School Gardens and Ecovillages: Innovative Civic ...

School Gardens and Ecovillages: Innovative Civic Ecology Educational Approaches at Schools and Universities Constantina Skanavis and Evangelos Manolas

Abstract

To prevent further damage to the natural ecosystem, it would be necessary to produce environmental stewards capable of making knowledgeable and conscientious decisions regarding the environment. Due to renewed environmental awareness, new civic ecology educational trends, like school gardening and ecovillage projects are enjoying an intense interest. Environmental knowledge alone is not sufficient to solve conservation problems, and the role of civic ecology in solving these problems has become increasingly important. Conventional classroom learning from books, wall charts and memorization often results in youth’s negative attitudes towards environmental sciences. Environmental education researchers therefore have suggested that classroom interventions or combinations with field experiences that actively involve youth may promote pro-environmental behavior, knowledge and positive attitudes towards the environment. Research has shown that school gardens and ecovillages enhance learning, promote experiential learning, and teach environmental education and environmental dispositions. School gardens in primary and secondary education as well as undergraduate and graduate university programs connected with ecovillages cover a continuum of efforts to increase the benefits of environmental education in real world conditions backed up with hands on

C. Skanavis (&) Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, University Hill, 81100 Mytilene, Greece e-mail: [email protected] E. Manolas Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, School of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Democritus University in Thrace, 193 Pantazidou Street, 68200 Orestiada, Greece e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 W. Leal Filho (ed.), Transformative Approaches to Sustainable Development at Universities, World Sustainability Series, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-08837-2_37

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experience in miniature environments, where youth works in sympathy with nature. The purpose of this paper is to describe the infrastructure of school gardens and ecovillages and assess their style of learning. Furthermore the focus would be in determining, through successful case stories, what are the academic, behavioral, recreational, social, political, and environmental remediation benefits through these civic ecology experiences. Keywords

School gardens Universities

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Ecovillages Innovative educational approaches Schools

Introduction

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA 2014a, b) Environmental education is a process that allows individuals to explore environmental issues, engage in problem solving, and take action to improve the environment. As a result, individuals develop a deeper understanding of environmental issues and have the skills to make informed and responsible decisions.

EPA also lists the components of environmental education which are: • Awareness and sensitivity to the environment and environmental challenges • Knowledge and understanding of the environment and environmental challenges • Attitudes of concern for the environment and motivation to improve or maintain environmental quality • Skills to identify and help resolve environmental challenges • Participation in activities that lead to the resolution of environmental challenges. It is also important to note that: Environmental education does not advocate a particular viewpoint or course of action. Rather, environmental education teaches individuals how to weigh various sides of an issue through critical thinking and it enhances their own problem-solving and decision-making skills (Environmental Protection Agency 2014a).

It is crucial to support students into identifying their values, so they can envision how these values might play out in action. Thus, we advocate not for any specific responsible environmental behavior, but rather for a lifestyle where actions are consciously and reflectively driven by values and a vision for the world. Some environmental thinkers, like John Muir, believe that if people have more opportunities to see or enjoy natural landscapes this will make them value and preserve these places more.

School Gardens and Ecovillages: Innovative Civic Ecology …

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John Muir, and the educational models he inspired, believes experiencing and knowing the natural environment is sufficient in providing us with incentives to act on behalf of this world. A summary of Muir’s philosophy of action might be presented as follows: • Experiences with the environment will increase our familiarity and knowledge of the natural world. • We become emotionally attached to and posit value in those things we know about. • We act to preserve things we are emotionally attached to and in which we posit value. • We will act to preserve the environment if through our experiences with it we become more knowledgeable about it (Goralnik and Nelson 2011). This philosophy of environmental action is also the implicit philosophy of several environmental organizations and outdoor education programs. For example, as Goralnik and Nelson (2011) point out The Sierra Club has not stopped supporting Muir’s central point of taking people into the natural world in order to encourage them to take action in favor of the places they see, and links these experiences to action. A phrase stated by John Muir is even cited in The Sierra Club’s Web site: “If people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish”. Environmental concern can range from fear and worry about environmental problems to a general desire to care for the environment (Rickinson 2001). Although environmental fear, known as ecophobia, is a critically important concept, few studies provide information on how ecophobia impacts children’s immediate and long-term participation in pro-environmental activities. The studies that have started to research this question reveal that environmental concerns, especially fear and anxiety, relate to feelings of helplessness, which may impact children’s willingness to participate in environmentally friendly activities. Strife (2012) provides an excellent review of research conducted on this question. She points out that it is of paramount importance to understand children’s perspectives since children both now and in the future will influence and be influenced by environmental issues in many ways. The increase in ecophobia is partly rooted in society’s emphasis on distant ecological problems such as rainforest destruction, or effects of climate change as symbolized by the lone polar bear floating on an isolated iceberg. Focusing on such distant and vague issues may contribute to creating and perpetuating ecophobic feelings in children (Strife 2012). Goralnik and Nelson (2011) believe that people act on behalf of the things to which they feel emotionally attached. Consequently, if people become emotionally attached—possibly via a physical attachment—to the environment, then they will also act in environmentally friendly ways. Outdoor education is a successful part of environmental education when we aim on emotional attachment through physical experiences. The term outdoor education is a general term that is frequently applied

