Blog Page
Community Gardens: How community spaces grow climate action
Date: 30th January 2025
For decades, community gardens in Australia have been fertile ground for growing vegetables and progressive thinkers. They are dynamic spaces for intergenerational learning and climate change education, offering practical engagement and symbolic significance.
Gardening offers students a hands-on way to connect with the natural world, fostering a personal relationship with nature (Mayer-Smith & Peterat, 2016). Research indicates that time spent in gardens nurtures a sense of stewardship, enhancing their appreciation for nature (Mayer-Smith & Peterat, 2016; Mayer-Smith, Bartosh, & Peterat, 2007). In the garden, students observe seasoned gardeners, providing a model of care and optimism for the future and showcasing sustainable practices that younger generations can embrace and internalise.
Gardens, especially when combined with art, create an environment for meaningful, experiential learning. Working in the garden alongside artistic expression offers a creative and interactive experience that builds lasting environmental stewardship and highlights the practical impacts of sustainable practices in daily life (Mayer-Smith & Peterat, 2016). Engaging with plants stimulates the mind, energising students and enhancing creativity (Cameron, Manhood, & Pomfrett, 2011). As discussed in the research by Cameron, Manhood, and Pomfrett (2011), the notion of “learning to be affected,” introduced by Bruno Latour (2004), addresses the gap between knowledge and action in modern urban contexts. This concept particularly applies to addressing climate change through experiential learning in community gardens. In these settings, students can learn to recognise the signs of the land, developing a new language for 'reading the land' that they can explore through practical art projects. By connecting with individuals where they are, they gain new skills and gardening techniques, helping to bridge the knowledge-action and value-action gaps, ultimately motivating proactive engagement.
Symbolically, gardens provide fertile ground for cultivating innovative ideas, much like plants take root and flourish. They serve as dynamic spaces where abstract concepts like climate change and sustainability can be explored tangibly and interactively, bridging the gap between symbolic and practical learning. They engage with art's playfulness while exploring significant ideas about the world, such as climate change (Borba et al., 2024; Kolb & Kolb, 2009; Dewey, 1938; Bentz, 2020). Furthermore, art and play are powerful tools for experiential learning, fostering creativity, social engagement, and critical thinking in climate change education (Borba et al., 2024; Kolb & Kolb, 2009; Dewey, 1938; Bentz, 2020). The natural chaos and organic systems in gardens encourage exploration of boundaries and experimentation with modes of existence. Community gardens serve as ideal spaces for exploring and creating grassroots movements. The roots surrounding the students and the community are ever-present and essential to the garden's functionality.
Historically, gardens have also offered a vibrant space for exploring climate justice. Community gardens have a rich history and have played many identities and roles in the Australian environmental movement over the last 50 years. The following discussion is based on anecdotal conversations with older gardeners in the Inner West and older environmental activists with whom I have worked and volunteered over the years. Ongoing policies and cultural shifts have transformed the face and nature of environmental movements and activism. The 1970s marked the birth of Australian environmentalism, with anti-nuclear activists providing a powerful introduction to activism for many older members of environmental groups today. Many community members talk about the power and strength of these movements still today. A key movement in Australia that many remember is the Protect Australia movement, which also emerged from the Keep Australia Beautiful campaign (1973). The 1980s ushered in the movement towards conservation in Australia, which was catapulted by the incredibly successful Franklin campaign and Bob Brown (1982). It also brought into the public conversation land rights and the rights of Indigenous Australians to the environmental movement.
The coinciding popularity of locally grown food, vegetarianism, and ethical food production caused a global ripple effect. After the devastation of the 1970s economic crisis, Wendy Berry established the Eat as the Environmental Act movement in 1985, which was heavily influenced by Wendy Berry, where many community gardens and schools were established to increase availability to local, organic and seasonal food. The 1990s saw the emergence of permaculture and anti-logging. In gardens in the 1990s, the focus was mainly on the responsibility of the individual consumer to change the world around them. This was similarly reflected in community gardening principles around the world. Community gardens in Australia still use permaculture principles today, promoting a more wholesome use of gardens, contributing to a 'sustainable living' perspective (Mollison, 1996; Flannery, 1998).
