A view from the garden: Interrupting politics of attainment and re-orienting education towards sustainable futures

Abstract

There is growing recognition amongst scholars that addressing the current global ecological crisis requires a new ecological awareness, and a different model of education, in order to live together on a ‘planet under pressure’. Against this backdrop, several studies internationally have pointed to initiatives such as school gardens, with the capacity to address sustainability issues, enhance participation, engagement and responsibility of young people from different backgrounds and locales. However, questions remain about the extent to which garden spaces may leverage current educational discourses, and the work of schools, to meet the needs of all. This article draws upon interviews with teachers, head teachers and student teachers who had been involved in growing food with children in school garden spaces. Drawing on the concept of ‘learning ecology’, data illustrate the co-existence of multiple views and purposes of engaging children with gardening in school, and the impact of linear discourses of education framing the teachers’ gaze. Findings from the study are twofold: (i) they illustrate that gardens have the potential to interrupt economic discourses around attainment defined as cognitive gains and (ii) that such awareness is paramount to re-direct attention to that which is often marginalised and forgotten in educational policy discourses.