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to programs or activities that can be, and usually are, conducted in the out-of-doors (Parkin 1998). In this paper we will present school gardens and ecovillages, as part of outdoor education, which promote environmental sensitivity. Furthermore, we attempt to evaluate how these affect environmental behavior. Finally, we will try to reveal, through successful case stories, what are the academic, behavioral, recreational, social, political, and environmental remediation benefits through these civic ecology experiences.

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School Gardens

School gardens are not a new idea. In all levels of education, gardens have offered students places of experiencing aesthetic beauty, of developing feelings of attachment with the natural world, opportunities for investigating a variety of life sciences and learning outdoors. The first official school garden in the U.S. was created in Roxbury, MA at the end of the 19th century. Until 1950, schools in many big U.S. cities had gardens and WWII saw the advent of school victory gardens growing food to support the war effort. In the 1950s as a result of the national focus on technology, interest in school gardening became less important (Genkins 2014). School gardening can have many purposes: academic, behavioral, recreational, social, political, and environmental. Gardens may increase children’s respect for nature and support their physical, mental or moral development. The benefits of student involvement in school gardening can be classified in three broad development areas: cognitive, physical, and social/emotional (Genkins 2014). School gardens offer students personal observation of and complex experiences in nature which teachers use to support essential curriculum. School yard gardens are also useful for outdoor science, environmental education or hands-on learning. Up until the late 1960s and early 1970s school gardens remained common at many schools. In the period from the 1970s to the early 1980s school gardening programs were not a priority (Gigliotti 1992). However, due to renewed interest on the environment, new educational trends and insights into how the environment of a school affects how young people behave and develop, school gardening and beautification projects are witnessing a revival (Heffernan 1997). Using school gardens for teaching improves student learning (Sheffield 1992) and environmental dispositions (Alexander et al. 1995; Barker 1992; Waliczek 1997; Wotowiec 1975). A garden is a most interesting and exciting place for children to play, work, and learn (Herd 1997). The school garden can provide the right experience for children to acquire knowledge about their natural environment (Pale et al. 2001; Waliczek and Zajicek 1999). A garden and gardening activities make it possible for pupils to learn about the environment and also experience the natural world firsthand. In addition, a gardening-based curriculum can cover several subjects while giving the students the chance to experience nature firsthand (Eames-Sheavly 1994; Klemmer et al. 2005; Pigg et al. 2006). Outdoor educational programs when compared to traditional biology teaching are generally believed to


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improve environmental attitudes and knowledge (Fančovičová and Prokop 2011) and at the same time they combat the problem ‘plant blindness’ and give pupils more incentives to study the subject. Children who grow their own food are more likely to develop healthy eating habits such as eating fruits and vegetables (Bell and Dyment 2008; Libman 2007; Lineberger and Zajicek 2000; Morris et al. 2001; Pothukuchi 2004) and that they greatly improved their knowledge about nutrition (Canaris 1995; Koch et al. 2006; Pothukuchi 2004). They are also more likely to keep healthy eating habits for the rest of their lives (Morris and Zidenberg-Cherr 2002), which can contribute to preventing or delaying chronic disease conditions (Heimendinger and Van Duyn 1995). Depending on their level of engagement in greening projects, they can also see that they have a right to take part in decisions that affect their quality of life (Dyment 2004; Hart 1997). Gardening in particular can provide a chance to deal with losses and failures, and to see firsthand the responsiveness of plants to care and nurturing. When fully engaged in the greening process, young people can build skills related to democracy, participation and citizenship which they can potentially use in their lives in the future (Dyment 2004; Hart 1997). Research on children with learning disabilities who engaged in gardening discovered that they improved their nonverbal communication skills, developed awareness of the advantages of order, learned how to work cooperatively with others, and formed positive relationships with adults (Dyment and Bell 2006). Juvenile offenders who enjoy gardening show improved self-esteem, interpersonal relationships and attitudes towards school (Cammack et al. 2002; Flagler 1995; Waliczek et al. 2001). Furthermore, gardening has long been recognized as having a healing power which means having a positive influence on mental health and wellbeing (Bell and Dyment 2008; Ulrich 1999).