The 2000s saw a shift toward consumer empowerment, emphasising 'slow food' and 'power saving.' I came into consciousness during this period of environmentalism. Earth Hour, which began in Sydney in 2007, exemplified this trend by encouraging individuals to take direct action to reduce energy consumption. A campaign I worked on. Furthermore, the 'War on Waste' movement emerged, influencing the ban on plastic in South Australia. Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate (2014) was fundamental in shifting the perspective from individual consumer habits to considering the systemic role of capitalism in climate change and doughnut economics. Even the Pope introduced Laudato Si, which promotes ecological responsibility, leading many Catholic schools to implement more sustainable principles in their curriculum.
2022 brought climate emergencies with the Black Summer bushfires and birthed many young climate activists. Greta Thunberg led a movement to strike from school to demand action on climate change. This was a response to a rise in ‘eco-anxiety’ experienced by school-aged students (Pihkala, 2021). Climate grassroots groups like 350.org focused more on renewable energy projects and divestment movements. The movement toward regenerative agriculture began shifting away from the term 'sustainable' to a deeper understanding of regenerative living, where we live to sustain and thrive (Kimmerer, 2013). All these movements have been reflected and contained in community gardens as fertile spaces for conversation, action, and activism.
Through the years, community gardens have proactively been spaces where people can practice their theoretical beliefs and values and symbolic spaces that reflect Australia's historical movements. Thus, using community gardens as spaces for engaging students through art in the idea of climate justice is practically, symbolically, and historically ideal.
References
Bentz, J. (2020). Learning about climate change in, with and through art. Sustainability Science, 15(1), 91-102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-020-00861-9
Borba, J., Bonatti, M., Medina, L., Löhr, K., Tremblay, C., Gutberlet, J., & Sieber, S. (2024). Socially engaged arts: Climate change education through drama and social learning—Playful inquiry for building extreme weather events adaptation scenarios. Climate, 12(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli12010006
Cameron, J., Manhood, C., & Pomfrett, J. (2011). Bodily learning for a (climate) changing world: Registering differences through performative and collective research. Geographical Research, 49(3), 300-312. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2011.00695.x
Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. Macmillan.
Flannery, T. (1998). The future eaters: An ecological history of the Australasian lands and people. Reed New Holland.
Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions.
Kolb, D. A., & Kolb, A. Y. (2009). Experiential learning theory: A dynamic, holistic approach to management learning, education and development. The SAGE Handbook of Management Learning, Education and Development, 42-68. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857021038.n3
Mayer-Smith, J., Bartosh, O., & Peterat, L. (2007). Teaming children and elders to grow food and environmental consciousness. Applied Environmental Education & Communication, 6(1), 77-85. https://doi.org/10.1080/15330150701319388
Mayer-Smith, J., & Peterat, L. (2016). Sowing seeds of stewardship through intergenerational gardening. In R. B. Stevenson, M. Brody, J. Dillon, & A. E. J. Wals (Eds.), Education in times of environmental crises: Teaching children to be agents of change (pp. 43-54). Routledge.
Mollison, B. (1996). Permaculture: A designer’s manual. Tagari Publications.
Pihkala, P. (2021). Eco-anxiety. In Situating sustainability: A handbook of contexts and concepts (pp. 119-133). Helsinki University Press.
Teaching Climate Citizens, Not just Climate Facts
Date: 13th March 2026
Primary school children are often described as tomorrow’s environmental stewards, but they can be active climate citizens now. Most schooling positions students as future actors, not present shapers. The real challenge lies not in raising awareness but in creating spaces where knowledge drives collective action. The rise of AI further clouds the future of citizenship and work. Scholars suggest that students must learn to be activist or transformative citizens (Banks, 2017; Heggart, 2020). As Banks (2017, p. 367) notes, transformative citizens “take action to implement and promote policies, actions, and changes that are consistent with values such as human rights, social justice, and equality.”
