Transformations of children’s environmental conceptions through their participation in a school kitchen-garden project

Abstract

Environmental conceptions justify the way we understand the ‘environment’, as well as the way we connect with it. Therefore, it is important to study the way environmental conceptions are shaped, especially during the various experiences of childhood, which is the time that a person’s identity is shaped. In the present study we focus on 8-9 years old children environmental conceptions and how they were affected by their participation in a school kitchen-garden project. Following a socio-constructivist approach, we asked from 24 children to construct three-dimensional (3 D) representations of the ‘environment’, using miniatures of biotic and abiotic elements (e.g. plants, animals, rocks), humans and human constructions and equipment (e.g. buildings, roads, bins). The analysis showed that aesthetic and “light” utilitarian perspectives were dominant in participants’ conceptualizations, as well as a stewardship connection with nature. It also turned out to be that, for most of the participants, the participation in a school kitchen-garden project enhanced a more realistic and at the same time, more relational representation of the ‘environment’.

Keywords:

• Environmental conceptions
• conceptual transformation
• school kitchen-garden
• environmental reasoning
• environmental education

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their precious comments on earlier versions of this paper. We would also like to thank Dr. Daniel Wilson for his thorough proofreading of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stella Petrou

Konstantinos Korfiatis is Associate Professor of Environmental Education at the Department of Education, University of Cyprus. His research interests extend in the areas of environmental and sustainability education and ecology education. He currently focuses on the development of learning environments that can support meaningful participation, agency and environmental citizenship, especially in connection with school gardening and climate change education.

Konstantinos Korfiatis

Stella Petrou is Special Teaching Staff at the Department of Education, University of Cyprus. Her research interests are on environmental and sustainability education, with a focus on school gardens as learning environments promoting children’s personal development.