Breaking new ground? Reflections on greening school grounds as sites of ecological, pedagogical and social transformation

摘要

In this paper, we explore greening initiatives in school grounds as sitesudwhere ecological, pedagogical, and social transformation might be promotedudand take place. Reflecting on our evaluations of school ground greening initiativesudin Canada and England, we note that these initiatives are often atudthe margins of young peoples' experiences in schools and that their potentialudto be truly transformative can go unrealized. A series of tensions areudhighlighted in addressing a shift towards realizing their potential; theseudinclude situating greening school grounds more explicitly within the curriculumudand securing broader institutional support. We also identify a moreudradical option, the repositioning of the kinds of outdoor learning thatudoccurs in green school grounds as the basis of teaching and learning inudSterling's (2004) vision for 'sustainable education.'