Climate education isn’t failing because students lack knowledge; it fails because schools rarely provide the cultural and relational infrastructure that enables young people to translate knowledge into collective action (Mach et al., 2020; Trott, 2024). Working effectively with others and understanding others' experiences are key to being a transformative citizen (Banks, 2017). However, students often struggle to connect with classmates who hold diverse cultural, political, and environmental values. More schools are incorporating comprehensive, mandated social-emotional learning to explicitly develop these skills (Gimbert et al., 2023; Sokugawa, 2022). Building inclusive, collective communities means becoming transformative climate citizens. Freire (1970, 1972) and Sterling (2011) view the learner's transformation as a collective social action aimed at helping students become active citizens in the world. Caring for the environment isn’t just about animals; it’s about caring for others.
Building on this focus on social and collective transformation, it is essential to recognise that climate change is deeply connected to racial and social injustice, known as climate justice. Climate justice envisions a world where human activity lives in harmony with nature, and everyone experiences well-being (Roderick, 2023). It also involves recognising that climate justice reveals structural inequalities in society. These structural inequalities are visible in basic resources. For instance, 2 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water (World Health Organisation, 2025).
Yet despite this need for participatory citizenship, schooling structures rarely support it. Schooling often delays young people’s journey into adulthood, as learning to be active global citizens is seldom part of the curriculum (Heggart, 2015; Heggart et al., 2019). Reflect on your own schooling experience. Were you truly taught how the world functions? Australian schools often discuss global citizenship and its importance, but they don’t always incorporate it into everyday teaching about how it works. This is due to various factors, such as an overloaded curriculum, limited professional development opportunities, and a lack of practical teaching resources (Reynolds et al., 2019). To turn knowledge into action, young people need more opportunities to translate ideas into action. John Dewey (1986, p. 244) said of experiential education that there is “an intimate and necessary relation between the processes of actual experience and education.” This insight remains central to climate education today. In a digital era filled with AI, virtual realities, and social media, young people are immersed in simulations of real life (Arif et al., 2025). Nonetheless, engaging with the community through place-based experiential learning, getting hands-on, and experimenting through action remain powerful ways to learn.
We need to grow climate citizens by changing the focus in schools from acquiring knowledge to taking action.
One pathway for addressing this gap and translating knowledge into action is through socially engaged art. Using art that fosters a visual dialogue with the community encourages children to participate in decision-making now rather than waiting for the future (Adsit-Morris, 2023; Clough, 2015). At the same time, O’Connor (2020) urges educators to engage in critical reflection when using the arts as a catch-all solution for social disadvantage, warning that it could backfire as a form of social control. Agency and voice through transformative imagination can redefine what climate action looks like in primary education. These are key indicators of empowerment as delineated by the Australian Council for Student Voice [ACSV] (2025). Galafassi (2018) introduced the term ‘transformative imagination’ to describe the process of radically rethinking, seeing, and envisioning the world. The current context demands cultivating a transformative imagination through art to encourage students to go beyond facts and engage deeply with the ethical and social complexities of climate justice (Stirling et al., 2023; Trott, 2021).
Another approach for turning knowledge into action is to combine art with gardening, allowing students to enjoy the therapeutic benefits of nature while exploring complex issues emotionally and safely through creative expression (MacDonald et al., 2025; McLaughlin & Seabrook, 2025). As Eisner (2002) argues, teaching students to ‘think artistically’ through arts education involves using the arts as embodied languages to explore meaning and the mind. Community gardens as a place-based setting for learning also have strong links to the curriculum as they serve as ‘living classrooms’ for students to practice collective agency (NSW Department of Education, 2024; Walshe et al., 2022).
Despite these possibilities, debates about whether climate justice education is appropriate for young learners remain contested. Debates about whether it is suitable to teach CJE to different age groups remain central. National groups, such as the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), have launched a public campaign against teaching young students about climate change in schools, claiming it increases climate anxiety and is developmentally inappropriate because it politicises children (Rowe, 2025). This narrative has been criticised by researchers for misrepresenting the evidence (Ecomind, 2025). Climate anxiety is common among young people, yet ignoring their lived experiences worsens this issue (Climate Psychology Alliance, 2023). Beasy et al. (2023) point out that many teachers feel unprepared and unqualified to teach about the changing world because they fear it is too distressing for primary-aged students. However, avoiding the topic prevents safe exploration, voice, and agency in schools (Kowasch, 2023).
