Nostalgic Narratives: Planting Collective Ideals in the Urban Garden Education Movement

摘要

This study explores the role of nostalgia in farm and garden educators’ collective narrative in the urban Portland garden education movement. It explores the use of nostalgia and historical narratives as opposition to a collective insecurity around food systems and environmental protection. Using ten face-to-face, open-ended interviews, the views of participants were found to be common in their idealized notions of the past, aversion for current American food culture and apprehension for the future of the American diet and environmental protection. The benefits and downfalls of this collective narrative of the past will be explored further to understand the underlying messages regarding diet and environmentalism communicated to youth through the hidden curriculum in farm and garden education.