Community and School Gardens as Spaces for Learning Social Resilience

Abstract

Can community and school gardens help people learn to build social resilience to potential food shortages? We seek to address this question through an examination of the ways in which gardens can teach individual and community resiliency in times of emergency, pockets of food insecurity, and the challenges presented by climate change. We focus on the role gardens play in providing access to food and building resilience amongst school-aged children and young adults. A larger Australian PhD thesis is analyzed to provide insights to assist educators, particularly in the policy arena, who are seeking to engage with, or who already engage with, young learners in community and school gardens. While the focus is on the Australian context, we argue that our findings have international relevance.