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Ecovillages

Robert Gillman (1991) described the greatest challenge of our time this way: For humankind at the end of the 20th century there is hardly anything more appealing—yet apparently more elusive—than the prospect of living in harmony with nature and with each other.

On a global level there is a need for positive models which demonstrate a sustainable future for people and nature. Ecovillages are such a model. Sustainability is based on this principle: Our natural environment provides, directly or indirectly, everything we need for our survival and health. Sustainability is about the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling all the requirements necessary for the survival and well-being of present and future generations (Environmental Protection Agency 2014b). In this day and age, we have become an urban species where our lives are

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full of stress, materialism, and pollution. We are tied to technology in all aspects of our life, including business, education, and entertainment. As economic policies grew more harmful to the environment and more environmental problems began to spring up in the late 20th century, groups of people felt fed up with these aspects of modern life and began forming communities that heavily incorporate ecological principles (Sevier et al. 2008; Van Schyndel Kasper 2008). Although the first ecovillages appeared in the early 1930s (Ecovillage Jarma, Sweden and Ecovillage Solheimar, Iceland) the modern ecovillage movement started to develop in the 1970s (The ecovillage movement 2013). The term ecovillage first appeared on the scene in 1991 in a sustainability report commissioned by the Gaia Trust (Sevier et al. 2008). Ecovillages are intentional communities united by common ecological, economic, social and spiritual values. They aim to reduce their ecological footprint. Ecovillage principles can be useful to both urban and rural areas. In 1995, the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) was founded to link several diverse ecovillage communities and related projects together and to help spread information about them across the world. According to Jonathan Dawson former president of the Global Ecovillage Network, ecovillages have five key principles: (1) They are not government-sponsored projects, but grassroots initiatives. (2) Their residents value and practice community living. (3) Their residents are not overly dependent on government, corporate or other centralized sources for water, food, shelter, power and other basic necessities. Rather, they attempt to provide these resources themselves. (4) Their residents have a strong sense of shared values, often characterized in spiritual terms. (5) They often serve as research and demonstration sites, offering educational experiences to others (Christian 2007). An ecovillage is therefore defined as “a human-scale, full-featured settlement, in which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of healthy human development, and can be successfully continued into the indefinite future” (Gilman 1991). Ecovillages do not have to be fully selfsufficient or isolated from the surrounding community. Ecovillages can be formed in any location; they need not be only in rural areas. The Global Ecovillage Network explains how ecovillages encompass aspects of ecological design, permaculture, ecological building, green production, alternative energy, community building practices and much more (Taggart 2009). The purpose of these communities is to create an environment where people can live and innovate in peace with the Earth. The residents of ecovillages achieve this purpose by growing crops to provide their own food, composting to reduce waste and create fertilizer, and build from local and green materials (Sevier et al. 2008). To reduce their consumption of fossil fuels and natural resources ecovillages often use alternative technologies for heating, electrical and water systems. Using systems


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common to the whole community along with sharing cars and many tools reduces the ecovillage’s impact on the environment and makes it more self-reliant. It may be said that ecovillages practice and promote a way of life which “… embraces the conscious decision to live more simply, thereby consuming less” (Sevier et al. 2008). Findhorn’s ecological footprint, in Scotland, is half the UK national average. Some examples of Findhorn footprints are: for home and heating 21.5 %, food 37 %, travel 43 % and consumables 46 % of the national average (Findhorn Foundation 2014). With regard to Sieben Linden ecovillage in Germany a 2003 study by the University of Kassel showed that residents of the village have a three times smaller footprint than the average individual in Germany. Some examples of Sieben Linden footprints: the energy requirement for heating is only 1/3 of the German average and water consumption is reduced to 2/3 of the national average (Sieben Linden Ecovillage 2014a). Also, at Sieben Linden per capita carbon dioxide emissions are just 28 percent the national average (Worldwatch Institute 2014). At Ithaca Ecovillage, in the USA, the houses consume 40 % less energy and resources than the country average (Dawson 2006). One major way ecovillages disseminate their values and achievements is through education. As Dawson (2010) points out The various educational packages developed within ecovillages reflect the core ethics of the communities themselves in that they are holistic—exploring interdependence and the relationships between issues and subjects that are generally considered independently in more conventional settings—and experiential, in that they engage all of the learner’s faculties— head, heart, and hands.

