Science Learning from the School Garden through Participatory Action Research in Nepal

Abstract

Nepal's NORHED/Rupantaran project designed and developed participatory action research through school gardening. This study explored the ways for the community schools, science teachers and basic level (grade five to eight) students to foster a sense of agency in the school science curriculum through life-based experiential learning. Qualitative research design on thematic and verbatim methods are used to collect and analyze the data in this study. The findings show that school gardening activities are helpful and productive for science teaching and learning. The evidence from participatory action research experiences in actual school settings would provide new insights for policymakers to transform the school science curriculum. Further, the study findings show collaborative knowledge production through school gardening in a contextual environment, often neglected in community school science teaching and learning. The implications of the research findings could contribute to policy-level discussions about science teachers' professional development.