Schoolyard Gardening as Multinaturalism: Theory, Practice, and Product

Environmental education and ecological literacy is evolving into a pedagogical field, with more and more schools today taking actions to create landscaped settings for natural learning than ever before. With these developments comes a need for an integrated book that provides both core philosophies as well as method. This comprehensive volume Schoolyard Gardening as Multinaturalism presents the first guide to ways of involving students in schoolyard gardening and designing sustainable schoolyard gardens. Influenced by Chinese Daoism, American Naturalism, Canadian Multiculturalism, and the architectural discipline, a new term Multinaturalism is suggested in response to Turner's (1995) call for a better name of Post-Postmodernism. A conceptual model of Pillars of Student Involvement, as well as a design template for schoolyard gardens that is applicable in the northern hemisphere, are proposed. Schoolyard Gardening as Multinaturalism should help shed light on this exciting learning environment, and is highly recommended for educators, philosophers, designers, parents, or anyone who is planning to use gardens for teaching and learning.