In this sense ecovillage education should be understood as part of the wider trend toward environmental education based on systems thinking. Learning happens in the context of live experiments and engagement “in such living laboratories can be a profound transformation for students as they experience in a very tangible way the dynamic relationship between values, lifestyle, and community structures” (Dawson 2010). Some examples of ecovillage educational initiatives as they appeared in the last 15 years: North Carolina State University in the U.S. has created a program called EcoVillage, located in Bragaw Hall, in which students go beyond the classroom to lead, create and solve complex energy, environmental and sustainability issues at local and global level. Their work is supported by experienced mentors (North Carolina State University 2014). In Kentucky, in the U.S., Berea College has created Berea College Ecovillage, an ecologically-designed residential and learning complex for student families. In addition to 50 apartments, a child development and daycare center, Berea College Ecovillage includes a commons house, a Sustainability and Environmental Studies (SENS) demonstration house but also vegetable gardens, fruit trees and a permaculture food forest.

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The ecovillage uses 50 % less energy than conventional residences in the area and almost 50 % of the waste stream is diverted to recycling, reuse or composting. The ecovillage also incorporates various ‘green design’ elements such as passive solar heating and photovoltaic panels while roof-top capture of rainwater contributes to landscape irrigation and production of fruits and vegetables (Berea College 2014). The Ecovillage Training Center (ETC) at The Farm, in Tennessee, U.S.A., offers courses in fields such as permaculture, herb logy, installing solar electricity and water heating, cob, earth bag, round pole, and straw bale construction, midwifery, constructed wetlands and sustainable farming (The Farm 2014). Crystal Waters Ecovillage in Australia offers a permaculture design course. Topics include dam construction and methods towards drought proofing, improving soils, seed saving, seed raising, pest management, making liquid fertilizers, maintenance of fruit trees, establishing and maintaining forest systems, windbreaks and their design, energy efficient design in buildings, myths and facts about energy systems and materials, school gardening schemes, school farms (Crystal Waters 2014). Sieben Linden Ecovillage in Germany offers courses for school and university students, groups of people doing a volunteer service, etc. Courses include Permaculture Design Courses, the Ecovillage Design Education (how to set up ecovillages), straw bale building, plastering, etc. (Sieben Linden Ecovillage 2014b). At Findhorn Ecovillage, Scotland, Findhorn Foundation College in partnership with the School for the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, offers two 3-week intensive residential courses which are part of an M.Sc. degree program in Sustainable Community Design (Findhorn Foundation College 2014).

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Conclusion

Education such as that offered in school gardens and ecovillages is holistic education. Time spent alone or in small groups in natural areas motivates. An essential difference between outdoor learning and indoor learning is that “indoor learning” can promote cognitive development but the nature of the immediate classroom environment seriously limits the range and depth of sensory experience and affective learning. Outdoor learning “offers a holistic mode of learning through direct, sensory, affective and cognitive engagement with ecological systems and processes, such that the consequences of individual and collective actions may have immediate and real outcomes for a person” (Lugg 2007). Outdoor experience can also offer alternative world-views and practical approaches to more sustainable living. School gardens and ecovillages are experiments, living models of sustainability, and examples of how action can be taken immediately. Can such experiments ever hope to be effective as a transformative force of global capitalism and consumerism? This is a difficult question to be answered at this present time (Litfin 2012) because there is still limited generation


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of data and research in this area of concern. This aspect of sustainability movement has not yet been satisfactorily developed; it has not yet established itself. And questions still abound: How can such experiments work out if implemented on a larger scale? How can we find more ways to overcome the obstacles that are keeping them from fully realizing their ideals? Are there more worthy ideals they could be pursuing? How can we encourage replication of their successes? More research is needed on all these questions (Ashlock 2010). Yet, such efforts do constitute seeds of hope. As Litfin (2012) points out they are not the answer to the crisis we face. They are just one answer. A key contribution of such experiments is the power of their example. They teach practices which need to be applied. If our way of life is not sustainable, it will cease. Whether the end of the current order is precipitous or gradual, what is certain is that any successful experiments will become enormously salient or at least more important. Although still relatively young, such efforts have the potential to help reshape human communities in a sustainable and holistic manner.

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Author Biographies Constantina Skanavis is a Professor in Environmental Communication, Education and Didactics at the Department of Environment at the University of the Aegean (Mytilene, Greece). She is also the Head of the Research Centre of Environmental Education and Communication. She joined the University of the Aegean 10 years ago. Before that she was a Professor at California State University, Los Angeles. She has developed several courses on issues of environmental health and

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education. She currently teaches environmental education, environmental communication and environmental interpretation courses in undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the University of the Aegean. Professor Skanavis has numerous publications on an international basis and has given presentations all over the world. Evangelos Manolas is an Associate Professor in Sociology and Environmental-Forest Education at the Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, School of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace, Orestiada, Greece. He has written, edited and co-edited nine books and has published more than 100 papers and book chapters.