The spirit of nature: transforming an inner city school grounds ...

• Main Author: Pevec, Ilene Susan
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0054935; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0054935

This action research project began as the revitalization of inner city school grounds through the design and construction of a school and community garden. The project's intent was to give inner city children contact with nature as well hands-on learning experiences in all subjects through the planting, tending and harvesting of vegetables, flowers, and native plants. In partnership with a landscape architecture student, I involved the children, teachers, parents and neighbours of the school in designing and planting the gardens they wanted in order to transform a grass field into a biologically diverse environment reflective of the neighborhood cultures and the indigenous wildlife. Our collaboration became the soil and seeds of an ecological and cultural restoration focused on the First Nations community of the school. People, public art, plant and animal life came together in a dynamic process of education and community change. Inspired by John Dewey's theories of learning through doing, by the work of his ...