At the same time, research suggests young people are becoming increasingly disconnected from nature. Furthermore, emerging research indicates that 14-year-old girls are withdrawing from nature (Baixinho et al., 2025; Gray et al., 2025; Hjort & Larsen, 2025). This could likely be because the current ‘play’ isn’t suited to their developmental stage. This is a crucial time for thinking about the world, their place in it, and their future identities (Tagg & Jafry, 2018). Australia is among the first countries to ban children under 16 from social media—an important first step (Fardouly, 2025). But is this enough or merely a band-aid for a larger issue? Young people’s anxiety levels have increased over the years; COVID-19 worsened this trend (Tian et al., 2025). The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that 10-20% of young adolescents suffer from a mental health disorder before the age of 14 (Ullrich et al., 2022). Students’ engagement and sense of belonging are declining (Azevedo et al., 2023). Society is becoming more isolated and siloed by algorithms that divide us, reducing empathy and understanding of different perspectives (Wiard et al., 2022).
In this way, gardens become sites where climate knowledge is translated into relational, place-based action. Gardens can serve as a platform to connect with diverse worldviews through intergenerational contact (Mayer-Smith et al., 2016). Using food to explore climate justice encourages students to question whose knowledge is valued, whose land is at the centre, and whose futures are shaped by different imaginaries and agency (Fogarty & Schwab, 2012; Foster & Paterson Kinniburgh, 2020; Rousell & Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, 2022). For example, comparing water availability in Sydney, Australia, with that in water-scarce and sacred Nyirripi, NT, highlights issues of contamination, such as uranium mining that poisons underground water sources, which affects not only children’s health but also the community’s cultural life (Paltridge et al., 2025; Wright, 2002). Such injustices urgently need attention. Extensive research shows that nature play benefits both young children and adults by fostering empathy towards others and the environment. However, there is a lack of age-appropriate methods to promote critical and creative thinking through nature, which is vital for success (T. Gray et al., 2025). The decline in nature play is linked to schools in urban areas, increased safety regulations, shrinking green spaces, and the loss of freedom from adult supervision (Harper et al., 2025). Consequently, students miss out on opportunities for suitable space or developmentally appropriate nature play.
References:
Adsit-Morris, C. (2023). Using socially engaged art to teach environmental and social justice. In Teaching Environmental Justice (pp. 220–227). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Arif, M., Ismail, A., & Irfan, S. (2025). AI-Powered Approaches for Sustainable Environmental Education in the Digital Age: A Study of Chongqing International Kindergarten. International Journal of Environment, Engineering and Education, 7(1), 35–47. https://doi.org/10.55151/ijeedu.v7i1.184
Australian Council for Student Voice Ltd. (2025). Australian Framework for Student Empowerment (AFSE) Version 3. https://studentvoice.org.au/afse
Azevedo, R., Rosário, P., Núñez, J. C., Vallejo, G., Fuentes, S., & Magalhães, P. (2023). A school-based intervention on elementary students’ school engagement. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 73, 102148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2023.102148
Baixinho, A., Matos, S., Arroz, A. M., Amorim, I. R., & Gabriel, R. (2025). “Although I was alone, I always felt accompanied”: The experiences of adolescent girls walking in a forest. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 25(3), 761–778. https://doi.org/10.1080/14729679.2024.2367272
Banks, J. A. (2017). Failed Citizenship and Transformative Civic Education. Educational Researcher, 46(7), 366–377. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X17726741
Beasy, K., Jones, C., Kelly, R., Lucas, C., Mocatta, G., Pecl, G., & Yildiz, D. (2023). The burden of bad news: Educators’ experiences of navigating climate change education. Environmental Education Research, 29(11), 1678–1691. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2023.2238136
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