresh food, shared produce and recipes, happiness, and frequent socialization and community connectedness.