School gardens must overcome a range of challenges to be successful but are often lauded for fostering hands-on education and real-world learning. This thematic literature review synthesises 22 journal articles and two book chapters, extending on previous reviews by amassing their themes into one singular reference point for scholars, while…

In 2017, the Macdonald Campus Seed Library was launched at the Macdonald Campus Library of McGill University. This seed library, the first in an academic library in Quebec and the third in Canada, is an unusual, innovative program, and has generated a great deal of interest and enthusiasm from the university community. It has proven to be an…

The curriculum of public systems of education should include opportunities for fostering a deeper relationship with the places in which learners live. In this paper I work through a ecopoetic inquiry lens to investigate how poetic writing can become a space for investigating ecoliteracy and ecojustice education. My research includes visiting and…

As significant numbers of university students report high levels of stress, post-secondary institutions are seeking accessible mental health and wellness supports. The outreach program presented integrates therapy dogs, therapeutic horticulture, and art making interventions. Over 170 participants completed questionnaires surveying demographic…

This article explores innovative praxis in Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) in four preservice teacher education programmes in Canada. ESE is finding its way into teacher education in a variety of innovative and interdisciplinary ways, as both part of mainstream programmes and in their co-curricular margins. Using a case study…

The creation of outdoor learning spaces (OLS) such as school gardens is increasing in frequency in elementary and secondary schools in Canada. Previous research has indicated that students benefit from learning in OLS, but little is known about teachers' perceptions of their experiences using school gardens or other OLS. Given that teacher buy-in…

Susan Jagger is an assistant professor in the School of Early Childhood Studies at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada. Her research interests include: environmental education, learning gardens, community mapping, post structuralism and deconstruction, children's participation, and arts-based research approaches. In this article she describes the…

Botanic and public gardens attract a significant number of people throughout the world who visit these spaces for a wide variety of reasons. Notwithstanding, the study of visitor experiences in such spaces is a much under-researched foci in the fields of museum education and visitor studies. This exploratory study examined the reflective…

How can we 'desettle' the colonial discourse and worldview of botanical gardens and its practices in teaching about plants? How can we move towards engaging deeply with who we are and think we are in relation to place, land, and the world, grounded in an intricate sense of harmony? How can we move our work in botanic gardens beyond regarding land,…

The familiar figure of the teacher, alone in front of a classroom and enclosed by four walls, pervades what is possible in teacher education. What if we could decentre anthropocentric teaching practices and 'become teachers together' with other human and nonhuman teachers? Could a garden become a teacher? A plant? A spider? This article engages…

Creating behavior change to mobilize transitions toward sustainability is a significant challenge of our time. Inspired by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's Farmer Field School, we developed a novel community-based education program to engage people in local sustainability topics. In the Sustainable Communities Field School…

In this paper I share my understandings of an elective outdoor environmental education course, a significant component of which was a field school. I helped develop this course at the Canadian university where I work as an academic, with the field school conducted on the island of Kaua'i in Hawaii. The paper describes the university field school…

Early childhood environmental education focusses on expanding children's bio-affinity, developing their environmental attitudes and encouraging them to behave in a more environmentally friendly manner. One example of the educational method that is based on high-quality practices of both early childhood education and environmental education is the…

This study explores experiences of a learning garden project at an urban faculty of education. The project opens a space for the theoretical and practical consideration of garden-based pedagogies and their influence on university students, educators, and the community as a whole. The learning garden was created by a small group of initial teacher…

This paper focuses on how I have been attending to the TRC's [Truth and Reconciliation Commission's] calls to action within science teacher education. It draws on personal experiences, my dissertation, Canadian policy regarding Indigenous education, and academic literature to explore what the calls ask of teacher educators. Throughout, I consider…