Liberatory Practices and Potentials in Brooklyn School Gardens

ABSTRACT School gardens provide collaborative grounds for education and cultivation, operating within the U.S. education system and in connection to movements to rectify societal and environmental injustices. Based on perspectives of gardeners in public schools in Brooklyn, NY and the intersection of school gardens with other movement work, a four-part framework of liberatory practices and potentials via school gardening is outlined. This paper asks: What liberatory practices are happening in Brooklyn school gardens, and what is the potential for building upon them, particularly in relation to rectifying injustices faced within racially minoritized communities? In this study, gardens were found to support personal achievements, health benefits, adult mentorship, peer bonding, identity affirmation, community transformation, and positive relationships with the natural world. Some programming addressed social and environmental injustices explicitly, but students and staff identified potential to expand this; particularly needed are clear curricular prioritization and social and material support. Important to engendering any form of liberation through school gardening are: intentionality and transparency regarding program aims, just forums for student engagement and impact, and critical acknowledgement of the political and geographic realities in which these gardens operate.