Abstract

There is a strong belief among environmental and sustainability educators and researchers that meaningful education can benefit from participatory approaches. Participation in decision-making, community cooperation, and interaction, development of team communication, solidarity and real action resulting in real outcomes, are the qualities that should characterize the participation children experience from a project. However, there is a strong criticism that many projects are characterized by a kind of ‘pseudo-participation’ that limits children’s opportunities for personal growth and learning. In this paper we explore how participation is constituted from the perspective of children, as well as if children’s participation creates opportunities for the expression of ownership, locus of control ans self-efficacy, motivation for action and collective efficacy. Ninety-five, nine to eleven-year-old students from six elementary schools that were involved in schools’ kitchen garden projects were interviewed for the purpose of this study. We concluded that successful projects are characterized by a structured design that forecasts and arranges how children participate in the decision-making process, how they participate in all the necessary tasks required for cultivating a garden, and how the teachers facilitate the process.

摘要

环境和可持续性教育工作者和研究人员坚信，有意义的教育可以从参与式方法中受益。参与决策、社区合作和互动、团队沟通的发展、团结和实际行动产生实际结果，是儿童参与项目体验的特征。然而，有一种强烈的批评是，许多项目的特点是一种“伪参与”，限制了儿童个人成长和学习的机会。在本文中，我们从儿童的角度探讨了参与是如何构成的，以及儿童的参与是否为表达所有权、控制点和自我效能创造了机会，行动动机和集体效能。本研究对参与学校菜园项目的 6 所小学的 95 名、9 至 11 岁的学生进行了访谈。我们得出的结论是，成功的项目的特点是结构化设计，可以预测和安排儿童如何参与决策过程，他们如何参与培育花园所需的所有必要任务，以及教师如何促进这一过程。