Children’s food gardening: valuing experiential, intergenerational and multi-cultural learning

Abstract

ABSTRACT Urban food growing has been promoted for its benefits of improved food security, governance and sovereignty, as well as providing opportunities for environmental education. Despite a resurgence of research into adults’ food-growing in urban environments, there is limited literature examining where and how children grow food, with whom, what it means to them, and what they want to know more about. Here we present the results of 20 focus groups with culturally-diverse urban primary school students (aged 5–11 years old) from across Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, conducted as part of the 2022 Soilsafe Kids Three-Day Programme on soil education. We find that most often experiential gardening knowledge is passed on to children by older family members (typically parents), at home or at a family member’s residence. This study shows the significant value and importance of family/whānau-oriented learning, and of providing spaces for intergenerational gardening teaching and learning outside of school environments. It also points to the need for revised educational paradigms that enable culturally inclusive, intergenerational transfer of gardening knowledge in appropriate and non-extractive ways. Acknowledging that familial connections are stronger than school-based ones, we provoke an exploration of how school-based programmes can support and extend familial learning.