Why forest gardening for children? Swedish forest garden educators' ideas, purposes, and experiences
Forest gardens in urban settings can promote outdoor education goals with less investment of resources than for traditional school gardening and forest excursions
This study explored the perceived qualities of forest gardens in urban settings in comparison to other outdoor education settings. A forest garden combines qualities of a forest with those of a school garden. It includes diverse, multi-layered perennial vegetation, some of which is edible. Forest gardens are designed to be self-sustaining and easy to maintain with a minimum of human labor, energy, or other resources. While forest gardens have been established in urban and rural settings around the world for different purposes, related research is limited — especially in the areas of education and health.
Four forest garden educators involved in a forest garden project with primary school children in southern Sweden participated in this study. Through individual interviews, they shared their ideas and experiences relating to a forest garden project, referred to as “Bärfis” (translated into English as ‘Stinkbug’). This project provides opportunities for children to visit and participate in the development of a forest garden. The forest garden educators developed the features of the forest garden both independently and in collaboration with the children. They also planned and conducted other forest garden activities with the children: some requiring more direction, such as building a stone wall to store heat and provide housing for insects; some more open, such as watering and harvesting. The children and their teachers were also encouraged to adapt some forest garden activities to smaller projects in their schoolyard and neighborhood. During the interviews, the four forest garden educators also discussed the purpose and importance of forest gardens, benefits to the children, activities they used with the children, and difficulties they encountered. The researchers collected additional data through observations of one lecture and three workshops delivered by the forest garden educators.
The purpose of the forest gardening project, as articulated by the forest garden educators, focused on giving children opportunities to (1) feel a sense of belonging to a whole, (2) experience self-regulation and systemic dependence, (3) experience that they co-create together with non-human organisms, and (4) imagine possible transformations of local places. The forest garden educators emphasized how such opportunities promote holistic and systemic worldviews, which contribute to sustainability. In comparing forest gardening to two other forms of outdoor education — traditional school gardens and excursions to forests/woodlands — the interviewees identified four features providing advantage to the forest gardening: accessibility; maintenance/work input; children’s involvement in creating and maintaining living conditions; and opportunities to study living conditions. The interviewees also noted similarities between the woodland and the forest garden in providing opportunities for contemplation and tranquility. One challenge presented by the forest garden educators focused on designing the forest garden in a way that would protect the garden’s sustainable productivity without hindering children’s interaction with plants and animals.
This research suggests that forest gardens can be used to promote outdoor education goals in neighborhoods surrounding urban schools with significantly less investment of effort, energy, and other resources than what traditional school gardening and excursions to forests require. This research also makes an important contribution to the environmental education literature by articulating philosophical ideas and purposes which stand in sharp contrast with views more commonly articulated in reviews and articles about desired outcomes of outdoor education.
Citation
Almers, E., Askerlund, P., Kjellstrom, S., (2018). Why forest gardening for children? Swedish forest garden educators' ideas, purposes, and experiences. The Journal of Environmental Education, 49(3),
