Cultivating and Reflecting on Intergenerational Environmental Education on the Farm

Abstract

Based on the idea that eating is an environmental act, we designed an environmental education project where elementary school children and community elders work as partners to raise food crops on an urban organic farm. Our goal was to illustrate how eco-philosophies could be translated into educational programs that foster environmental consciousness and care, and to further the critical and systematic examination of environmental education initiatives. In this article we draw on six years of empirical data and self-examination to present our learning about environmental education in practice. We discuss three iterations of our project to illustrate the ways in which our thinking about the practice of environmental education has evolved along with our efforts to advance environmental understanding and stewardship through intergenerational farming.