Cultivating Resilience: Community Gardens as Third Spaces for Transformative Education

• In Event: Research In Progress Roundtables Session 4
  In Invited Roundtable: Research on Teaching and Learning: Curriculum, Pedagogy, Self-Directed Learning, and Student Resilience (Table 12)

Abstract

This research examines community gardens as third spaces that foster resilience, kinship, and transformative education. Using participatory and design-based methods, the study explores how environmental educators and community organizers conceptualize resilience and design educational programming centered on community values, creative exploration, and environmental stewardship. Preliminary findings reveal themes of interconnectedness, pedagogies of love, and resistance to traditional STEM/STEAM frameworks. Employing a custom brainstorming card deck, this research project aims to lead to the co-creation of a curriculum for resilience rooted in shared practices. This research highlights the potential of community gardens to catalyze ecological awareness and social change through informal, intergenerational learning.

Author

• Benedetta Piantella, New York University