Sustaining schoolyard pedagogy through community academic partnerships

ABSTRACTThere is a large body of research indicating the benefits of exposure to nature and schoolground greening for children’s development, learning, and social skills. This paper presents the results of a schoolyard greening project and study, which builds community academic partnerships (CAP) with schools and the regional university. The purpose of the project is to: (1) co-design and install outdoor classrooms; (2) co-develop schoolyard curriculum that aligns with Ministry of Education expectations; and (3) ‘green’ public access schoolyards in an effort to promote sustainability, connection to nature, and community connections. Transformative phenomenology was the qualitative methodology employed, assisting the scholar-practitioner with bringing phenomenology to practice. A socioecological framework was applied to the study to explore the study participants’ (N = 35) lived experience, place, experiential pedagogy, and agency and participation and the study results are thematically grouped around thes...