Dear Colleagues,

Educational gardens constitute versatile tools that are being used worldwide to accomplish a wide range of purposes, including food education and improvements in food security, promoting academic performance in scientific areas, providing students with outdoor learning experiences at educational centers, influencing environmental attitudes and behaviors, and enhancing social behaviors and skills, among others.

Thus, Garden-Based Learning (GBL) constitutes an emerging field of practice and research in the area of education, which requires the development of curricular products such as teaching–learning sequences to approach, in novel ways, a vast array of topics in the areas of science, food or environmental education. It is also necessary to work on specific assessment tools that allow the evaluation of certain learning aspects. Moreover, follow-up studies are required, which allow evidencing if learning and behavior changes remain, or what type of educational reinforcement would be necessary for their maintenance over time. Finally, the potential of gardens to approach relevant global environmental issues such as climatic change or biodiversity loss is still underused.

Authors are thus encouraged to submit manuscripts corresponding to educational research conducted at learning gardens (including Pre-School, Primary, Secondary, or Higher Education; and also community or urban gardens) regarding the following issues:

• Gardens as formal and informal educational settings;
• GBL programs and curricular products contextualized at gardens and related to science education, environmental education, and food education;
• Assessment and assessment tools for GBL;
• Promotion of pro-environmental attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge from gardens;
• Promotion of cooperative learning, participation and inclusion from gardens.

References:

Almers, E., Askerlund, P., & Kjellström, S. (2017). Why forest gardening for children? Swedish forest garden educators' ideas, purposes, and experiences. The Journal of Environmental Education, 49(3), 242–259. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1080/00958964.2017.1373619

Barlett, P.F. (2011), “Campus sustainable food projects: Critique and engagement”, American Anthropologist, Vol. 113 No. 1, pp. 101–115. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2010.01309.x

Berezowitz C.K., Bontrager Yoder A.B., & Schoeller, D. A. (2015). School gardens enhance academic performance and dietary outcomes in children. Journal of School Health, 85, 508–518.

Block, K., Gibbs, L., Staiger, P.K., Gold, L., Johnson, B., Macfarlane, S., Long, C. and Townsend, M. (2012), “Growing Community: The Impact of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program on the Social and Learning Environment in Primary Schools”, Health Education & Behavior, Vol. 39 No. 4, pp.419–432. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1177/1090198111422937

Carlsson, L., Williams, P.L., Hayes-Conroy, J., Lordly, D. and Callaghan, E. (2016) “School Gardens: Cultivating Food Security in Nova Scotia Public Schools?”, Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, Vol. 77, pp.119–124. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3148/cjdpr-2015-051

Chawla, L., Keena, K., Pevec, I., & Stanley, E. (2014). Green schoolyards as havens from stress and resources for resilience in childhood and adolescence. Health & Place, 28, 1–13. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1016/j.healthplace.2014.03.001

Cheang, C.C., So, W-M.W., Zhan, Y. and Tsoi, K.H. (2017), “Education for sustainability using a campus eco-garden as a learning environment”, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp.242–262. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1108/IJSHE-10-2015-0174

Collado, S., & Staats, H. (2016). Contact with Nature and Children’s Restorative Experiences: An Eye to the Future. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1–6. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01885

Davis, J.N., Spaniol, M.R. and Somerset, S. (2015), “Sustenance and sustainability: Maximizing the impact of school gardens on health outcomes”, Public Health Nutrition, Vol. 18 No. 13, pp. 2358–2367. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1017/S1368980015000221

Desmond, D., Grieshop, J. and Subramaniam, A. (2004), Revisiting garden-based learning in basic education, International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris.

Diaz, J. M., Warner, L. A., Webb, S., & Barry, D. (2018). Obstacles for school garden program success: Expert consensus to inform policy and practice. Applied Environmental Education & Communication. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1080/1533015X.2018.1450170

Dyg, P.M. and Wistoft, K. (2018), “Wellbeing in school gardens – the case of the Gardens for Bellies food and environmental education program”, Environmental Education Research, Vol. 24 No. 8, pp.1177–1191. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1080/13504622.2018.1434869

Duram, L.A. and Williams, L.L. (2015), "Growing a student organic garden within the context of university sustainability initiatives", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp.3–15. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1108/IJSHE-03-2013-0026

Fisher-Maltese, C., & Zimmerman, T. D. (2015). A Garden-Based Approach to Teaching Life Science Produces Shifts in Students' Attitudes toward the Environment. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 10(1), 51–66. Retrieved from. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1061023.pdf

Galt, R.E., Clark, S.F. and Parr, D. (2012), “Engaging values in sustainable agriculture and food systems education: Toward an explicitly values-based pedagogical approach”, Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 43–54. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.5304/jafscd.2012.023.006

Jagger, S., Sperling, E., and Inwood, H. (2016), “What’s growing on there? Garden-based pedagogy in a concrete jungle?”, Environmental Education Research, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 271–287. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1080/13504622.2014.997195

LaCharite, K. (2016), “Re-visioning agriculture in higher education: the role of campus agriculture initiatives in sustainability education”, Agriculture and Human Values, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 521–535. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1007/s10460-015-9619-6

Laurie, S.M., Faber, M. and Maduna, M.M. (2017), “Assessment of food gardens as nutrition tool in primary schools in South Africa”, South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 80–86. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1080/16070658.2017.1271609

Ohly, H., Gentry, S., Wigglesworth, R., Bethel, A., Lovell, R. and Garside, R. (2016), “A systematic review of the health and well-being impacts of school gardening: Synthesis of quantitative and qualitative evidence”, BMC Public Health, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 286. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/s12889-016-2941-0

Ruiz-Gallardo, J.R., Verde, A. and Valdés, A. (2013), “Garden-Based Learning: An Experience With «at risk» Secondary Education Students”, The Journal of Environmental Education, Vol. 44 No. 4, pp. 252–270. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1080/00958964.2013.786669

Smith, L. L., & Matsenbocker, C. E. (2005). Impact of hands-on science through school gardening in Louisiana public elementary schools. HortTechnology, 15, 439–443. Retrieved from: http://vegetableproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Smith-and-Motsenbocker-2005-Impact-of-hands-on.pdf

Schneider, S., Pharr, J., & Bungum, T. (2017). Impact of school garden participation on the health behaviors of children. Health Behavior and Policy Review, 4(1), 46–52.

Van Dijk-Wesselius, J.E., Maas, J., Hovinga, D., van Vugt, M. and van den Berg, A.E. (2018), “The impact of greening schoolyards on the appreciation, and physical, cognitive and social-emotional well-being of schoolchildren: A prospective intervention study”, Landscape and Urban Planning Vol. 180, pp. 15–26. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2018.08.003

Wells, N. M., Myers, B. M., Todd, L.E., Barale, K., Gaolach, B., Ferenz, G., Aitken, M., Henderson , C.H., Tse, C., Pattison, K.O., Taylor, C., Connerly, L., Carson, J.B., Gensemer, A.Z., Franz, N.K, & Falk, E.(2015). The Effects of School Gardens on Children's Science Knowledge: A randomized controlled trial of low-income elementary schools. International Journal of Science Education, 37(17), 2858–2878. doi:10.1080/09500693.2015.1112048

Williams, D.R. and Dixon, P.S. (2013), “Impact of garden-based learning on academic outcomes in schools: Synthesis of research between 1990 and 2010”, Review of Educational Research, Vol. 83 No. 2, pp. 211–235. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3102/0034654313475824

Prof. Marcia Eugenio-Gozalbo
Guest Editor

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• learning gardens
• environmental education
• science education
• food education
• garden-based learning (GBL)